Examples of co-creating websites?

October 13, 2012 7:28 AM

Which websites do the best job of involving community members in helping the site evolve?

Lots of websites (like this one) are good at getting content from community members. But which ones are best at using community input to improve the structure and features of the site itself? I'm interested in examples—if there are any—that go beyond ordinary feedback tools, though I'm also interested in learning about sites that are especially good at collecting and using feedback. I'm most interested in involving non-technical community members, not just web designers or developers.

posted by three_red_balloons to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Stack Exchange is good about this - they have a meta page for just this thing.

Also - your link is dead. Add some examples plz
posted by oceanjesse at 8:15 AM on October 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Sorry, by "this one" I just meant Metafilter is good at getting good content from the community. :) It's not an example of the type of thing I'm looking for; I'm looking for sites where members are very actively involved in improving functionality. Many sites have feedback forums (here's one active example), but I'm curious if there are other ways that websites are inviting community members to participate.
posted by three_red_balloons at 8:29 AM on October 13, 2012

You could say that Reddit has taken this concept to its extreme by allowing anyone to create a subreddit. Also, the community tends to be pretty vocal when it comes to discussion policy, especially when one of the subreddits is up to no good.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 10:51 AM on October 13, 2012

When I read your question, I immediately thought of Ravelry (requires free registration to see much of the site, but here's an example of a public page). The people behind Ravelry have, since the beginning, asked for feedback from users in regular, easy-to-understand, and meaningful ways, and then continually implemented ideas that have made the site (already very good) even more functional. I've said elsewhere on Metafilter that Ravelry is one of the few sites where I've considered every change an improvement and have never thought, "Oh, why didn't they just leave it the way it was??"

Here's what's currently on the front page:

We really appreciate all the Ravelers who submitted a wish to our “Make a Wish” form on the front screen. It is helpful to know what you all want to see from Ravelry. We also have The List where you can find things that have been suggested and comment or vote on them, but the wishes helped us see what was most important to you.

From the wish list, we have learned that there are some hidden features many people aren’t aware exist! I wanted to take a few minutes to highlight a few of those features.

From the beginning, Ravelry has had a forum group called "For the Love of Ravelry" where people can post ideas for improving Ravelry, or report bugs. These ideas get posted to The List, where (as mentioned above) users can vote on them.

Really, I can't say enough good things about Ravelry. I think more sites should follow their model.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 10:56 AM on October 13, 2012

Check out Dreamwidth which actively encourages community feedback on site structure, features, etc. I'm linking to the dw-news community which has the site staff posting DW news and asking for comments.

Also check out how Wikimedia made its five-year strategic plan as a collaborative community effort (the process "lasted a full year and resulted in 1,470 content pages on the wiki").
posted by brainwane at 3:37 PM on October 13, 2012 [1 favorite]