Digging Into RecruitingBlogs.com v2.12 RBC Changes, Stays the Same

(March 27, 2009) Early this week, Jason unveiled the new face of RBC. Driven by growth in the community and pending changes at Ning HQ, the design was a clear path through some opposing forces. We're ending the week revitalized and refocused.

Communities evolve through seasons of change. Because this is a work related experience, our relationship evolve in ways that are work like. People come and people go. One of the really cool things about the online environment is that there is an infinite supply of real estate. All you need to start something new is enough desire to leave and start something new.

Most great companies are started by people who are certain that they can do it better than the idiots they are currently doing it with. That's the very essence of how companies form in Silicon Valley. A couple of key professionals determine that they can do it faster, smarter or better than the current gig. They quit their jobs, move into a garage and start to create enormous value.

In other words, dissatisfaction is often the source of great creative energy.

Did you notice the article by Lance Haun this week, Building a Community of Competitors. Jason is inviting the founding members of related (I'll say competitive but not everyone agrees with me) communities. Lance runs HRMToday, a community more clearly focused on general HR. He said "What you get out of your time with recruiting all-stars is up to you. I am looking forward to continuing to grow and develop my knowledge of recruiting while I share how I think HR and recruiting can work together to create stronger organizations."

In other words, working with your competition makes you a stronger player.

From where I sit, it looks like Jason is working an interesting problem. The signs of health in our community are two surprising things

We are big enough to have real conflict. This conflict is a source of energy that needs to be harnessed. Most communities don't get big enough to have conflict. Often, the ones that do would rather not see the conflict.
RBC has enough momentum that people are able to grow here and move onto other things.

What do you think of the new RBC?

I'm on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Friendfeed. Catch up with me. There's interesting stuff on Strategy at johnsumser.com

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Permalink Reply by Martin H.Snyder on March 27, 2009 at 12:41pm

I like the new front page very much; it meets the critical need to keep good content front and center for a chunk of time. Now if Jason can figure a way to have some thumbnail or index of the community page visible on the front page at the same time, he will have a home run.

Conflict happens with life. Hell, people have conflicts when they are alone in a room.....the tone, the rules, and the course of conflict is moderated by the leader(s) of a community. If the conflict here is reasonably civil, based on substantial differences, and not done for pure sport, it just makes the place more interesting. Confict is creative, and there is no life without it. Wherever negativism is overly suppressed, you can bet that you will find deep pathologies. OTH, conflict that is personal, cruel, and disproportionate is its own problem and should be tamped down hard.

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Permalink Reply by Slouch on March 27, 2009 at 1:11pm

Hey Marty, what do yoiu mean by a thumbnail or index. there is a feed on the right side showing activity and blog posts ( thanks for that suggestion last week) if you mean something else, let me know. are we on for this afternoon?