Leander Kahney documents the Fotolog.net controversy in an article for Wired News. Synopsis, popular photo blogging site goes from free to paid, culture clash breaks out.
Takeaways:
- There's not one but two culture clashes going on. US vs Brazil and Pro vs amateur photogs
- Linking and commenting are key parts of growing the community
- Group forming is a popular activity
- After a while, the persistent users start to find new uses for their cameras
- There are two highly visible measures of performance, posting frequency and popularity, on the front page. People perform to measures
I wonder if Fotolog.net came to the table with any pre-existing content? In any event, this is an interesting case study in rapid community formation.