How can we design the future of Web3 Communities, based on what we learned on Web2.
image: midjourney
Brief:
The dramas in managing Web3 Communities are a sign that we need to adjust our course.
How small groups of people evolved into big theme-based platforms in Web2.
How Clubhouses can form the Web3 Community.
How Consolidated Communities can help Web3 projects.
We messed up with the term "Web3 Communities." Maybe for lack of a better word, we ended up calling "Communities" that are actually just followers of influencers, VIP clubs, customer profiles of companies, or even people who simply signed up on a Discord server.
It worked during the bull run because, at that time, it made a lot of money. And when there's a lot of money flowing, honestly, no one has time for analysis and terminology. But that period has passed, and the bear market has taught us important lessons for a future where hype isn't the only thing that matters.
Signs of Struggle
What caught my attention the most about the need for a change in our approach to communities is the difficulty in keeping them running.
Internal conflicts that are hard to manage.
Community managers are often out of the game for with burnt.
Difficulty in finding sustainable revenue generation models.
Communities within Web3 fighting over members, resulting in drama on Twitter.
All of this sounds like the ecosystem itself telling us:
"Hey! Are you sure this is the right path?"
The Revolutions on the Web
The good part of the story is that we have been through this before and previous experiences give us the prerogatives of the future.
Each one in its own way, all the digital tools that shape our culture have evolved as shown in this scheme above.
In the previous revolutions of the Web, everything started with seemingly random and disconnected movements. People chatting in chatrooms, sending videos to friends, and messaging family through email, among others.
Not everyone liked it. So, some people left the scene while others joined, forming large groups of users around small solutions like email, IRC, Messenger, Skype, Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, Waze, or even Instagram.
Over time, these platforms grew larger, gathering many users with specific interests. Creators began supplying content to these "centralized communities," forming small "cliques" of people with similar interests, whom we got used to calling followers, channel members, super chat donors, and so on...
Today, big and small creators come together on giant platforms that "host" our thoughts and shape our world.
From Web3 Clubhouses to Actual Communities
If this is the natural evolution in digital revolutions, Communities play a central role in Web3.
First, we need to understand: What we have in Web3 today are little CLUBS and not actual communities.
(Take this as a good thing.)
In simple terms, today we have holders and fans of projects gathering in Discord servers or WhatsApp groups. These small clubs with similar themes are popping up all over the web, competing for the same audience.
If we follow the organic logic of the past into the future, we'll see these isolated clubs dissolve, coming together into larger and more decentralized groups until they form a powerful mass of like-minded people:
Thus, the actual Web3 COMMUNITIES will emerge.
In this new scenario, for example, art enthusiasts and artists come together to form the ART COMMUNITY in Web3. No obligation to buy an NFT or follow project managers' orders; they create a vibrant melting pot around Art, attracting more and more like-minded people. It happens organically, with no useless utility, no empty promises, and without draining the souls of Community Managers.
And the best part: NO OWNER - or something close to that.
Turbo Clubs
In this model of large digital communities, the old "clubhouses" don't lose their reason for existing. On the contrary, they are essential to the new ecosystem:
What we now call WEB3 PROJECTS will be the FUEL for these DIGITAL COMMUNITIES, just like content creators were for Web2 until now.
The main difference between today's clubs and tomorrow's communities is that, with these REAL communities, projects only need to connect with them to access their audiences.
Instead of building a follower base from scratch, they'll have direct access to the audience as long as they collaborate and nourish the ecosystem.
In these big established communities, a DeFi project doesn't need to create a little club on Discord to spread its idea. It just needs to tap into the Financial Community, where its product naturally resonates with the audience, because that's what those people breathe every day.
Instead of building communities from scratch, projects can PLUG INTO existing ones. Rather than just competing, they can join forces with other similar projects, keeping these large communities fueled and vibrant.
Web3 for everyone!
In this birth of Web3, it's only natural that Degen, Arts, DeFi, ReFi, Dev, and many other pioneering communities are already emerging and aligned with this universe. But that's just the beginning.
As time goes on, we'll also see communities forming around Football, Science, Fitness, Education, Show Business, Trailblazers, Vegans, and so on. When that happens, a Makeup product will find its audience in the Fashion Community. It's the sister of the Beauty Community, by the way, where it can collaborate with a Skincare brand and another one focused on Facial Harmonization.
The competition will still exist, but in this collaboration-driven ecosystem, we'll have a real laboratory for new businesses and the formation of less centralized cultures.
In the end, CONNECTION, CONTRIBUTION, and REWARD are the models we're designing for the future. It can work out well if we leave behind what was once cool but no longer serves us. It can go wrong if we fight like we did over vaccines and chloroquine.
The key is not to stay there pointing fingers at others for victory or failure. This future is in your hands.
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