62 Design to thrive: Creating Social networks and online Communities 3. MentoRS teaCh One of the problems with becoming an active member of any discourse com- munity is learning the ropes. In a typical discussion group community, it's gen- erally accepted that only 10% of the membership is going to be "active" at any given time. Although Nonnecke and Preece did a study in 2000 of 109 different "discussion lists" that showed that the number of lurkers in a group could vary depending on factors such as the number of members and traffic level in the group [15], it's still generally accepted that, as a rule of thumb, 90% of a group are likely to be lurkers. Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox states that User participation often more or less follows a 90-9-1 rule: n 90% of users are lurkers (i.e., read or observe, but don't contribute). n 9% of users contribute from time to time, but other priorities dominate their time. n 1% of users participate a lot and account for most contributions: it can seem as if they don't have lives because they often post just minutes after whatever event they're commenting on occurs. nielsen [14] Because lurkers are, by definition, not talking, it's difficult to collect much infor- mation about why lurkers lurk, and even when data are collected on them, the reasons for lurking can be quite varied. In a 2003 follow-up study to their earlier work, Nonnecke and Preece conducted in-depth interviews with 10 lurkers rep- resenting 47 different groups and found that they gave 117 different reasons for lurking ([16], 115). Still, Nonnecke and Preece found that at least 50% of the participants in the study indicated the following reasons for lurking: n n n n n n they wished to preserve their anonymity in order to ensure privacy and safety there were work-related constraints preventing them from posting the volume of messages was too low or high the quality of messages was poor they were shy about posting they had limitations on their time nonnecke and preece [16], 116 In informal surveys that I've conducted with many of the online communities that I maintain, I've also contacted members directly who don't post regularly and asked them why they don't participate. One of the most common answers I get, especially from new members, is that they're too intimidated to post, even when they feel like they have something to contribute to a discussion. They are keenly aware that frequently it's not what you say, but how you say it, which can lead to flame wars or which can damage people's reputation and a community, so they're reluctant to post. One way to help users overcome this fear is to build a cadre of experienced community members who are willing to serve as electronic mentors for new members. The mentors work with a new user and send "whispers" (i.e., private