Caladia's Blog

If you've never participated in an online forum, or if your
forum-related experience was limited to casual visits, it might be hard
for you to understand how some of us could have gotten so involved in
the Prosper forums. The excitement of being part of a new,
revolutionary way of doing business, the sense of connecting with other
people of all different personalities and backgrounds who nonetheless
still had some things in common, the freedom to talk about money, which
is normally a rather taboo subject, the intelligence and engaging
personalities of the forum participants, the drama that sometimes
occurred... these factors and others combined to create an environment
that, for many of us, was genuinely addictive.

It may help to think of it as similar to a "Real-Life"
situation.

I used to work at an apartment complex that was
marketed towards retired people. Most of the residents were over 70
years old, and many of them did not drive (this was in Texas, in an
area where there was no public transportation). As a result, the
complex's Community Clubhouse was the social hub for just about
everybody. The residents had potluck suppers there, holiday
celebrations, long-running bridge, domino and pool tournaments. They
kept photo albums and scrapbooks stored there. It was the place to go
to hang out with friends. The managers sometimes hung out there too.

Every now & then, the residents would kvetch about things: "Hey, you know, when we moved in here, they promised us a van twice a week to go grocery shopping." "You know, that's right! They should honor that
promise." And they'd talk to management about it, and sure enough,
management would set up the twice-a-week van service. The clubhouse
helped the residents bond as a community, and helped provide
communication between the community and the management.

Now, imagine that one day, out of the clear blue sky, the management padlocked the clubhouse door. When residents called to find out what
had happened, management said, "Oh yeah, we closed the Clubhouse. But
don't worry, you can use the toolshed if you want a place to
socialize. We put an old couch in there. Anytime you want to get in,
just come by the office and ask for a key. The key will be available
twice a day. We'll be monitoring the toolshed, and if anybody says
anything bad about the apartment complex or its management, they won't
be allowed in anymore. ...oh, your scrapbooks, photo albums, &
other memorabilia? We tossed all that stuff in the dumpster last
night."

That's basically what the Prosper personnel did when, without notice, they "poofed" their original forums, with all the camaraderie, information and rich, complex interaction they contained, and replaced those forums with a poor imitation of the real thing, where each post must be approved by a moderator before it appears, and posts are only reviewed twice a day. (Seriously! Have you ever heard of such a thing?)

The Prosper community values the friendships and connections we
made in the original forums. We value the information and camaraderie that characterized them. It should be no surprise that we found another forum to hang out in, and that, sadly, the tone of the conversation has now changed to be more negative than it was before.

The Prosper personnel never did really understand how the community valued the forums, and they made a very bad mistake in closing and deleting the forums with no warning. They then compounded the mistake by attempting to quash all references to the alternate (.Org) forums.

Just at the moment when they should have been working to maintain a cordial relationship with the community, they alienated their stakeholders to such a degree that they made enemies of a number of intelligent, resourceful people. As others have already mentioned, the Prosper.com experience already has "case study" written all over it.