In the real world there are walled gardens, ivory towers, private clubs.
Some places have dress codes, some require gobs of money, and others you need to pass a test in order to gain access.
But on the internet this is unacceptable. Online communities need to be open, transparent, and free. This philosophy has taken such roots, that to a lot of people the only way to move forward and succeed as an online community means being those things, throwing your gates open and breaking down the walls.
But should that always be the case? Last week I came across an article by Darren Hoyt that got me thinking about the type of community that could swim against the that trend, and possibly be better for it.
Dribbble is that type of community. A place for creatives to share what they’re working on with other creatives; to generate feedback, bounce around ideas, and otherwise hang out with peers.
Currently in beta it’s invite only, and those invites have been tough to come across. Only a handful of invites have been given out to the top designers in the industry, and only some of those users are able to invite others into the fold. It’s caused some to cry foul, claiming the service to be elitist and purely for the in-crowd, an ivory tower. And I can sympathize with them, I’ve yet to be invited myself, but I also see this sort of walled garden for professionals as an opportunity. So far it’s fostered an intimate community of high caliber creatives sharing and getting feedback on their work, some that they would otherwise not be able to do on a public facing site.
As the site grows, and opens up to the public. The question becomes how do you maintain a community for professionals to share work they can’t share in public yet, how do you maintain the quality level, and preventing people joining just to join the latest network.
Some have suggested that privacy filters could retain some of the intimacy and allow creatives to post client work in progress. Although potentially creating pockets of designers keeping work amongst themselves.
And for some to maintain the quality, means the site should remain invite only, restricted to designers who have a portfolio. Pointing to the design gallery on deviantART as a warming of what it could become once the barrier to entry is removed.
All valid concerns and suggestions, but either way I know the people behind Dribbble are a smart bunch, and have likely thought about this a lot harder then my rambling here. This isn’t really about Dribbble in the end as much as it’s about the idea of walled gardens for professionals, Dribbble is just a good example right now and something to watch and to see how it all unfolds.
