This chapter in Design to Thrive is about belonging, the “B” of “RIBS.” It explores what qualifies the sense of community and camaraderie among members of a community and suggests ways to reinforce and encourage this. Dr. Howard summarizes it really thoroughly with his checklist of techniques to create a sense of belonging. (I’m going to mix up my summary/personal anecdotal response a bit through the following list to incorporate my own personal experience (or lack thereof) with each of these techniques.)

1. Create and distribute a story of origin—when members know the roots of the organization they are becoming a part of, they tend to understand the goals and history of the organization much better. My favorite community I frequent on livejournal was established in a somewhat reactive way; another community with a similar purpose had gotten way too serious and too particular about its members, so some of them left and started their own community with a clear set of rules and direction. This story of origin isn’t told very often because it’s not entirely relevant to the community as a whole anymore, but it’s frequently reposted when the community has a “birthday.”

2. Create an initiation ritual—initiation rituals test potential members and prove that they are capable of becoming a functioning part of the community. They could be physical, mental, emotional, intellectual tests, etc. but the important thing about them is that it’s an experience members can bond over. I haven’t experienced much of this on online communities, but many of them have been somewhat selective: applicants fill out a form, and moderators go look at their user profile to see how active they’ve been elsewhere on the site. In some cases of smaller, more exclusive communities (particularly on livejournal) there’s a sense of camaraderie in the fact that you were all chosen as members.

3. Encourage your leaders and elders to share mythologies—by telling stories to new members, the new folks can get a feel for what the community is trying to accomplish and what it has already accomplished. In my experience, this is a really good way to make users feel like they belong: inside jokes abound on the internet, and as users start to recognize a certain story or meme as familiar, there will be a sense of shared secret knowledge bonding them together.

4. Encourage members to share myths and stories about themselves—this one seems the most obvious to me: as members share stories about themselves, they get to know each other better, and the community becomes tighter as a group. I’ve experienced this many times across many communities; I have several people I’ve met online who I count among my closest friends, but I also now can recognize others within the community (and details about their lives) whom I’m not necessarily close to.

5. Create leveling up ceremonies—within communities that have levels of membership or different ranks that members can achieve, it’s important to celebrate those ranks. I don’t have a lot of personal experience with this, excepting perhaps reddit, which grants “trophies” for users who complete various tasks or participate in certain community events. These trophies don’t really change much about the user’s membership status.

6. Establish routines and protocols—it’s important that users know how to deal with each other and with conflict, and through routine and protocol, the community will become more organized. In my experiences, clearly established protocol has been great for community camaraderie; however, when someone breaks the protocol and resists correction, the rest of the users tend to band together against that person in an us vs. them sort of situation which can escalate quickly if moderators do not interfere. That said, if someone outrageously breaks posting protocol and makes a “flounce” post (a post declaring that they’re leaving the community for whatever reason, usually one which is horribly dramatic), protocol on the part of the rest of the community is generally to mock them incessantly. We’re kind of cruel sometimes.

7. Establish symbols, colors, and visual identities—creating a visual sense of identity pulls users together, and using easily identifiable symbols can identify a group at a glance. In my experiences, this sort of branding works really well… unless that brand is changed, in which case users tend to react en masse. I remember having endless conversations with people about Google’s icon when it changed for bookmarks and tabbed browsing. While it’s seemingly a small thing and not a big deal, it shook our mental perceptions of Google at the time. Now we’ve obviously adapted and it’s no longer a big deal.

8. Use a membership application as an initiation ritual—this is pretty self-explanatory, and I covered my personal experience with it above somewhat. This is clearly more efficient online than many other physical- or emotional-based forms of initiation, as it’s fairly hands-off and doesn’t necessarily require much of the applicant.