Mareza was kind enough to join our podcast recently, and one topic was about his commitment to building Doostang on "trust" and how that can be maintained as the user base grows. The site can be found at http://www.doostang.com. The site is currently in alpha and is invite only, so if you would like an invitation, Mareza has requested that you email him directly at mareza-AT-doostang.com.
My Email to Mareza:
Mareza,
I discovered aSmallWorld.net recently and have discussed it with a couple friends and we agree that they execute invite-only consistently, meaning invite-only was not just a means to build out the network at the beginning or a marketing ploy as some suggest it is, but is an essential component necessary to enable the network to maintain its purpose. In fact, they have continued to narrow the requirements for a member to stay a part of the network in order to maintain the site as a truly "trusted" place; for example, you have to be confirmed by 10 members just to gain membership. If you do some deleterious to the network, then you get booted.
Certainly doostang and sSmallWorld.net are not the same thing -- in fact, I don't know of any other network that operates in a similar manner as aSmallWorld.net -- but I would appreciate your comments as to what you think of their approach and whether you think that would be helpful for a job site like doostang in order to maintain the utmost quality? Do you believe it is necessary to actively monitor users to ensure they should be allowed to participate in the site?
Some links:
Thanks! :)
Doug
Doug
Mareza's Reply:
Hi Doug,
Much thanks for the question and also for having me on MinorityRapport.com again. Really love your website and find it extremely useful.
I am actually a member of aSmallWorld.net. The beauty of social/professional networking is that you can have so many different spins of a similar thing - all of which add value in different areas. I joined aSmallWorld.net when you needed to be invited by just one member, which is the current Doostang model. Would be ten member invite system work for Doostang? Interesting question, and here are my thoughts:
- The higher you raise the bar for membership then the less diversity you get within your network. We need to define "quality." What is "quality?" Is it investment bankers? Is it non-profit people? Quality means different things to different people and by making Doostang so exclusive we would end up having too much quality down one vertical and not enough in many others.
- I think that by still having one person vouch for a new member, then you have a bar to ensure that that person isn't going to be an anonaly to the network. We at Doostang believe in laisser-faire networks, however if someone is consciously and continuously being inappropriate, then yes, we would definitely take action.
- One needs to also look at the personal side of things. If you are looking for a job, the last thing you want to do is have to go and find ten members to give you access to Doostang. Chances are if you are friends with one of our current members then you're suitable to join.
People should realize that you can have the whole network as large as possible, yet have exclusive groups within that network. You can form these groups generically through network growth. We're working on that right now on Doostang and this will become more apparent as Doostang grows.
Hope this helps. If any of your readers would like to try Doostang out, please have them send me an email at mareza-AT-doostang.com . We can hopefully invite them to Doostang Alpha.
Thanks again,
Mareza
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