In the past couple of months, a number of thoughtful posts have been written about content on “the Edge” of the web. I’ve been reluctant to comment on it thus far, because I am really torn as what to think about this concept and the services emer…

1. While it may be true that it’s not good to assume that 90% of your *users* will be passive, it’s much more true recognize that 90% of the *time* your users (active or passive) will be using your site, it is likely to be in a passive manner. This *is* true for email, and even MySpace. You’re generally consuming at least 10x what you’re creating. Usually much more. Think about how this manifests in blogs. I consider myself an extremely active commenter around the web, and yet, I comment on maybe 1 out of every 100 or so blog entries I read (including this one!). Anyway, the realization that 90% of *activities* and not necessarily *people* may be pretty passive in nature helps you craft an experience that is high-involvement when you want it to be and low-involvement when you don’t.

2. The examples of whether Yahoo is right or you are right depend largely on what sort of service you’re talking about. Mainstream news consumption? Probably a lot more passive than you think. Social bookmarking? Probably a lot more active than Yahoo thinks. I think as long as allowances are made for the vast differences in the nature of these services though, your general point of “dont assume passivity” is a very helpful one.

- Erik Benson goes “old man grey” (I knew he was wise beyond his years…) – Kevin Roberts’ Sisomo (leading edge kiwi wows the marketing/advertising world again with a beautifully designed site about his ‘Sisomo’ concept — “the story of…

To be clear, “The Pyramid” isn’t Yahoo’s strategy. “The Pyramid” is an empirical observation.

Insight into our strategy in fact is better gleaned from this remark: “I’m a huge believer in removing obstacles and barriers to entry that preclude participation.” The comments regarding “implicit creation” are intended to illustrate one method we’re using to tear down this pyramid and move to a model where the distinction between these levels is moot.

When I give presentations the pyramid actually dissolves into a concentric circles where the three categories are actually 99% overlapping and indistinguishable.

We may in fact be in “violent agreement.”

Regarding “It’s becoming obvious to me that Yahoo hasn’t changed del.icio.us and Flickr much since their acquisition because they just don’t understand them.” The truth is that Flickr and del.icio.us haven’t changed themselves much since their acquisition because they are not broken.

In fact, I would consider the type of content generated by Delcious to be closer to simple clickstream than it is to a pure user generated content play like Epinions.

Don’t get me wrong, sites that are able to make content generation a selfish act are in a wonderful, enviable position.

But the vast majority of user generated content sites don’t have this. If you look at any forum, user review site, wiki – and I’d even guess social networking sites like Myspace and YouTube – the usage patterns will follow what Bradley describes.

Tons of people browsing, and a small minority contributing. And just because something matches this pattern doesn’t mean it’s a dog – most people would say that user generated reviews match this patter exactly, yet should be considered “mainstream.”

So just because a site or two exist in which this pyramid doesn’t hold true, doesn’t mean Yahoo’s shooting themselves in the foot.

And if you design sites that hinge on 100% participation, the odds say that you will be spectacularly disappointed.

It’s stuff like this that honestly makes me wonder how much Yahoo “gets” what they’re trying to become. I think they’re right to focus on social media and leverage network effects as a way to differentiate themselves from Google, but as you demonstrate, its not clear they understand anything about it.

Del.ico.us and Flickr are participatory media: their value to users increases the more a user participates. Same for sites like MySpace and to a lesser extent blogging.

If they hope to leverage the social web, Yahoo needs to lose this idea that there’s only a small percentage of users who are content creators and the rest is a passive audiences. A hierarchial pyramid might have applied to the old media of television, radio, and movies, but its completely wrong for the new media based on social networks. It should look like a spider web, not a pyramid.

I consider del.icio.us and Flickr to be 30-40-something creator-communities. In this sense, Yahoo! was buying into the future. Whose future? The 13-25 demographic creator-communities which use MySpace and, as you point out, IM and SMS, to create and maintain community activity.

Just as my generation (30-something) grew up playing Space Invaders, Centipede, and Galaga, when I reached a certain age, I got hooked on Quake, Doom, Half-Life and Grand Theft Auto.

The real question is, what will be the GTA equivalent of MySpace in 5-10 years? I seriously doubt it will look anything like del.icio.us or even Flickr. But I’m sure Yahoo! can learn something from them. You have to respect their taste at the very least.

“I’m sure most of Yahoo’s readers are passive, and will continue to be.”

I think Greg’s point is the exact opposite of this – users cease to be passive as soon as you give them the tools of creation. Instead of assuming that 90% of your users are passive, assume that 100% are potential content creators, then build the tools that enable that to happen.