category of users

This is an interesting paper For Whom Should You Design Your Community? which suggests that there are 3 categories of users in an online community, each of which differs by a multiples of 10. So, for every 1000 lurkers there are 100 participants and 10 key contributors. He defines each category as follows:

1. lurkers - people who show up, but from whom you will never hear a peep
2. participants - people who show up, occasionally join a conversation, even more rarely start one
3. key contributors - people who show up, start conversations, join those in progress, help newbies, evangelize the site and their role in it and, in general, make a huge difference in the site's value to everyone else, including lurkers and participants.

He writes several paragraphs on designing communities to attract Key Contibutors (since they attract multiples of 10 and 100 to the site). I thought it would be interesting to list some of the adjectives that he uses in reference to them... as a contrast to lurkers.

Key Contributors are busy, focused, aware of the value they bring to a community; expect efficiency from a Web experience, have crowded lives; don't browse or surf, aim and drive; want to find out what's new that's of specific interest to them in your site... make their daily contribution... and get on with what's next; this isn't their life, but it is (or can be) an important part of their identity; have very low tolerance level for noise, flames, spam, and other garbage; sites which do a good job of moderating their content attract them; they may or may not expect to be rewarded or recognized, use a system of ranking, peer review and honor, or symbology.