This can be done by giving joint tasks to members of the community. Joint tasks can be given so the tasks the members should be working on are clear. Joint tasks within a community encourage identity with the whole community, rather than specific individuals. This is because it makes members feel like users will benefit from their work and like the community is depending on them. 

Make the Online Community's Goals and Purpose explicit (Design Claim 8)

Creating well-formulated names for different subgroups within the community can help new members decide if they will be a good fit for the community. Additionally, adding a tagline for the community or subgroups can further explain what the goal of the group is. Subgroup identity can be as powerful as whole community identity in terms of contributing meaningful content.

Create Names for the Subgroups that Form in the Online Community (Design Claims 5 & 6)

- Members having similar backgrounds or expertise

- Let members pick the subgroups they want to be in instead of placing them in a group

- Highlight members' similar characteristics

- Create names for the subgroups that form in the community (design claim 5 and 6)

- Make community goals/purpose explicit (design claim 8)

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- The feeling of being part of the community and helping fulfill its mission

- This type of commitment is more effective at keeping people in the community. This is because the people are committed to the community itself and not so much the individual members.

Identity-Based Affective Commitment

Kraut, Robert E., and Paul Resnick. Building successful online communities: Evidence-based social design. MIT Press, 2012.

Building successful online communities: Evidence-based social design (Kraut and Resnick)

Identity-based commitment is when users want to stay because of the group’s purpose or topic. Whereas interpersonal-commitment is based on commitment because of liking individual members (e.g., friendships, relationships). 

Identity-based commitment is usually stronger than interpersonal-based commitment since social identity is usually more impactful in terms of user commitment vs personal identity. 

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