Over at the blog A VC, Fred Wilson offers some thoughts he’s been having about how to create a great Web service based on Flickr. I won’t comment on all of it, but there were 3 points he made that I really liked:

2) Every web service needs to have a profile for every user

3) Users should be encouraged to comment on other user’s posts

8) Engagement metrics like comments, favorites, views, can and should be used to drive discovery (the most interesting algorithm)

Some of these, especially #8, are things I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. Too often I think websites are set up in ways that priviledge mystery algorithms or the developers’ interests over highlighting what people are into on the site. Obviously there are a number of high profile exceptions, but I like the emphasis here on creating community both through encouraging people to build individualized identities and relationships and also via algorithms smart enough to figure out where the hubs of community are happening and bring them to the attention of other users.

Connection to fandom? One thing that happens when a site does this is that individual users become hubs of fandom — they become people who have fans themselves, which makes the site sticky sticky sticky for developers, and they become taste leaders who can channel other people’s energies toward enjoying things they might not have otherwise found.