Importance

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[edit] Importance

Importance is an idea that has existed forever but is being applied very differently in the internet age. It's a simple cave rules notion relating to ones contribution to a community create some form of their importance in the community. It is the essence of why sites like Wikipedia work.

Dale Carnegie's recognition of Importance as a central motivation for many of people's actions in the seminal "How to Win Friends and Influence People" was one of the earlier usages in relation to importance in modern society.

Importance is now used by almost all community content site as a method of ranking the members of the community and allowing those with higher rank more power in the community. It's a powerful concept that can be seen throughout society but in this regard it is just referring to it as a system by which a site can order content or allow administrative power based on upon some method of recognition of contribution.

Ecommerce sites are now beginning to rank and value community contribution in this same way. Digg.com has become the master of creating importance and avoiding spammers who seek rank only for promotion.

In the past one's importance was generally limited to work, church, village community and family. As travel and then the Internet has come along the ability to have importance in many areas is far more widespread.