The 90-9-1 Rule in Reality

Dr. Wu,

Thanks for this  in-depth examination of user contributions and content across 143 communities.     This re-assures me a bit about our community, where I find that roughly 65 of the registered members have contributed at least one post, and far less than 1% have contributed a significant portion  of the content.  And, if one delves a bit further and looks at solutions or some other way to qualify the relative value of the contribution, I think the number gets smaller yet. 

Looking at the top 40 contributors in our community sorted by solutions contributed, I find some variations in the proportion of posts to solutions, suggesting that some may be more effecient in some regards. Perhaps the top 14 were responsible for something like 30% of the total solutions.   Looking at the social graph, some of the top influencers may have a different position in say the top 20 than those with the most solutions or kudos.

So is volume of contribution the most dominant factor in categorizing one a "super" contributor?

How would you factor in the qualitative aspects of solutions, kudos, and perhaps, diversity of participation (engaging in discussions with the most number of unique other members ) ?

Are there other ways to be "super"?

Often, as I talk about super users in our community, I'm asked "how many", and then that leads to how we qualify / set the bar or line  above which one is deemed "super".     Of course, this naturally leads to discussion on how we could cultivate more super users whether by optimization of ranking formulas, or by other means like a more formalized recognition program around the community.