This chapter is all about belonging in online communities. The ways that belonging can be fostered in such communities are:
Initiation rituals- some examples of this would be fraternity/sorority hazing, or "hell week" seen in the Navy SEALS and in military schools like the Citadel. The initiation ritual helps to bond users together.
Stories of origin- to get across what the organization values it is helpful to discuss where they got their start, and what fueled their origin. Those same values or principles will hold true today as well, letting members know what kind of a group they are joining and what it holds to be important.
Leveling up rituals- once you have become a member of a group, you want to move up in hierarchy to the higher levels of membership. The book brings up the boy scouts merit badges as an example, as well as Six Sigma. Levels can make people strive to get better but could also alienate those who do not rise in the ranks.
Mythologies- using stories to illustrate values and inspire the desired behavior of the members of the group. These would be like the seven stories seen in Squirrel Inc: a story to ignite action, a story to share knowledge, a story to get people working together, a story to lead people into the future, a story to neutralize bad news, a story to communicate who you are, and a story to transmit values.
Techniques: create and distribute a story of origin-make sure your users know where you came from and how you got your start. Facebook's origin story is widely known, even if they don't distribute it themselves.
create an initiation ritual-make something that binds users together as a shared experience they all had to participate in to begin to belong to the group.
encourage your leaders to share mythologies-tell stories to serve as models
encourage members to share myths and stories about themselves
create leveling up ceremonies
establish routines and protocols-"fight club" rules, for instance. the 8 rules of fight club established the rules for all members and bound them together in the obedience to them.
establish symbols, colors, and visual identities
use a membership application as a initiation ritual
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