User Friendly
By Philip Tan Boon Yew
User Friendly is an online comic strip drawn by an illustrator named
Illiad.
The comic revolves around the bizarre, yet familiar, lifestyles of
the
employees of an Internet ISP. While the comic strip makes jokes about
geeks and techie culture, it relies on real technical knowledge and
industry experience
for some of its best humor. Unlike Dilbert, which focuses on megacorporation
culture, User Friendly assumes its audience is familiar with different
varieties of Linux and understands the appeal of Nerf-type toys in
a high-tech
technical environment. User Friendly takes pride in helping the geek
community
laugh at itself, a surprisingly introspective attitude for a comic
strip.
The site also goes beyond the strip by providing services for its
technically
competent fans. From dating to job searching, the services work on
the
assumption that it takes a certain sort of personality and competence
to
appreciate the humor in such a comic strip. The fact that O'Reilly,
the same
publisher of hundreds of technical manuals also publishes User Friendly
books
indicates how the User Friendly team has a very clear understanding
of their
target audience. Even the banner ads seem more relevant here than
in most other
web sites, providing product information on the operating system serving
out
the digitized comics over the Internet.
The most powerful indication of the community-building power of the
comic is
obvious once you browse the archives of the strips. Dozens of message
threads
accompany every single strip as fans discuss every detail related
to and
disconnected from the daily feature. Fans also translate the strip
into other
languages, providing alternate dialog text for foreign readers without
needing
direct involvement from the author. The messages come fast and furious
from the
readers, emphasized by the limited active life span of the daily strip.
Although one may examine previous comments, the devotees of the strip
realize
that all the discussions are active for a single day, after which
a brand new
slate is prepared to accompany a new strip.
The elaborate non-comic services combined with the sheer amount of
commentary have placed massive demands on the server of the site.
As one explores the information accumulated by this community, one
senses the weight and size of the popularity of the strip by noticing
how each page creeps onto the screen. One receives the impression
of a community that has grown so large and so quickly that it has
outpaced the ability of the User Friendly team to keep up.
Fortunately, periodic improvements help control the delays while providing
behind-the-scenes technical information interesting to its own audience.
User
Friendly has evolved into an odd conglomeration of industry, commerce
and
community but its understanding of its audience's expectations and
experiences
will surely maintain its popularity for a long time to come.