Ancient Aristotle, Modern Application

Our ancient friend and Greek master teacher, Aristotle, offers 4 principles from which we, today, may still gain insight and find success in the social media world.  They are:

1. Unified in thematic action
2. Welcomes discussion and contribution from others for the purpose of character development
3. Easily sharable
4. Simple enough to attract and keep attention, yet thick enough for continued learning 

Aristotle was a student of "the brain," or Plato.  Hence, these Aristotelian suggestions have a Platonic ring to them.  

Items 1 and 3 seem fairly straight forward, so let's talk about 2 and 4 together.  We can all agree that a site that doesn't welcome contribution from the outside may not last very long.  People want to hear what other people want to say about the site, or rather, what the site is doing.  What Aristotle suggests is that the element of character development be included somehow in social media.  

One may ask, how can this be accomplished?  Perhaps, in modern wording, Aristotle would suggest to look at those sites that are already currently successful, as they will offer ideas of how that element ought to be incorporated.   Again, one may respond, that sounds like you're dodging the question!  As true as that may sound, the perspective Aristotle is coming from is one that says that no one knows nor has created a perfect social media website.  We all have an idea, or glimpse, of what the ideal form is, but none envelope the complete form.

So, am I saying it is simply impossible to create a good (and profitable) social media website?  On the contrary, I am saying that through discussion and contribution (point 2), while focusing a great deal on the other facets (points 1, 3, and 4), the site will grow to the needs of all while moving toward that ideal form.