Folks:
Social networking is all about sharing/discussing. The new GROUPS functionality is another advancement towards this goal. Its a place for like minded people talk/share in a much more limited space. The current messaging area does not serve well for larger groups. I am thinking about adding a dedicated forum for each group that has, say, more than 20 members. The group owner will become the primary moderator of that forum. This group forum will only be visible to the members of the group (or public if the owner so wished).
What do you guys/gals think? Is it gona dilute the main forums or is it gona allow us to grow rich targetted discussions?
In my personal opinion, it will dilute the main forums and divert the traffic. Most of the groups I have seen so far serve no good purpose (i.e. no discussion) and a lot of members (including me) don't bother going back to visit those groups any way. It's more for popularity "I am a member of so many groups".
However, if you were still to go ahead and implement what you mentioned, I think that's a good way of doing it. Make the group owner the moderator and make those mini forums visible to those group members only.
I think it will be a good idea but intercommunication between the forums is necessary. By intercommunication i mean having links for other forums too. Maneuverability is key to a successful portal. Make sure all the forums are using same template and common options i.e. Profile edit and private messages are available throughout all the forums.
Forums should be public. As it will not only help members to move around but it will also increase the search engine hits on this forum.
A step wise split of forums will be a great option to go for. I would say make one forum for time being and see kind of responses you get. But off course it will be a trivial process and will take some time to finalize.
I absolutely love the idea of Groups as Azkar said it brings "like-minded" ppl together to discuss and share opinions and ideas.
I don't think it will in any way dilute the main forums rather enrich the whole "GS Experience" and at the same time allow & encourage members to be more creative and responsible while still enjoying posting in other forums.
However it would be nice if we could have the feature of posting threads on different topics within the Groups like it was on AD so that the Groups can be managed more fruitfully .........
In my personal opinion, it will dilute the main forums and divert the traffic. Most of the groups I have seen so far serve no good purpose (i.e. no discussion) and a lot of members (including me) don't bother going back to visit those groups any way.
i agree with shikra...it will dillute the main forums.
Some "owners" may also try to encourage others to join their forums to gain popularity as shikra mentioned. If people are active in those forum it will keep the main forums from staying active.
yep sheyn. thats the idea. different threads for different ideas. right now, its like having one long thread per group.
Exactly !.....
it would streamline a lot of "grey" areas in the forums and members would be able to create groups and focus on these areas of interest without having to deal with people who do not share the same interests and usually end up derailing threads like on main forums......
i agree with shikra...it will dillute the main forums.
Some "owners" may also try to encourage others to join their forums to gain popularity as shikra mentioned. If people are active in those forum it will keep the main forums from staying active.
I dont think it is a good idea.
I don't agree with AE or Shikra on this .........how cud it dilute the main forums ?????
these are smaller groups of ppl who share common interests and wish to discuss those interests with friends without having the so called "clashes of opinion" that happens often in main forums.....
yes and it gives members a lil more control over the content and the discussion so in fact creating a more healthier , creative and fun environment !
I don't see whats wrong with that .......
the main forums will always remain accessible to all members and thus should always remain "alive" or "active" if the Moderators of those forums make it their job to keep them so ..........
i believe i explained that in reply to Shikra's PM as well and he agreed on that point .......a forum can only remain active if the forum moderators remain active within it !
its nice to have many features as i been worked on CSS and PHP languages which have highly expandable MODS
Azkar Paa Jee : why dont u guys work on eCommerce thingys which include some classified and eshop etc etc. ( just a suggestion ). as u are using dedicated server.
Hope we have more members on main GS as few years bk rather then guppies stick on their blogs , groups and their profiles.
P.S. over all gr8 work frm samad, gizzy and their team :k:
If you are looking at forums individually and only care about some forums then, it may dilute some of them… If you care about Gupshup Forums as a whole, and as a complete package in terms of a discussion board, then, it will allow us to grow in terms of more avenues and horizons of discussions…
It will also give a sense of responsibility to the “moderator” of that forum if he/she happens to be a normal guppy here. It will allow people to be more creative and expressive rather than oscillating between “follow the rules vs be careful” advices…
Having said all of the above, it will also allow the most important factor of Gupshup, that is “members” for having a feel of “ownership” than hearing it from some selected few…
I think they should still be "groups" and you should just allow members of the group to start thread topics instead of having just "one thread" in the group.
Try it out and see if the traffic gets diverted (which I doubt it will... if anything, people will just spend more time on GS and therefore end up posting more). If there is a negative change in traffic, change it back to the way it was. =]
what difference does it make even if traffic is being diverted! I mean, it’s not going AWAY from GS. I have been saying the same thing from day 1 that we should have topics within the groups, that way we can have more PRODUCTIVE discussion with people of same interest group; instead of derailing threads like we do in other sections.
Thepoint is IF we can evolve to something better then why not! why limit ourselves to ordinary threads like 1000’s of sites out there! On GS we have very competent members in their fields, and this setup DOESN’T allow other members to benefit from them. Interest groups is a step further, at least we will not have to deal with FORUM POLITICS within a group of members sharing SAME IDEAS and INTERESTS.
Shikra you mentioned forum STATISTICS, I dun see why grouping it further will have any affect on that, to some extent MAY BE but definitely not some major traffic diversion. Members will continue to participate in OPEN forums as usual, actually in a way it will make moderators job EASIER since it will divert some responsibility to ordinary members and they will start looking at issues from a different perspective.
I am not totally against the idea, I am just trying to state the cons. Cafe is the first forum that will see the impact of traffic diversion. Although the traffic will not go away from Gupshup, it will hit some of the forums.
You stated that a group of members "sharig same ideas and interests"...........so does that mean people who don't share the same interests should join because their point of view will differ and the group should only have those that agree with other members?
Also, keep the past experiences in mind (i.e. voting, reputation system etc.), don't we always get off track and instead of utilizing something for positive purposes, we always end up making it look like a popularity contest and end up taking things so seriously that we forget about the original idea behind something?
Again, I am not saying we shouldn't go ahead with the idea, I am mentioning the negatives I did say that if the majority agrees, go ahead with the idea. The world would be a boring place if we all started agreeing with each other and nobody thought from the other side.
That is groups are for Shikii bao.. :d I mean why would I join a group praising lets say GEO TV’s urdu standard or a book club! of course members who are interested in books will join the book club! the whole concept of groups is to bring people closer who share the SAME interests! In other words if a member doesn’t share the same interest he/she will not join.
Take Sheyn’s group **GS clinic **for example, in THAT group we have atleast 4 or 5 doctors; and we know members often open threads in life section seeking help, it’s very easy to miss such threads, but if a topic is opened in GS CLINIC chances of getting a PROFESSINAL reply are much higher.
voting and reputation system is entirely different thing! we got off the track because of the same FORUM politics (you know what I am talking about here). Interest GROUPS (may be it’s the name “GROUPS” which is causing the confusion) are not like threads in open forums here, mostly in open forums we discuss EVENTS, GROUPS is a place for IDEAS, which is ENTIRELY different thing.
I like the idea , the only thing I want to point out is will there be some restrictions on what kind of groups can someone start. I do not know if you want to see a group where something very inappropriate to Pakistani Culture or Religions is being discussed. If you are interested I can give some examples in a PM not here.
Can we have a virtual Hacking game on GS … in which no real hacking is involved, yet it will be entertaining, and you play with all of the other members on the site.
Take Sheyn's group **GS clinic **for example, in THAT group we have atleast 4 or 5 doctors; and we know members often open threads in life section seeking help, it's very easy to miss such threads, but if a topic is opened in GS CLINIC chances of getting a PROFESSINAL reply are much higher.
why would chances be higher? if they can give medical advice in GS clinic I dont see why they cant/dont contribute in the health forum.
I have been saying the same thing from day 1 that we should have topics within the groups, that way we can have more PRODUCTIVE discussion with people of same interest group; instead of derailing threads like we do in other sections.