Forum Social Groups
Oldbitcollector (Jeff)
Posts: 8,091
A couple-three of us have ventured into the User CP to create some social groups. What an awesome feature!
Spring over and join a special group.
http://forums.parallax.com/group.php
OBC
Spring over and join a special group.
http://forums.parallax.com/group.php
OBC
Comments
This is a great feature.
John Abshier
You know if I come up with anything great - I would post it everywhere...:D
The groups I started are public and for all to see.
Yes, I can see how fragmentation might happen if, that is, the topics posted in the social groups can't also be posted in other forums at the same time. If the "no cross-posting" rule is still enforced, we might suffer a kind of forum schizophrenia here.
Okay, I'm joking about XMOS, but am serious about starting a "General Microcontrollers" group, where any microcontroller subjects can be discussed, since I believe that these discussions (as long as they don't degenerate into flame wars) tend to be fairly educational.
One other group that I would like might be called "The Hub", which would be a general off-topic (albeit within tasteful limits) forum. I think this would be good because people in communities uh... tend to have more than one interest that they want to discuss amongst themselves.
So, all of that said, would anybody find those groups useful?
OBC
Rich H
Problem is, who's going to sum up a whole week's worth of debate in a social group and somehow post only "the good stuff" in the other forums? Also, sometimes the debates and many perspectives are, in themselves, what's so interesting to read. So there might not be any good way to distill them, especially if there is no consensus on a particular thread or topic.
Because things were already "contained" in threads on the old forums, I could simply ignore an entire thread if I so desired. But I like to run down, say, the Prop forum and see what people are talking about because sometimes I read about things I didn't even know existed and that gets me thinking. However, if everyone starts running off into their own corners here, we might lose what I perceive to be a "critical mass" of minds, and wind up with thin air. Is there some workaround to what I fear? Some new gadget on these new forums that would prevent the synapse activity from getting diluted to extinction? I just don't know.
Why would you think people would leave the main forums? The social groups are by and large very specific topics that might not warrant their own sub-forum. For example, most of the "special" Propeller threads on subjects like PropBlades & RamBlades & PropCades would probably be better off as socaial groups. Somebody interested in those specific subjects would join... those not wouldn't.
These are products that aren't sold by Parallax, aren't supported by Parallax, yet consume bandwidth on a forum that is also a tech support forum. I don't mind them being there, but "taking the conversation into the other room" doesn't kick it out of the house.
Another example... I rarely even look at the Hydra forum, yet there it sits. It's really kind of like a top-level social group. On the other hand, groups like the Scribbler2 probably should have their own forum, since it is a Parallax product.
Does anybody know the rules/etc. for moderating the social groups? I wouldn't expect Parallx to monitor every bit of activity.
Getting mind share might be a problem though. Right now, new things tend to get jumped on. Then again, they get forgotten too, as the next shiny thing shows up. That's probably a net gain, once the art of recruiting and managing things gets worked out.
The groups probably bring balance, and they can be used for projects just as they could be for "the cafe" type discussion areas, which I would also enjoy. I suspect we have a high level of diversity here. Question on that is would people get along, and successfully compartmentalize the two areas of discussion? As much as I enjoy that kind of thing, I've also seen it go bad, and the quality of discussion here is considerably higher than other places, where that side discussion is permitted.
Probably there is more potential for a loss of value than a gain.
Andrew's (WBA Consulting) points on the restrictions are clearly valid.
The biggest concern seems to have been non-searchable content. Another problem seems to have been "why should I subscribe to a group to discuss a project or see related content?" while I'm not convinced that's a very good excuse, I do respect that opinion. One experience with groups is that the only way to post a picture seems to be via "Album" pictures which get compressed. Compressed technical pictures can be very hard to read. The other thought is that maybe I'm not supposed to be the host for one reason or another
It seems that "project groups" could be useful, but there should be some socially acceptable agreement among potential collaborators before hand, and restrictions on content should be removed.
Just my 0.02
--Steve