Changes in the forum

[sharonb]

I have changed a few things on the stichin fingers forum and I hope that this makes things a little better. 

The discussion forums have always confused people and now they replies are flat and replies are shown in chronological order

Also and this is the big one in the Main forum discussions can be organized by categories.

This option has been available for a while but since it involved me doing a big re-shuffle I had put the job off! All up this morning when I started there were 295 discussions -all falling into one category.  So I have done some re-shuffling. Some of the very old discussions i have just left in the general area but others I did place into a category so people cold see how it worked.

 

So we now have categories and I have created a general discussion area and an "announcements and news" category for people who want to spread some news. I have added a "how do I?" category for asking questions on how something might be done. "For new hands" which is for introductions and comment. "Blogs and blogging" is a thread for bloggers. I see it as a place to let people know about your blog, announce challenges, competitions etc that are run from a blog but also a place to ask questions that relate to blogging or blogs. 

Since there are so many discussions to re-classify it will take me a while to get the forum in order. Some I may just leave as old uncategorized topics as. 

Any suggestions for categories would be good. Leave any suggestions here.  

[Judy B]

I just had a quick browse through the uncategorised topics ........ and have a couple of suggestions.

Body and Soul .... for all the discussions about the body aches and pains peculiar to stitching.

Selling Stitched Stuff ...... for all the discussions about markets, websites, markets, consignment, galleries etc.

There are some about the need for new groups ..... some of them have some interesting discussions, others very little, so don't know if it is worth putting them together or not. And maybe something for fabric, threads and tools.

And ATCs Postcards, Inchies and swaps in general.

Which leads to a question, is there a way of linking some of them to groups? (Being the creator of a fledgling private group here on Ning I should know this stuff!)

[sharonb]

Thanks Judy B for feedback:

I like the topic area 'body and soul' ie occupational health and safety.

I will create a topic area for 'fabric threads and tools'

I was not going to duplicate the groups. I was going to let the groups be, and simply classify what was here under the 'general' in the forum. But looking at the groups we could perhaps close some. I am not sure how members would feel about this however. Community feeling may be to not change too much.

When I started this community I did not have the option to categorise topics in the forum so we started groups. I think the big and active ones should remain where they are. So often when people are new they get confused in the forum so my main aim is to clarify the various parts of the site. its a case of when we started we did not have the tools so work arounds were developed now that we have the tools - ie categories I don't want to spoil the groups and many are nice little areas of the site that people feel at home in.

I think ATCs Postcards, Inchies and swaps in general should stay in the groups that are running the swaps otherwise we run the risk of someone not understanding which part of the site a swap is run from and how to participate. Swaps in particular can hurt feelings if they go wrong so I think they should be kept in the groups that runs them. It means the moderators in that group only have to check the group - not the main forum

As for linking topic threads to groups - I have just had a look at our options and as handy as it would be it appears I can not do it. The groups are groups and the main forum is that the main forum.

I think if we make new folks aware of the groups (makes mental note to write something ) it might cut out some of the duplication. Mind you I don't see this a huge issue particularly if someone is new as for me it more important for someone to feel welcome and find thier way around gently rather than being hit with a wall of instructions.
Judy B said:

Which leads to a question, is there a way of linking some of them to groups? (Being the creator of a fledgling private group here on Ning I should know this stuff!)

[Ruth Lane]

Sharon - I think a few of the groups could be discontinued. For example, the group Stash Bustin' that Trish and I started. It has never been very active and has members but rarely has posts. I also think that design and surface design could be combined but not sure if you could do that or not. I'm not sure what the general concensus would be if you deleted a group. Maybe if you posted in that group and suggested since it wasn't active and that if no one objected it would be deleted.

[sharonb]

Hi Ruth
I will take that on board and after I have been tinkering here I will write to all groups that are not active AND send an email out to every member asking for opinions before I do anything. I think part of the reason people were not so active in some groups is that many people did not know how to navigate the groups particularly in the early days.