Forum Use Plan
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While there aren't that many of us here yet, I wanted to start this little discussion to help work out the forum use plan and get it written down. I think there's some of this in our meeting minutes but I'd like to get down my thoughts here for collaboration.
General public view (Open access to all members, and view only for anyone not logged in)
- Announcements
- Public Discussion
- Events (including meeting? Not sure if our meeting times and locations are open-knowledge)
KCC Member (Inclusive of executive and general membership, users here will be manually added upon application and confirmation of KCC membership)
- Meetings (including link to (or full text of) minutes, location and timing, locked so only executive can post here, for posting AFTER meetings are complete)
- General Discussion (Active issues that need community input, possibly discussion the merrit of ideas to bring forward to meeting, or minor issues that could be worked on out-of-meeting)
- Buy and sell (we haven't had one of these yet, before setting this up I feel this should be discussed and approved by the group)
Executive only (limited to active KCC executive members only)
- Internal Discussion (General topics to flesh out ideas prior to public release such as letters, or news releases)
- Upcoming meeting minutes (link or even full-text of the agenda for the upcoming meeting
User requirements:
I'm not sure how everyone feels about putting proper photos for members in user icons. I believe the executive are generally expected to post bios and photos publicly so I feel that my own face is publicly available in my relationship to KCC and I'm comfortable adding my own picture to my profile here. I don't expect everyone to follow this recommendation, but it could certainly help with building the community. I do feel that if we're able to limit visibility of user icons to registered users of the forum, or perhaps only registered members of KCC, that could help appease some desire for privacy from public. -
Hey Aaron!
That's a pretty good start to things - I have a few thoughts.
I think initially we can probably condense all of the KCC Member-restricted forums in to one Discussion forum and utilize tags for highlighting meeting minute posts. We could also utilize locking those posts so they are simply informational posts, and if people want to reply/discuss they could do so as separate topics.
Similar condensing could be done on the Executive discussion group?
I suggest condensing a bit just so on a brand new forum things don't appear too unused/dead and instead encourage activity without being spread too thin. More categories could certainly be added in any time it appeared we could utilize some separation.
On the Buy & Sell piece specifically, I feel like that is a great idea but maybe we should hold off for a bit (to a phase 2 of 'launching' the forum?) until some people (like moderators) are settled in to the forum, we've dealt with migrating away from the email communications to a degree, etc?
Just my thoughts on trying to KISS at the moment, and move it all forward in simple small stages?
Edit: I didn't say anything about the photos... personally, I don't mind either way and I don't think I would suggest anyone should feel like they have to use a photo of themselves or not. If one was happy having their photo put on the KCC website, I suspect it wouldn't be an issue here as well. Or, one might want to just use an avatar of the moon or a cheeseburger, which is fine in my opinion, too.
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Hi just joined, great to have a KCC forum, I've got lots to share.
I found out about the forum from the KCC newsletter, but it doesn't look like the forum is linked from the main KCC website yet? Not on the front page or in the menus.
The website is probably getting updated right now, imho the forum links should be more prominent than the Facebook group links. Facebook is a terrible platform for organizing.
I suggest condensing a bit just so on a brand new forum things don't appear too unused/dead and instead encourage activity without being spread too thin. More categories could certainly be added in any time it appeared we could utilize some separation.
I've run big forums for several decades and in my experience this is a good approach, don't have too many sub-forums at the beginning. If the main/general discussion forum gets too busy, then look at splitting it up.
Buy & Sell can be a big draw, but it can also be a headache for moderators if deals go sideways.
KISS is good, get the basics nailed down and work on driving engagement.
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HI there Skye, thanks for dropping in!
Yes, we were on a slow ramp-up plan even internally in regards to the forum. Now that it's been posted in the newsletter, we'll get a link up on the website and yes I agree it should be more prominent than the Facebook link.
You're right on the buy & sell aspect, too... I don't think that's what we want to take on at this point in time.
Are you a KCC Member, by the way?
