Forum Activity for @strumelia

Looking for early Ning migrants

Ning To Jamroom

Yay!
updated by @strumelia: 12/29/14 09:23:54AM

my list of things ning migrators will mkiss

Ning To Jamroom


!

Actually we may have to move to antarctica before Ning releases an Events feature. Too bad, because people could have used the Events feature to announce the move! lllolloll
updated by @strumelia: 12/29/14 09:23:54AM

Looking for early Ning migrants

Ning To Jamroom

Yep SE it's going to be awesome once we all get our sea legs.
updated by @strumelia: 12/29/14 09:23:54AM

Looking for early Ning migrants

Ning To Jamroom

I am not getting emails of my own replies, if that helps anything.
updated by @strumelia: 12/29/14 09:23:54AM

Important questions about Ning "Groups"

Ning To Jamroom

Oy, well I'm going to paste my previous post here to stay organized, sorry to duplicate.
I will be mostly not around all this evening and tomorrow morning, so can't respond in much detail after this until tomorrow night, so here's my view again and see yous later. .....
=====================================

Here is what relevant to my own network:
1- first, we need a centralized place on the site's main page and in the nav links where members can simply click on the "Group" naviagation link and see the various groups at one time, like: http://mountaindulcimer.ning.com/groups
(the grid view helps rather than a single column view that I think JR shows, so one doesn't have to click on too many pages to see all the groups...so annoying)
2-then they click to go look at a group, join it,or post in it, and they come to that particalur group's page or location, for example: http://mountaindulcimer.ning.com/group/oldstyledronenoterplayers
If you look there you will see some basic group features:
a) a nice list of the group Members (and their colorful hotlink avatar pictures which is awesome- hover over their pic, see the name and then checkout thier profile page)
b) that group's description and information/guidelines at top
c) an optional text box where the group admin or site owner can place interesting things, video embeds, images, text (the text box is nice but not critical if you can put such rich embeds in the upper Description text area)
d) the group's Discussion Forum, where group members can start and hold discussion threads. Supremely important.
e) a group Comment Wall, where members can post QUICK things- quick questions, and joke around but not really needing to start a thread about whatever it is they are thinking. Members LOVE this, especially if they are newbs and don't even know how to start a discussion thread yet.
f) every network is different, but notice here that the "Pages" in this group I've linked only has a few specific instructional pages which were posted by the Group moderator (who I assigned)- otherwise you get hundreds of random weird pages posted by just anybody, about their goldfish's funeral etc.

In my ning site a new group nowadays is created only by me, after considering whether the subject merits a whole group that is not adequately covered or made cohesive through the regular site forums area. Now we have about 60 groups and they are all very focused on certain aspects of dulcimers and dulcimer playing. This creates a site where members can very easily meet others with their particular interests, and also get help faster without getting lost. Too many scattered subject groups just make it harder to find what our members need, so for me I need to be able to be the only person able to actually create a new group. (I often will assign a group moderator who is a member with limited editing power but only can edit/delete/add things in that group, not site-wide. That's a nice touch Ning added) Our biggest most active group is "Beginner players".. not surprisingly.
And yes, I must be able to set private groups.

so for my own situation, the most important group features are the member list, the group forum area, the Comment Wall, and the ability to allow only admins or moderators to create new groups and group Pages.
Having an option for group members to be able to send message to all other group members is very handy too. I myself chose to turn that off long ago because spammers went orgasmic over that ability and were beating down the doors to get in during the time when Ning was having more spam than it does today. But it's a great feature to have as an option. A member in the New Jersey Group can message everyone about a concert in NJ, but not bore members in Germany with that message for example.
===================================
updated by @strumelia: 12/29/14 09:23:54AM

Important questions about Ning "Groups"

Ning To Jamroom

I'm also thinking a Comment Wall where all group members can make a quick post or gab without having to create a new discussion in the Group'Forum. The Group Comment Wall is very popular in my ning site Groups.
Also the Group's identity Picture showing along with the group description, right up front- that needs to be more prominent than the person who created the group imho.
It's like going to a restaurant- first you see the sign, look in the window, maybe read a review- then you go in and see the patrons and begin tasting. All this usually happens before you know who opened the restaurant or who is in the kitchen cooking. You just know you like the place, the food is yummy and you feel you fit in with the other folks eating there.

Discussion are not simply comments on a page- thats the Comment Wall. Discussions are an actual forum area within the group, with various threads started by group members. see: http://mountaindulcimer.ning.com/group/oldstyledronenoterplayers as an example of the Group with Pages, a discussion forum, and a comment wall. Also a group member list with hotlinked avatars showing which is cool.

All this said, we should be able to have the option to allow new activities items from groups appear in the activity feed for the main site area- this brings in new members to join groups. (private groups' latest items will not appear in the activity feed of course)
updated by @strumelia: 12/29/14 09:23:54AM

my list of things ning migrators will mkiss

Ning To Jamroom

Brian Im so glad you are asking this!

Here is what relevant to my own network:
1- first, we need a centralized place on the site's main page and in the nav links where members can simply click on the "Group" naviagation link and see the various groups at one time, like: http://mountaindulcimer.ning.com/groups
(the grid view helps rather than a single column view that I think JR shows, so one doesn't have to click on too many pages to see all the groups...so annoying)
2-then they click to go look at a group, join it,or post in it, and they come to that particalur group's page or location, for example: http://mountaindulcimer.ning.com/group/oldstyledronenoterplayers
If you look there you will see some basic group features:
a) a nice list of the group Members (and their colorful hotlink avatar pictures which is awesome- hover over their pic, see the name and then checkout thier profile page)
b) that group's description and information/guidelines at top
c) an optional text box where the group admin or site owner can place interesting things, video embeds, images, text (the text box is nice but not critical if you can put such rich embeds in the upper Description text area)
d) the group's Discussion Forum, where group members can start and hold discussion threads. Supremely important.
e) a group Comment Wall, where members can post QUICK things- quick questions, and joke around but not really needing to start a thread about whatever it is they are thinking. Members LOVE this, especially if they are newbs and don't even know how to start a discussion thread yet.
f) every network is different, but notice here that the "Pages" in this group I've linked only has a few specific instructional pages which were posted by the Group moderator (who I assigned)- otherwise you get hundreds of random weird pages posted by just anybody, about their goldfish's funeral etc.

In my ning site a new group nowadays is created only by me, after considering whether the subject merits a whole group that is not adequately covered or made cohesive through the regular site forums area. Now we have about 60 groups and they are all very focused on certain aspects of dulcimers and dulcimer playing. This creates a site where members can very easily meet others with their particular interests, and also get help faster without getting lost. Too many scattered subject groups just make it harder to find what our members need, so for me I need to be able to be the only person able to actually create a new group. (I often will assign a group moderator who is a member with limited editing power but only can edit/delete/add things in that group, not site-wide. That's a nice touch Ning added) Our biggest most active group is "Beginner players".. not surprisingly.
And yes, I must be able to set private groups.

so for my own situation, the most important group features are the member list, the group forum area, the Comment Wall, and the ability to allow only admins or moderators to create new groups and group Pages.
Having an option for group members to be able to send message to all other group members is very handy too. I myself chose to turn that off long ago because spammers went orgasmic over that ability and were beating down the doors to get in during the time when Ning was having more spam than it does today. But it's a great feature to have as an option. A member in the New Jersey Group can message everyone about a concert in NJ, but not bore members in Germany with that message for example.

Hopefully others will chime in from their own viewpoints and an overall picture will be clearer.
updated by @strumelia: 12/29/14 09:23:54AM

forums listings categories groups etc etc

Ning To Jamroom

I know I am still stuck thinking in ning layout terms. (for example I look at : https://www.jamroom.net/the-jamroom-network/forum and I see this is possible already. This mindset change is definitely going to take a little while, speaking for myself anyway. Thank goodness there is tons of help here (we need it!), but even with that we still will have to be methodical and maybe a bit patient too. The forums categories will be an important thing for all of us, definitely.
updated by @strumelia: 12/29/14 09:23:54AM

Looking for early Ning migrants

Ning To Jamroom

The Ning To Jamroom Bundle is for sale in the Jamroom team's Marketplace, under the Bundles tab.
updated by @strumelia: 12/29/14 09:23:54AM

An 'Heads Up'

Ning To Jamroom

It's the truth!
updated by @strumelia: 12/29/14 09:23:54AM