G+ Community

Destry · 2012-12-20 01:29:58

Bloke wrote:

Anyone know if you can change the “anyone can join” vs “moderator approval” setting after creating the group?

Not sure about that one. I don’t see any control for anything. I thought that was simply a factor of being invited or not. If you arrive without an invitation, you have to go through the request/approve steps. If you arrive with an invitation, you have a direct pass to play.

But now I’m less sure after seeing your comment here. In the other community I own there’s no requests to join, so something was set differently there, I guess, but I honestly don’t remember and don’t see any control for it now.

Hmm.

Off to bed.

Bloke · 2012-12-20 01:35:31

Destry wrote:

Off to kill a page….

Cool. Someone with the keys to the redirects will need to update http://textpattern.com/+ to point to plus.google.com/u/0/communities/111366418300163664690 before the page is killed off.

Gocom · 2012-12-20 02:51:01

I’ve added a temporary badge/logo for the community. I just merely snipped part of the Textpattern logo as I could find any resource files I have laying around some on this system in the 5 seconds I spent looking. So, it’s kinda small.

For references, the communities seem to have just one image that will be then re-sized and scaled down. The main badge size is 250×250px. It does resizing or clipping probably, but can make blurry results as it already does in the community list pages.

Last edited by Gocom (2012-12-20 02:52:11)

tye · 2012-12-20 03:09:33

Bloke wrote:

Yaaaarp, here it is. Invites are circling for those people with people already in circles, but anyone’s free to join the party.

I can’t help – it looks like I had an invite (thanks) – so joining was well easy

wet · 2012-12-20 06:05:47

Destry wrote:

In the new G+ Communities you can:

Write as much as you need. (There are no character limits in posts.)

Edit your content anytime. (No 15-minute time limits to make corrections.)

Use basic Textile formatting for emphasis, strong, and ~~strikethrough~~. (Opens up a lot more room for being clear in writing, as well structuring posts.)

Categorize topics. (No wading through a single “Discussion” list)

Many of these properties apply to this place, too.

Please advise on where and when we should choose to either strengthen Google’s brand by participating in their social network, versus adding content to our own branded domain?

I think we should be very clear about this distinction as otherwise we’d spread our efforts too thin and create an abhorrent wasteland to shy away new prospects, or multiply our messages (aka spam) across all available premises.

Destry · 2012-12-20 11:40:09

Robert,

I’ve talked about that before, but here’s a fresh take, subjective and objective both…

The forum is a Web 1.0 bulletin board system that only people that already use Textpattern will ever sign up for. You can promote the hell out of the forum, but unless someone is actually using Txp, nobody is going to interact here. Since the community of users is not very big, it’s not exactly promoting itself. Even then, very few people who do have accounts in this forum use it because they don’t need to, or whatever. 1% (guestimate) of all forum members bother interacting here on even a semi-regular basis.

That’s not to say there’s anything wrong with the forum; it’s the Support Forum, after all and has a very specific role. Unfortunately, it forgot what that role is and tried to become everything. But the project needs to react with the times. In 2003, none of these social networks existed. The bulletin board made sense. It grew into the ‘everything’ tool because there wasn’t really anything better. The Linux queens love it!

Fast-forward 10 years. The world has moved past the hesitancy of social media to outright adoption of it, individuals and companies alike. It’s big business. And while most people don’t use every channel, many use at least one. That is a key point I’ll come back to. (Island theory.)

The ease of communication and sharing thanks to new social tools like Twitter, Facebook, LInkedIin, and G+ Communities (what I think is currently the best of the breed) has changed the web communication game since 2003. There will undoubtedly be better tools still to come, while some of these others fall out. It’s part of the ecology of things.

Here’s the hard truth: In today’s very competitive climate, you need to go where people are, they are not going to come to you without being hooked in some way. That assumes Textpattern gives a crap about growing it’s user base, naturally. (Maybe it doesn’t.)

In my opinion, inward focus on this forum (and lack of a Dries/Mullenweg-like champion at the top) is what emptied Txp’s nitrogen tanks long ago. That’s no reflection on any devs now, or in fact any devs ever. It’s simply a fact that there’s never been an enthusiastic leader with a vision since Dean dropped out (even Dean didn’t have a vision). The result: The other street racers (WP, MODx, EE…) blasted on ahead in new ways (both technologically and monetarily) and Txp was nearly forgotten.

(Rhetorical.) How many times have I seen somebody say outside of this forum… “Wow, I thought that project was dead!”, or “I never even heard of it before.)? I’ve lost count. Clearly those people are not paying attention here. Why would they? They’re out there. And they’re being bombarded by the competition, or picking up mentions in the fast-moving channels.

And the competition is talking and doing exciting things, where people can interact and be involved in a multitude of ways and places. And the competition is getting attention because they’re putting out there, proactively. Quiet efforts like “liking” Txp on some obscure site as an “alternate” is one (little) thing, but actually reaching out and rubbing elbows is another entirely.

Which brings me back to the “island theory” of social media channels. Some people belong to many islands (this forum is one where only existing users can be assumed to live) and island hop between them frequently. These people are up to the minute on news and latest happenings and play a role in sharing that information between islands. They place an important role in the ecology. (I’m a hopper, mostly.)

Other people, for whatever routine or personal agenda, prefer just one or two islands and never look elsewhere. Depending on what those islands are, it may work well or it may not. If one isn’t already using Txp, they aren’t going to be in this forum. And if Txp want’s to grow its user base, it needs to go out where potential users are. G+ Community is a new island that is superior to other outside islands (the list you quoted). It has the ability to rapidly grow much faster than Textpattern’s FB group did, and most definitely the LinkedIn group.

Lastly, on this notion of spreading things too thin. A smart strategy involves knowing what’s feasible or not. To my mind, the LinkedIn group proved itself useless a long time ago. Leaving up a dead social channel isn’t smart strategy. More islands for the sake of having more isn’t smart. But having more than one island, and picking the ones with the best potential for ROI, is very smart. That’s why I proposed to kill the LinkeIn group and adopt the better tool.

The G+ community was created late last night and already has 50 members. That’s pretty substantial growth, Imagine the potential after a few months, or a year. Maybe we can close down FB too, eventually. :)

Checks and balances and trying new things. That’s part of a healthy strategy. But what Txp probably needs to do is sit down as a team a sketch out what project objectives really are. None of it makes sense without knowing what you really want. Put it in writing and then plan actions around that. ABCs.

(I’m in a hurry, which, ironically, always means a long-winded and circuitous post. Sorry.)

philwareham · 2012-12-20 13:55:54

I’ve sent you an image Stef. Also I’ve changed the 301 redirect from Textpattern.com so it points to the new page, as requested.

The new .com site designs I’m working on also have the social media channels fairly prominent, so I’ll amend to match this too.

Destry · 2012-12-20 14:32:57

I would like to add, that while it seems I’m in direct opposition with Robert, that’s not really the case. I recognize and appreciate his cautiousness here. In fact, he’s doing what I suggested Txp do… slow down and think about priorities.

I just think in this situation, where some tools are working okay (Twitter and FB), and others not so well (LinkedIn and the G+ Pages, so far) there’s an opportunity to do some adjusting and exploration.

Devs don’t have to be Community owners (except Stef), and there are some volunteers for moderation already. I think the community is proving to have potential; we just need to let it find itself organically. It does offer a chance to reach a lot of people if we use it enough that people want to share the content there.

Voila!

(And I don’t know why I posted this thread in Documentation, but please feel free to move it to the root.)

Last edited by Destry (2012-12-20 14:36:18)

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#13 2012-12-20 01:29:58

Re: G+ Community

#14 2012-12-20 01:35:31

Re: G+ Community

#15 2012-12-20 02:51:01

Re: G+ Community

#16 2012-12-20 03:09:33

Re: G+ Community

#17 2012-12-20 06:05:47

Re: G+ Community

#18 2012-12-20 11:40:09

Re: G+ Community

#19 2012-12-20 13:55:54

Re: G+ Community

#20 2012-12-20 14:32:57

Re: G+ Community

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