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Re: Google+ vs Forum
Nice one, thanks! This wouldn’t allow script injection, since we are removing them anyway, and actually we could strip all <script>s before parsing, but I feel dumb.
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Re: Google+ vs Forum
I am starting to really dislike Google’s apps. Gmail is almost unusable via their web interface or via MailPlane. I can only use it via Apple Mail. Google + has always been a pain.
…. texted postive
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Re: Google+ vs Forum
Google make some really good design decisions, and some really bad ones. The latest Google+ update is worse than the older one I feel. I’m moving most of my discussion back to the forums.
Also, IMHO we should move the Textpattern project from Google Code onto GitHub proper. Promote the GitHub repo on the Textpattern homepage, encourage forking and pull requests etc.
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Re: Google+ vs Forum
Ha-ha. You guys crack me up. Sound like a bunch of old fogies pissing about the good ‘ol days. As if.
There’s about 10,000 accounts in this forum, no doubt a lot of those are unverified spam (see the first three pages alone). But hey, 10K! By contrast, the G+ community has 191 members (every one a real person). Not exactly a mass exodus. I’d even guess many of those people are new to Textpattern, and maybe because the G+ community existed, and maybe they found it after seeing a tweet, or whatever.
Who knows. Anybody ever conduct a survey with members about how they came to find Txp? Btw, Google forms have gotten really good and integrating nicely with G+ posts, improving all the time. And you can link a Google spreadsheet to catch form data and run fancy stats on the results. All for free in a matter of minutes. Yeah, those apps suck. Damn Skynet!
Speaking of Twitter, any body use that? Well, maybe you don’t, but new Textpattern users certainly do, and they like to shout about this thing they found called Textpattern, through social media channels…
https://twitter.com/techpsychsoc/status/332815807568572416
https://twitter.com/4l3d/status/335100410601799680
https://twitter.com/claudiabusetto/status/335384966852657153
https://twitter.com/bashirnoori/status/335408806655844352
I don’t remember anybody posting a “Facebook vs. Forum” thread, but I do remember when being in the Textpattern Facebook group there were a lot of names there I’ve never seen here.
I think you see what I’m saying. There’s certainly room for both G+ and this forum. I’d even say Txp is not using it’s G+ Page to full advantage for both visibility and rank juice, but I won’t go into that.
Just don’t get tunnel-visioned and start navel-gazing again, like the good ol’ days.
@etc: That is useful. I could put that to work. Where’s the plugin? ;)
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Re: Google+ vs Forum
Thank you, Destry. It is also my perception, but I could not express it until now.
In a few words:
It is not a matter of dos and don’ts, good or evil, black or white.
It is a matter of complementarity and point of view.
You are a user and you have a favorite place? Post and act on it.
You want to promote Textpattern and help people? Keep an eye on all places, because users are everywhere.
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Re: Google+ vs Forum
Destry wrote
Who knows. Anybody ever conduct a survey with members about how they came to find Txp?
I remember in the early days a lot of us came from the Jon Hicks as he was getting a lot of visitors for his design of the firefox logo.
It would be good if anyone could tell us who are the top referrers now.
Yiannis
——————————
NeMe | hblack.art | EMAP | A Sea change | Toolkit of Care
I do my best editing after I click on the submit button.
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Re: Google+ vs Forum
Destry wrote:
Ha-ha. You guys crack me up. Sound like a bunch of old fogies pissing about the good ‘ol days. As if.
It’s nothing to do with that, it’s to do with the forum being a better place to hold a discussion than the blink-an-you-miss-it nature of Google+. I agree a presence on both is the best way forward, for different types of audience engagements.
And yes, I do regularly use the Textpattern Twitter account too.
Should we be blogging/tweeting/shouting more? Probably.
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Re: Google+ vs Forum
No argument there, Phil.
How a particular tool functions for someone is a perfectly valid reason for choice. And this forum is indeed better than G+ for the writing/editing task. Reading too, but that’s only been the last few days since the G+ UI changes (all the little scroll boxes are indeed a pain). But very little else. There are more advantages to G+ than otherwise, but it just happens that the writing/editing/reading tasks are rather important in this case.
One reason I stopped coming here so much is because post suscriptions don’t work for me anymore. They haven’t for a long time. I never get notifications for threads I subscribe to. And that really throws me out of the loop. It doesn’t appear to be a spam filter thing either because I’ve checked and rechecked. I can’t figure it out. That’s a deal-breaker for me as far as engagement goes. That’s more important than ease of writing and editing. I only find things here because I take a moment from time to time to actively hunt around. I don’t have a lot of time for that. Notification troubleshooting suggestions are welcome, but G+ notifications work flawlessly for me.
Browsing and searching content: This forum has as many problems as G+ when it comes to browsing. This forum could use a good content sand-blasting, in fact. Both use the same Google search so that’s a moot point, but in any case I’ve never had a problem searching for topics in G+. Where G+ really holds benefit for Txp over this forum (in terms of project exposure) is if Txp used it’s G+ Page better.
Spam. Both get it, but in G+ it’s quickly detected and easily removed and reported to Google with a single click. Can’t report spam to Google from the forum. In fact, spam handling is quite an overhead here. Always has been.
One last thing. Google has been really good at listening to G+ users (especially community owners/moderators) and making changes for them on a ‘majority feedback’ basis. I happen to follow where G+ reps hang out (the Community Moderators and G+ Discuss communities) and they do listen and interact with people there. It would be hard for anyone to see that who didn’t follow those places, but the new G+ UI does reflect a lot of improvements that were requested by users. It’s definitely not a copy of Facebook, or if it is it’s because users asked for it. I wrote a break-down of the new UI changes in context of communities, in case you’re interested. I have no doubt they will tweak the UI again to improve where people are having trouble. For me and many others, it’s the little fixed-height scrolling boxes now in thread posts/replies. They already know that’s a problem for people so I expect that to be one of the first things addressed.
I’m just pointing out that there’s more to think about than engaging with existing members. Potential members are important too. And threads like this tend to turn into witch hunts on other tools, and that would be wrong.
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Re: Google+ vs Forum
The thing to do, ideally, is to create a simple social media strategy for the project and put it in with the other resources in development (style guides, visual brand identity, logo files, etc.). Btw, those resources need a better/visible home, and I hope that’s one of the content items for the new Txp site.
Such a social plan would concisely outline what the channels are and make recommendations for their use (post types and topics, etc). Txp representatives (core and other concerned individuals) would follow the use plan diligently—thereby encouraging everyone by their good habit—and others would hopefully catch on. Fruits of this labor would begin to be measurable, and that would be part of the plan too, how to measure progress.
One thing the G+ Community would be good for is coordinating/discussing any PR-related topics, and especially if it concerns G+ tools. E.g., I hinted to creating a survey about how people discovered Txp. That could be coordinated in the G+ community and then easily posted in the Txp G+ Page when ready as a survey post. That kind of thing.
Just trying to help. Ideas spur action, theoretically.
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