Community Discussion on Groups
John S
Discussion started by John S 5 years ago
So let's chat about groups, shall we? :)
When I first started NOPE365 there were no groups except for a couple "official" groups. About a week in I turned on groups for everyone to create and use as they wanted to and there was a lot of cheers at that because people missed groups from the original Quitnet. But some people don't like groups, they feel it creates clicks within NOPE.
This week I administratively "closed" groups so that you had to be a member of certain groups to see the group posts in the main feed. I did this because there are a lot of groups and some of them have a lot of activity, this meant that the main feed was getting very cluttered and overwhelming for people.
Since then I have been working on the site design to implement a more "new Quitnet style" to the feed where images are off to the right and in a predictable sized window so that you can navigate the feed better. I still have work to do on this front and on my test version of NOPE I've gotten quite a bit done with making sure group posts also show in the main feed in this manner. Once that goes "live" I could conceivably make all but a few groups "public" again since they wouldn't clog the feed so much.
Groups have been taking all shapes and sizes. We have amazing groups, like the Library and Musings and Steps which I think are outstanding content that everyone needs to have at their disposal - however the massive number of articles going in there as information is transferred from Quitnet means that 75% of the posts will be "Quitter Created XYZ", and that can be distracting (maybe less so once I implement the design changes).
There are some groups that need to be closed either because their content may be "edgy" or because there are certain segments of our community that may have strong options against their content at all. Some people don't want prayers in the feed, others don't want LGBT topics in the feed - it's a no-win situation.
So let's hash it out and come up with something that everyone can get on board with.
Do we close groups entirely except for select NOPE official groups? Do we open groups up so that ALL content is in the main feed (at which point I have to ask why we would have groups at all)? Do we police the site in a way that censors any kind of content that may be considered abrasive? And what do we, as a group, find abrasive?
You can see the dilemma. What are your thoughts about groups, but please don't turn this into a shooting match, it's to be a constructive way for you to not only express your opinions but also your ideas on how your thought can be implemented and be fair to all.
Go!