Thanks for the powerful start here in the improve.gather.com group. We are grateful for the careful thought and the constructive tone. The Gather team and I are reading every word ...and responding whenever we can!
Given the diversity and breadth of the suggestions on the site, it's clear we are going to need to do some significant prioritization for upcoming improvements. As part of that process we'd like your thoughts on what should come first.
Rather than soliciting feedback via comments (where the voices of thousands may be represented by just a few people), I thought perhaps Gather might explore an online decision-support tool. I have used several decision support methods (from simple surveys to weighted voting mechanisms) offline, but not explored the online space. Do any of you have experience in this area? Is there a method you would suggest for tapping our community's broad audience knowledge for prioritization? Are there specific technologies you have used that might implement that method for a large group online?
Please keep the suggestions coming in the meantime. We'd love to see your "wish list" as well (not just recommendations for improvement, but new stuff you would like to see). Should we include Gather radio? Would you like live chat (and, if so, text? voice? video?) Should we have easier invitation mechanisms that tie to off-Gather address books? Do you want to be able to post documents to groups or your own pages for download? What would make Gather more useful and interesting for you?
Before I go, I'm pleased to report that we deployed a series of bug fixes this morning that should improve your Gather experience. You won't notice dramatic change, but we hope some of the things you do every day will be a little bit easier.
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Comments: 23
If you are going to move to multimedia, I would like to see a songwriters workshop. A place where budding songwriters could upload their work for all to listen to.
About the survey question. Haven't any experience with giving surveys, but have taken several online surveys. Don't know what these surveys companies charge, but that would be an effective way to get an idea on what the whole Gather community thinks. Maybe send out a link to a survey via email to Gather members.
I wish I had technical suggestions to offer in the area of "on line decision support methods", but sadly I do not. A non-technical suggestion would be to test a few different methods outside of the Gather's regular pool of writers if possible ( maybe a free-standing Web page with survey or voting that only registered members who haven't published an article yet could access ? ) . That would probably give some nuts and bolts results on the issue.
As far as a wish list goes, I vote yes for video and radio.
Can we have more control over from whom we receive individual messages?
Over the weekend, a user sent a large number of users a personal message, to which many of the users replied all, ad nauseum. I now have over 40 messages in my box, all of which were unsolicited. (I just found the preference where I can opt out of receiving the notification to my personal address).
Maybe add an option when you're making a connection with a user that also allows you to decide to receive personal messages from that user.
thanks in advance!
That way I could keep my inbox empty, and keep my account overhead down.
#2. would be for some sort of 'come back and read later' **bookmarking** system to allow me to mark articles that deserve reading, but which for whatever reason can't be done now.
#3. email avoidance... be able to **'ignore' ALL messages** on a certain subject.
Thanks for the open ear Tom.
Lloyd
Here are a few thoughts tho:
Give people sliders (or 1-5 scales, whatever) on decisions that include parameters such as:
(1) this affects me
(2) I care about it
(3) I would use it if it were there
and give them a chance to leave implementation thoughts.
Very often people will get into discussions and have very strong ideas, yet it's for something they don't use, wouldn't use, but just care about. Or they don't feel strongly, but if it were there, they think they'd use it all the time. These are characteristics of group decision making that are far easier to pick up on in person than online.
Thanks for the plug!
Tom,
We're a local small biz and are here to help if you need it. :)
I am pouring through articles and comments that came in as I flew and will be back to everyone soon. Thanks for keeping the conversation going!