Today I went for another pleasant Sunday 'drive' around Gather, and here is what I saw.....
More groups being created which duplicate existing groups...simply because newer members can't find active groups easily, or at all.
Great articles and images written by talented members, with very few comments, or none at all. Most of these members have few connections, and have not published their work to any groups. Again, simply because they don't know how.
Many inactive members, also with great work, that have all but given up on the community simply because they didn't know how to use Gather effectively. (I've asked them).
To most of us that have been around for awhile, this does not come as any surprise. We know it, and experience it every day. We even write articles about it (yeah...I know, add mine to the list). We also have created groups to help get these newer members the exposure, and guidance that they need. However, these groups also fall victim to the same fate, and quickly fade into the background, with little effect.
Without adequate documentation and tools on Gather, the Gather 'experience' is less productive and effective for new, or inexperienced users. This situation will continue to exist until Gather makes a change to it's system, which is still a couple of months away (for group search functionality at least). Also, with the new membership promotion, a stream of new members are joining Gather everyday....and many of them are confused by what they find (again, I have asked).
Therefore, until Gather itself can do something to improve the situation, I have a proposal:
WE do something....together.
In order to reach the widest possible member audience, additional help needs to be available for members in a location that is viewed often. The only area that we, as members, can influence would be the Gather home page.
There are several ways we can do this.
I can create an article that identifies all of the resources available on Gather to assist new and inexperienced members. This will include links to the Gather Tips and Tricks group, other helpful Gather, and member created groups, and to all articles written specifically to help Gather members find their way around, and understand how Gather works. Consider it a Gather 'Tutorial'.
We then request the Gather Editorial Staff to publish this article under their name, and feature it occasionally on the home page under Editor's Picks.
In addition, we ensure that this information is always displayed within the top 5 under 'Community Picks'.
We can accomplish this in several ways:
1) I create another Gather UserID (so that I would not benefit from the Gather Points), and I publish this article every day, or more often, under that UserID. Anyone willing to assist, would then rate this article a '10' each day. This would require minimal involvement from everyone. However, if the article should slip from it's position in the top 5 (due to our '1' rating fiend), I would then need to republish the article again, and it would consequently require us to rate it a second time (or more);
or,
2) Same as above, except that I create several Gather UserIDs, and I utilize those IDs to rate the article, and keep it in the top 5. This would require little, to no, involvement from anyone...but help would certainly be appreciated;
or,
3) We each copy and paste the article, and take turns publishing it, and rating each others article. However, this would be the most resource intensive solution.
I truly believe that helping newer members will have tremendous benefits for us all....
Please let me know your thoughts, ideas, suggestions, concerns, or questions.
Thank You,
Kevin
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Comments: 60
I agree mostly about the groups. The duplication is almost as frustrating as the people who post a piece to 7 or 8 different groups, though I understand they are trying to get readers.
If and when they make changes in the system, perhaps a group listing by genre and interest could be accessed from the front page also. A "click here for a listing of groups: button. Not all that difficult. (I am aware there is a search groups thing, but there is no order or logic to it. Searching on Gather is pretty pointless.)
That's a problem with the design of the website. Gather needs to change this...there's not much you can do about it.
As to duplicate groups - people can and should be able to have alternative groups on a single subject. What = just because someone else got here first, they get to be the only person to create a group on a particular topic?
Each group is going to have its own flavor. I started a group on sustainability issues that may at first glance be duplicating efforts by the first sustainability group here - but the FOCUS of my group is intended to be a bit different. That will come out more as I post more articles. So I would be pretty upset if someone came by and said "Stephanie, you can't have your sustainability group just because someone else got here first."
Everyone should be able to make a group on whatever topic they want, regardless as to whether it's already been done.
I do agree, however, that the group search function needs to be improved. What a mess!
I also think that a good tutorial will help members from just stumbling across things, and provide more purpose an direction..until Gather is improved.
I appreciate the problem and seeking a resolution.
I just took a web cruise of various sites, and many have way to much in graphics, like iTunes for example.
I would like to see a front page like Craig's List. One can find easly titles and sub groups. No graphics, just simplicity and easy routing.
I would suggest that the powers that be at Gather build a simple front page like Craig's List.
Keep up the great work :-)
David
For example: Gatherholics (my current bugaboo). Why is a group dedicated to making fun of people being "addicted" to Gather using "addiction" as a tag? That is so not cool. So here's someone coming to Gather, looking for a support group for their alcoholism or drug problem. They type in "addiction" and come up with "Gatherholics." Initially, maybe they think that this is where they can get addiction help. Instead, they are bombarded with articles with people making light of addiction.
I've emailed the moderator of that group suggesting a change...some have told me to lighten up about it, but I have a few people near and dear to me who struggle with addiction and I have a low tolerance for people making fun of it now. People's lives are at stake.
(Off of soapbox. Thank you!)
1. Finding the groups. Unless you go twice a day to see what new groups are there, it's anybody's guess what's out there. How about a catagorized listing of groups, such as "poems; criticism; recipe and food; humor; etc." or even a alpahbetized list. I don't know where to look for any of the groups I haven't joined or had a invitation to join. Just being able to click on "Groups" that had the whole shebang in one place w/o all the descriptions, and then the ability to click on one that sounds good to see what it is would be an enhancement for everyone.
2. A member's personal page that could be set up with favorites--favorite authors, favorite posts to refer back to, favorite groups. As it is now, I have a hand written post-a-note on my computer with names to be sure and check. I DO not want to spam myself by being notified through email. I removed that back in Feb. when we had all the trouble.
It's my opinion that these features, along with a newcomer's reference page like Kevin suggests, but done by Gather, would go a long way to helping the whole cumbersome situation. Also, being able to access a listing of people who are publishing without just running into them. I get sick of navigating around this because it takes too long, and there are unnecessary steps to get to things.
Let me know when and how to help you.
Personally, I don't agree with the opinion of signing with any new username and start copying the above message or re-distributing same all over the website. It will create more problems to the tech people at Gather as well as to its management.
I have been managing web-communities and groups (such as MSN groups, Google groups and other) for the last ten years. I'm proud to say that today my groups' total membership exceed 5/6000 members worldwide. It's not an easy task, believe me, to spend most of my free time managing groups, on a daily basis. Especially securing their smooth running, despite the fact that I'm assisted by 5 assistant managers who do a wonderful job.
One of the reasons I signed in to Gather, is to explore the possibility of migrating/transfering some of my MSN groups here in Gather. For this reason I have created a dummy/test group and rated it as "adult". It does not, however, contain any explicit material. It is there, sitting idle, with only 1 member, myself, still testing Gather's platform. If and when I decide to go ahead and migrate my groups here, that's another story.
So, to make it short, I would suggest instead of bombarding Gather with what has been suggested, is better if we contact technical support or Gather management with a proposal.
How about this?
George
Athens | Greece
As the Newcomer's Group never cycles to the back of the queue of groups, it is easily found, and more members will get a feel for how to Gather much quicker.
Any comments to this idea?
Yes, certainly we all do need a tutorial and guidelines. In a recent email to Ben I also suggested that (after reading some kind of controversy for members replying to their own personal messages).
Also, how about a peer to peer group for asking and getting help? I would be one of those who would volunteer if decided.
George
We also need to declutter home page- for the newcomer, Gather is confusing to navigate. For a start, get rid of the adverts - does anyone at all click on them other than in confusion.
Magi
seems so complicated and so cluttered. There is a site called lastwords, that is so simple and the home page is open and easy to use. i have been hanging out there and my stories get read and I recieve comments as well as comment on others writing. I'd love to get involved on Gather also but I am lost here.
Phil Pluta
I agree. Things need to change, but I don't want to clutter Gather with duplicate content. Besides, the rating system is basically worthless and viewed as likewise.
Steve
Part of this was in relation to my confusion over the "addiction" tag at Gatherholics. This particular poster was writing articles that made it sound like she was seriously addicted - going on about detox, 12 step, etc. She would jump back and forth from what sounded jokey to a story about someone she knew who was having a serious drug problem. I had NO idea what to think!
In posting a comment over the "addiction" tag confusion, she first blasted me that Gather was for writing and for fun, and that I should take my serious discussions elsewhere to another website.
She then wrote another comment later that was even more insulting and patronizing, when I had simply asked for clarification.
Now, if you want new people to come and stay on this website, then the oldtimers in the community need to stop acting like brats. And you certainly should not have people deciding what content is or is not appropriate to Gather.
I realize that this was only one person here, but she does show up a whole problem (commented on by some other articles I've read): The community appears to becoming too insular, and all about itself instead of about content. It seems everyone wants to talk about Gather itself instead of providing quality information and community that is welcoming to someone who is new, on the outside, and doesn't have any personal connection to Gather yet.
The editors here could also help a lot by choosing better articles as recommendations - so much stuff I see is just....ick. Half the time I am here mesmerized by all the bad horrible stuff I read.
Now that's not to say there aren't good articles or good content. But if this site is to grow and become more useful, the navigation needs to be rehauled, there needs to be some better functionality on the site (plain old discussion forums would help), and the editors need to be more discerning in what they choose to put on the front page. Finally, the oldtimer community needs to stop being so self-congratulatory and self-involved.
There's absolutely no reason why Gather should not have a legitimate space for people who want support, whatever the issue is. There's no law that says this site has to just be frivolous.
I tend to like things simple, and this site could use a lot of simplification.
Whew! This is all a bit overwhelming, but I stuck it out so that I ( a "newbie" ) could hopefully learn something........ about gather, and what it all means. I shall try to watch my P's and Q's like my mother taught me, spell and punctuate properly, try my best to have something worthwhile to say (write), avoid typo's and mind my manners. Having said that, Hello everyone ! Hope to live up to standards and be accepted , liked and admired for the lovely person I really am
I am not sure whether there is any feature on Gather to develop any article contributed/edited by multiple authors. For a people driven site such a feature would be another attraction.
Since we must make the best use of Gather in it's current form, and the work of new members is difficult to find, then we should give these members the knowledge which will allow them to bring their work to all of us more easily.
You might want to add a statement saying you have to join to use this tool, remembering that new people have a hard time navigating in here and could use the tip. Your call......
This article comesight time for me! Like to think about it.
Comments not appreciated should be ignored and move on.
If this site does not work for you find another that does.
New members can call and email gather for help anytime.
What in the world is all the fuss about.
I came here read and commented for 2 weeks figured the site and eventually was asked to network or joyn groups by others.
I am not experienced anything. Learning takes time and it requires effort not complaining.
I think your intention is good but the method would cause a great deal of friction both in the community and with the site management. The whole multiple userID's / repulishing issue would be bad PR.
But I am having a difficult time coming up with a workable solution that comes from the user community. Perhaps a new forum would be in order.
Persoanlly, I go to the FAQs when I have questions and I imagine most users do the same. The site has many new-user oriented articles on how to do a wide-variety of things. Perhaps having the Gather team take some of these articles and distill them into FAQs (with the author's permission) would be an easy solution for them. They would not have to create new content, which would save them time. All they would need do is post it.
A place like Gather can be daunting to the Newbies...it's all pretty new to all of us!
I just tried to find out how to bookmark an article, do I simply use my "favorites" on explorer".
Well, on second thought, maybe you do... and more power to you if that happens!
But, once again for the record, here's my .02:
- This is a coding issue for Gather, not one to be solved by it's members. As you and I both know from personal experience, TPTB at Gather are well-aware of the problem w their search function. Perhaps they need someone with more experience with search engines to refine their code. I don't know. The search function now hardly works at all. The search function in my Palm OS Treo 650 works WAY better!
- You know I support - BIGTIME - a 'favorites' or 'bookmarks' column on our homepages here.
- It's extremely easy to publish articles and photos, as well as coments here IMHO. I never once had to read a FAQ on how to do any of that. It's a no-brainer.
a new idea:
- What about the idea of some older Gatherites mentoring new members who request that sort of help?
But what really needs to be done is to refine the search engine Gather uses and to code it so that it works as it should!