Mastering Gather: The SiteWizard™ for Thursday, 02/07

As discussed in prior SiteWizard articles, content searching on Gather can often return unintended results, unless your search contains very specific search terms. Knowing the techniques for refining your search request can dramatically improve the accuracy of your content search.

For example, if you are looking for articles on Gather involving 'women', or 'woman', you would need to enter BOTH words as search terms.

Instead, you can find articles containing these words all at one time using 'wildcards' in your search. A wildcard can be used to substitute for another character, or series of characters. This is useful when you aren't certain how a word is spelled, or whether another form of a word was used by an author. One of these wildcards, the question mark (?), substitutes for only a single character within a search word.

Wildcards can be used in any search term, including tags, title, and group name.

Here are two examples of how to use the question mark [ ? ] wildcard:

Searching for wom?n will locate all articles containing the words 'woman' or 'women'. Similarly, searching for kit?, will return articles containing a word beginning with the word 'kit', but ending in one additional letter, like 'kits'. Thus, avoiding erroneous search results containing words such as 'kitchen' or 'kites'.

The benefits of this technique can be maximized when combined with other search terms in the same search request. To illustrate, using a term from the example above, wom?n, with the word workplace, will generally provide all articles involving a woman or women in the workplace.

Tomorrow's Tip ...more content search using wildcards!

"On Gather's home page there are three groups featured each day at the bottom of the page. What do I need to do to get my group featured in this way?"

The Gather Member Experience Team features groups each day based upon a wide variety of business criteria. This includes relevance to current events or to other featured content, potential public appeal, group activity level, and uniqueness, among others. In addition, Gather Groups must also pass a fairly simple technical eligibility test before a group can be considered.

Therefore, Gather Group owners wishing to have their group considered for the homepage, should ensure that their respective groups meet the eligibility requirements listed below. Also, following the supplementary recommendations will broaden the community appeal of your group, and the ease in which group content can be located.

Your Gather Group Must:

... Be Public

Private groups cannot be accessed by non-members visiting the homepage. Hence, all groups must be open to the public. Moderated groups are acceptable.

... Not Have an 'Adult Group' Setting

Groups labeled for adult content also cannot be accessed by non-members, or by members with their 'Guarded Viewing' filter activated. Some individual content can have a mature rating, but content with mature themes should be kept to a minimum, as they also cannot be accessed by all visitors to the homepage.

... Have an Icon

Icons personalize your group, and visually differentiate it from others. Therefore, an icon is an important part of your Gather Group's identity, and is required.

... Have at Least 2-3 Featured Articles (recent, and on topic)

Featured articles must be related to the theme for your group, and cannot have a mature content flag. Also, at a minimum, 2 of the featured articles must have a publication date within the past 30 days.

Other Recommendations »

Appropriate Usage of Tags

Tags can provide an easy and efficient method for members to locate your group, and it's content. Therefore, effort should be made to ensure that tags are established for your group, and that they accurately reflect group content and proper usage. For example, in an art appreciation group, the tag 'I love attending a great art exhibition', is NOT an appropriate use of the tagging function. Instead, consider simple keywords that would come easily to the mind of members searching for groups on your topic, such as 'art', 'art appreciation', 'art exhibits', or 'artwork'.

Custom Banner

A custom banner is a great way to strengthen the branding of your group, and to increase group recognition and awareness within, or outside of the Gather community.

You may learn more about adding a custom banner to your group HERE.

Relevant Content

Keep content 'on-topic'. Your group is more likely to be chosen by the Gather Member Experience Team, as well as other members, if the majority of content relates in some way to your group's theme. Therefore, you might want to moderate group content to ensure that only relevant material is published.

Remember, you never know when Gather may be reviewing your group, and content, for consideration!

Group Name

Group names should be short, and closely associated with your group's objectives and content.

Group Description(s)

Ensure that your group's short description (synopsis) accurately describes your group, and the type of content which will be published, or activities which will take place within the group. A long description is also recommended which should include specific publishing rules, membership requirements, or other information of special note.

Gather currently provides several email notification options, which can be set or adjusted on your account settings page. Do these options allow you to adequately control your notifications? If not, what changes, or additional email options would you like to see?