Dear Tom:
I was thinking that perhaps you should invite your staff to a luncheon at the Common Ground Cafe in Lower Mills. Just hop on the Red line and amble over to Ashmont Station and stroll down the street. You can't miss the Cafe....it has beautiful murals on the front.
Fine murals, handpainted by members of the Twelve Tribes makes this a unique visual experience.
Even the back of the restaurant has a mural that conveys the message this place is "out of the ordinary", somewhat like Gather was for Social Networking Sites before the downgrades.
Bring your staff inside and you will discover a warm and inviting atmosphere....one conducive to serious discussions about the latest upgrades in Gather, the impact on the community and their negative response, and where you should go from here. Make sure you order from the menu....they have excellent sandwiches made with homemade bread and all their soups are organic in nature. Important discussions should always take place over food...and perhaps you can find "common ground" with the Gatherites that first came to your site and made it the unique site it was.
As for me...these are my concerns:
1. I want the Home Page reinstated...that is where I always started my Gather experience. And I would like the Gather Essentials on the Home Page where I can find them easily.
2. "Articles for Me" and "Images for Me" really worked well for me. At a glance I knew what my connections were publishing. I didn't have to play stalker.
3. Can we revert back to the old terminology? I'm having a real difficult time with the words "post", "share" and "submit".
4. Why was the rating option changed? Half of the time I forget it now.
5. And of course the Feeds....somehow or another, that just doesn't work for me. I have changed my settings but I am missing many of my connections' articles because the Feeds are erased every evening. I certainly don't have twenty-four hours to spend on Gather every day.
Enjoy your luncheon,
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Evans (ladybess)
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Comments: 133
I wish I could come down to the Common Ground Cafe and have lunch with you. It looks like a great place.
I love your pictures. They are so inviting.
My Best,
Janet
I have always believed in honest communication. I have tried teaching this to my own boys as well as the children I have taught for the last thirty-nine years. If you have a problem, go to the source, speak from the heart and try to find common ground. I do not believe in back-biting, threats, or any of those other negative, juvenile behaviors. State your beliefs, listen closely to those that differ and then find common ground where everyone benefits.
I answered Pam: But Pam, we are not happy.
Reinstating the home page would be excellent. But I know that putting in the home page, in the first place, in Janof 2007, was a major architectural development, so it might be difficult to get it back.
However, it is the difference between Dumb and Great.
I have to read Sonia's article.
your points are perfect - exactly what is needed. I wish I thought there was a snowballs chance they'd listen.
I'm sure they think that we will adjust.
I think they are sorely mistaken. The only reason many of us are still here is because of our connections - as they erode those - which they have done and are continuing to do by not allowing us to easily keep up with our connections, they are shooting themselves in the foot.
But with a couple of exceptions, I think everyone on Gather staff are GenXers, meaning, they are younger than 40, mostly in their 30s.
There was a book marketed on Gather not long ago (whose name I cannot remember) but it was talking about the marketing mistake made all across this country
The GenXers are running marketing and missing the boat in every single instance.
The biggest demographic group has been and will continue to be the Boomers until we all die off, which won't be until those born in 1963 are dead.
This is 2008. Those born in 1963 won't all be dead until about 2063.
There are 78 million Boomers but only 50 million GenXers. The Greatest Generation (Boomer parents born in the 20s) were only 50 million, when born.
Even though the Boomers had many significant differences with their parents generation while growing up, the Boomers do not side with GenXers at all in terms of marketing, style, many, many issues.
The Boomers are traditionalist in some ways - ways that have to do with education, values. In that respect, Boomers side more with their parents' Generation than they do with the recent generation.
The current new generation, The Millenials those born from about 1984 until 2002, are 24 and younger.
The GenXers have more in common with marketing tastes with the Millenials than GenXers do with Boomers.
Even though Boomers had Flower Power, Peace, Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roll, cohabitation, Tune In, Drop in, Drop Out, the Boomers were also Yuppies, and became part of the Establishment.
The Boomers were the first generation to be highly educated. (Well, the WWII generation went to college on the GI Bill) but it was the Boomers who graduated from college or who had some college in record numbers.
The main difference between GenXers and Boomers lies in the methodological differences.
GenXers are forgetting that the largest group in this country are the boomers and that it is the Boomers who must be satisfied, or their will be no market.
Retail misses that boat when the sizes are too narrow, too low cut and just 'not right.'
Buyers in retail are 40 or under and retail has always marketed to (read the in store literature for employees and managers - 25 - 54) those now from 44 to 64 mainly.
The same goes for every single market in this country.
The Boomers have the demographic power to have things move in a direction Boomers like. The directions that Boomers like are usually close to the direction that people OLDER than Boomers like (this was not true when we were growing up, but it is true now)...
But when GenXers market only to what THEY like, they are missing the boat.
This boat will sink. Is sinking.
I no longer have the time, energy or inclination to seek them out. Does anyone?
And I have to leave in a few minutes or I will be so stressed out and not able to accomplish my real life things.
Sad when people have to stop Gathering because they are stressed out.
And the number of comments an article gets is really dependent on how many connections the author has.
So that has not changed. But there is no way to see these Groups except by clicking on them individually below.
Nevertheless, I still have high hopes that Tom will come forth and lay his cards on the table and be honest with all of us. Do we have a future with Gather or not?
And yes, kathryn, I did publish this to "Building a Better Gather" for is that not what we all want?
GenX: 50 million, Boomers 78 mllion.
After the Gather ICE downgrade, the whole of Gather seems to be saying the same thing, it's NOT what the members want. Even staunch Gather lovers of old have come out with the same message. This Gather is NOT working.
I have yet to see an article that praises the new Gather... that should carry weight on the discussion table. I hope a response to the needs of the members is forthcoming. Otherwise, a whole lot more people than ever left Gather before will soon be finding their way out the door. Some of my connections have already started deleting their contents. That is not good.
:-)
they are, I think, confident that Gather will attract sufficient newcomers to make up for those of us that leave
I don't understand the resistance to it, or refusal to answer questions about it either?
That looks like a great place by the way; wish I lived closer. Thanks.
Grems
this feels like change for change's sake, not for any other reason. if they would stop trying to sell the site and concentrate on maintaining and improving, we'd all shut up. and be happy. and post more. (i hate that people are pulling their posts.)
but if i had a nickel for every time we've bitched and pleaded over the years for the powers that be to listen to us...
by the way, your letter was perfect and the photos were an excellent touch. bravo!
Kathyrn - Maybe some of the boomers side with our parents generation.
Many millions of us don't. As a matter of fact most of the people that I know have values that have nothing to do with our parents. Maybe that book speaks to you but not to me.
I am excited by what I know know about many Generations Xers.
However, assume nothing.
Where gather missed the mark was in having the site be user friendly.
They've taken the worst of Facebook and MySpace and stuck it here.
Their marketing information is wrong and for anyone to copy facebook is just ridiculous, they're in debt up to their eyeballs.
Most of my kid's and their friends, in their 20's and 30 still use MySpace as their frequent communications hub.
But MySpace is what it is. Copycatting some other entity shows a serious lack of vision, a deficit of IT skills and poor marketing planning.
Don't believe everything you read, don't speak for me, don't put down young people if you don't really know them.
It is nice to meet you and thanks for coming to my article with your concerns which mirror mine. By the way, I loved your "A Little Love Story, about Bread" that Ivy sent me to many months ago.
Faith: I guess I need to be more active on that site magi invited us to if this doesn't pan out. Somehow or another, though, I still have a fondness for this site and would like it to go back to its original mission. Yes, I too, embrace change...but positive change.
GREMS: From an early age I was taught by my Mom to "speak up for my beliefs". Those are the values I have tried to instill in my sons.
I know you gave it a lot of thought before you wrote your article. It was beautifully said...
The well is not abandoned...we just need to speak louder, Judi. I know sometimes Papa forgets to put in his hearing aids and I have to remind him...maybe that's what I need to do to Tom.
This has to be the best article (I refuse to call this a post) expressing the community's unhappiness. Kudos to you for being able to do it in such a calm straight forward way.
Too many of us are just so frustrated we don't know what to say nicely, because we are being ignored.
So thank you, now if Tom would just read this and respond without using flowery language to further frustrate us.
And your cafe reminds me very much of my favorite hole-in-the-wall here in my town. (and I stalked Roy to find this :) )
I'm not sure he realizes how important this site has become to so many of us. He doesn't realize it's a second home and second family for most of the members. He doesn't realize this really hurts us.
I just think he doesn't care.
Sometimes I feel like don quixote.... these lyrics running through my head:
"I have come oer moor and mountain
Like the hawk upon the wing
I was once a shining knight
Who was the guardian of a king
I have searched the whole world over
Looking for a place to sleep
I have seen the strong survive
And I have seen the lean grown weak
See the children of the earth
Who wake to find the table bare
See the gentry in the country
Riding off to take the air
Reaching for his saddlebag
He takes a rusty sword into his hand
Then striking up a knightly pose
He shouts across the ocean to the shore
Till he can shout no more"
and I too have reverted back to using the correct terminology ... if I ever publish anything else on Gather it will be an article, not a post ...that is a very big IF right now though
Thank you for your kind words. I bow to you.
An aside: As for the name, my father on my birth certificate gave me the name Robert Ketchen Mills. I was named for his brother who was missing in action during WWII...he did come home in May of '46 but I was born in February of that year. When I was baptized, the priest refused to name me that and he suggested "Mary". Dad countered with "Elizabeth"....and so I am Elizabeth to the world at large and Bob to my friends. I would be honored if you would call me Bob. Some on Gather call me Lizabob or Ladybess, both of which I like. Lol.
I think there's a song..."Hold on to your dreams....." but goodness I don't know the rest of it. Anyone help?
Heather is a good stalker...that's how she found me! Actually that's how I run around Gather these days...I stalk my connections...only way I can find anything.
going to another reading this evening... 3 authors, none of whose names I recognize
We just keep knockin'...someone is bound to answer.
that does look like sage.
i am so sleepy i was all thinky last night..i was still awake when paul got up to go to work.
Sorry it took so long for me to reply, I had a needy kitten wanting to be cuddled who was mad at me for being gone all day. Don't let Roy fool you he likes it when I stalk *stalk stalk stalk*
But it is kinda creepy having to follow everyone around to find any content, especially when the feeds reset at 12:30am-ish :\
You did make a comment on the other article "What is in a Word?" wrote Will Evans. You are not losing your mind.
We all have to hunt...it's like going back to the "hunting and gathering society".
I have not but I would be interested so I will go over to your article now about "text editor".
Did you rate the article?
If wishes were fishes, I would be down the pond now with my pole, Vicky.
Faith, which other sites? I'm ready for a positive, non-Gather experience.
Being that you are on the West Coast I can understand your problem with the Feeds. It must be frustrating as all hell. Thank you for stopping by.
I'm sticking with the old terminology, too. And yes, "Articles for Me" worked well too. Then, I felt I could stay on top of all my connections....now I'm just floundering.
You know Gather should really hire you...you represent our interests far better then those they have on staff and have a knowledge of many sites. You could add so much to their discussions.
I have added comments to all the above articles that you cite. Would that Gather personnel would bother to do so, too.