Gather groups are about to get way easier to manage - and a whole lot more fun! In just a few days, Gather will unveil a major site enhancement focused on the Gather GroupsSM technology. At first, your groups might look pretty different. But the new default layout is actually very similar to the current group experience. There's just a lot more customization available now!
The big wins here for group members and creators alike are creativity and choice. There will be tons of options for group creators, moderators, and members to have the most unique group experiences. And we're pleased to point out that many of these new options were originally suggested by Gather members.
Excited? Read on to take a closer look at some of the new features. And keep in mind that most of these features are totally optional. It's up to each group owner to decide which modules to use and feature in each group space.
Group Search
You'll soon see a search box on the front page of each Gather group. This search lets members and visitors search only the content and people within that group. The Gather search box (in the top right-hand corner of the page) will still search the entire site. Below, you can see the main Gather search box at the top of the screen, and the Gather Politics group seach box below the group navigation.
Group Tags
Group owners can include a descriptive list of up to 100 tags to help visitors browse the group's content. 20 group tags will show up in the Group Tags module. Visitors will be able to see the related content by clicking the tag.
Popular Tags
As content is added to a group, the popular tags module (which displays as a tag cloud) will grow and change. The larger the font represents the more popular content associated with that group tag. Up to 20 tags can appear in the popular tags module. To view the related content, visitors just need to click on a tag.
Inbound RSS
Group owners will be able to syndicate content from other sites via inbound RSS feeds. External RSS URL's are required. Below, an example using an RSS feed from the PBS.org website.
Multiple Group HTML Modules
Gather will allow group owners to enable up to three rich HTML modules on each group homepage. These HTML modules will give group owners creativity and freedom when it comes to customizing their group homepages.
Group Conversation Space
Group members can soon leave comments for the entire group in the Conversation Space. This space is perfect for live chats, topical discussions, Q&A, and open chat. The group owner will decide if group comments appear immediately, or if they're subject to review. Group comments will be visible on all public and semi-private groups, but only group members can participate in the Conversation Space.
Group Stats
This module shows the number of group members, as well as the number of posts, photos, videos, and content comments added to the group in the last 7 days.
Group Archives
This module lets users click on a past month to see all group content shared in that time period. It's especially useful for blogs and indexing content. Up to 12 months may appear.
Group Links
Group owners can share up to 50 links to their favorite groups, member profiles, or external sites. The first 8 links will appear on the group homepage and visitors can click through to see the entire list.
Customizable Group Appearance
Group owners will be able to customize the look & feel of their groups in a variety of ways. Most modules discussed today (plus the standards you're used to seeing, such as featured posts, recent posts, group members, recent photos, etc...) can be moved around the page. So, if your group is about photography, you'll be able to feature photos at the top of the page! Same goes for video or posts. You can also feature the Group Conversation Space or RSS Feed. And all features are optional, so if the group owner doesn't want it, he or she can leave it out.
Group owners can also select a color theme for their groups. The selected theme will apply to the group navigation, homepage, and subpages, as well as the group tagspaces and search results.
Group owners can even upload a .jpg, .gif, or .png image (up to 300 pixels wide) to be tiled into the background of their groups. The custom background will replace the default background associated with the selected theme.
As you can see, lots of exciting changes are on the way! We hope you're as thrilled as we are to have so much flexibility to create and enjoy Gather's unique group experiences.
rate
email
print
link to this page
Comments: 87
The new "share to this group" option allows people who are not Gather-savvy to share their thoughts more easily than ever before. It's a nice way for new members to begin participating on the site. And it will make Gather groups more active places for everyone involved.
I can see a whole lot of good things coming out of this upgrade.
Mark
I will be there and it does look like some good things.
Regardless, I'm happy to see a new look and feel.
I can see a whole lot of good things coming out of this upgrade.
Hopefully the best is yet to come though, so will there be a part 2 to your overview?
Thanks!
I can address your question regarding view counts on content. The view count you see along side content doesn't update in real time. Unique views update often, but if you are the first to view a piece of content it can show "0" views while you are looking at it. If you refresh your screen the view count will then show your visit to the content.
There is nothing you need to do to make sure your view is counted.
I hope that answers your question!
g'hod b'ess their pointy liddl heads.
I also only join groups that moderate content. I find the experiences in moderated groups to be much more rewarding than those without. By selecting the groups I join carefully, I improve my overall experience on Gather. I also figure it's my way of voting with my feet: I'll go only to places where group owners nurture a useful experience. If we all do that, over time, there will be an increasing incentive to create unique, useful experiences in groups.
You will now be able to search and sort group members, as well as group content.
- Create buttons that link to other, related websites they may own/operate
- Post formatted/stylized text as announcements or information at the top of a group
- Include videos they find on YouTube and other trusted sites on the group homepage
- Customize their group experience with widgets like games, stock tickers, weather, a dictionary, a clock, or other items to the group (we will permit this only with widgets written in flash from certain trusted partners... stay tuned for more info on this topic after we launch)
In short, these "Rich HTML" modules give group owners the flexibility to customize their spaces in ways we haven't thought about or to leverage the creativity they find in other parts of the web here.
Tom I have a question about this. So if a person posts to the group from the group home page does that mean if you are connected to the person you will not be able to see the post in your feeds since it was posted to the group?
This new posting option is just a convenient way to add content to a group without having to figure out how to target it there. We hope this will make it easier for new members to participate.
Maybe it'll even get recognition elsewhere on the internet, like my Pictures of Towels group.
Tom, you mentioned that you have created some groups. I am curious - which groups do you yourself moderate? I might want to take a look.
Currently, improve.gather.com is my biggest public group. I have run several others over the years but retired them once they had served their purpose.
I also run a number of private groups. I started two groups for my family (one for my immediate family and one for my extended family). I run a group for members of the Gather team where everyone in the company shares company and industry information (it's much more useful than most intranet sites are). I also run one for several friends that travel a lot together so that we can plan future trips and share photos of past trips in one place.
Interesting changes!
I still have only 8 members in my group, Chuck's Pub and Grill, is the invite feature changed in any way?
We have made significant improvements to the invitation system in the upcoming release. First, we now allow you to invite people using your address book from other sites. That means you don't have to hand enter the names of everyone you want to join your group. Second, the new invite system brings them directly to a page where they can join your group and Gather (if they are not already a member) at the same time. This means that people new to Gather won't have to join Gather and then go hunting for your group afterward. Third, once they do join, instead of sending them over to their "My Gather" page, we let them experience your group immediately, so they have familiar surroundings.
I wonder how many bugs this one will introduce.
Since 98% of the groups are full of email forwards and other junk, I don't see the point.
I love the idea for private groups. I've suggested that families - as you indicated - and high school classes were class members cannot afford a paid membership in classmates.com or reunion.com should consider private groups here.
But maybe when the new updates come through I ll see if it is something I can deal with.
Thanks for the update
I agree, and after spending some time resigning from groups that don't moderate and are filled with unrelated content, I find I enjoy using the 'groups' tab on my feed more.
I would also like to remind people that when they post to many groups that are not related, they are inviting people who do not share interests to meet on their thread. Sometimes that doesn't work out so well.
However, to me the biggest problem with the group system is the time it takes to select multiple groups to post to. We still really need a way to organize your groups into sets for posting purposes so that, for example, you can click once to select all the poetry groups you belong to or whatever.
Selecting groups is still the slowest part of posting, and it's a real chore. Any hope of addressing this anytime soon?
Based upon the available information so far, it does not appear that Gather has made any changes beyond the scope of the group itself. Therefore, you likely will NOT be able to 'group' groups when publishing, or find groups easier than you can today.
*fingers crossing*
also agree with others above that there needs to be another way to add groups more efficiently when uploading....very time consuming to add one by one...
Thanks for the head's up!
cheers,gayle