Look around you. If you are at work, pop your head up above your cubicle for a moment. Study the faces of the people sitting just a few feet away. Consider, for a moment, who they are. Do you like these people? Do you admire them? Do you enjoy your time together? These are the people you spend your life with.
Now sit back down into your cube. Take a look at the last five emails you wrote. Glance at the ones you’ve just received. Review your inbound and outbound Tweets. Quietly reflect on your biggest project today. This is your work. This is what you are doing with your life. Does it matter to you? If you succeed in your work goals, are you proud of the change you have brought in the world? If you fail, does it matter to you at all (beyond the possibility of job loss)?
Sure, it sounds obvious when you think about it. But how often do we do we think about it? I realized a few years ago that I spend more of my waking hours with the people that I work with than my mate, my family, or my friends. I devote far more of my time to the work I do than to the living it enables. And knowing that, I became aware that my personal happiness depends, in part, on the people that I work with every day and the work that we do together.
This year, I have been thinking a lot about how I live my life. Perhaps it was the shock of American consumerism running full tilt into a wall that made me pensive. Maybe it’s the realization that I’ll be 40 in 16 months. No doubt one contributor was the end of a relationship that mattered to me. But whatever the trigger, I have been spending a lot of my time thinking about what it means to live an authentic life. There are big benefits to doing it. I find it remarkably hard to do.
Over the past few months, these two themes began to congeal in my mind. Four years ago, I started my second company (Gather). Six months ago, I realized I wasn’t sure what we are doing here. Don’t get me wrong, I knew the strategy we had developed. I had memorized the elevator pitch. I could explain it to investors. I could share how it helped Gather’s marketing partners. But I wasn’t sure why it mattered to people. And even if I figured that out, I wasn’t confident that it would matter to me.
I was frightened by that (particularly because I have invested a lot here, as have family and friends that believe in me, who I imagined are equally frightened having read that last line). But I am committed to leading an authentic life, so I put those fears aside and set out on a bit of a personal journey. I wanted to understand what it meant to build an authentic company. And once I did, I planned to figure out whether this company could be just that.
Part I. What’s an Authentic Company Look Like?
In May, we assembled at the University Club, tucked just off of Copley Square, under the shadow of the Hancock Building in Boston. The dark mahogany walls were adorned with framed newspaper articles and photographs of oarsmen and squash champions, with simple smiles that betrayed their innocence. “What,” I wondered silently, “would people frame in ten years, when the newspapers are gone?”
The Gather senior team and I had come together on that particular morning to do strategic planning for the year to come. We were on the cusp of closing new financing and it had been over a year since we sat down to do big thinking. Our last strategic plan had spawned product and marketing plans that were now coming to completion. We had made progress on our financial and growth goals, sometimes exceeding and sometimes not achieving our goals. The team was anxious to figure out how to put down the accelerator. I wasn’t sure exactly where we were going.
I entered the room with the two, basic questions. They made me sound surprisingly like Admiral Stockdale in the 1992 Vice Presidential debate when I uttered them. “Who are we and why are we here?”
Stockdale’s questions may have been rhetorical. Mine were not.
We had, over the course of the past three years, built a social platform different from that of Facebook and Myspace. Facebook, for example, is terrific at keeping you in touch with the people you already know. Gather’s social conversation platform connects people, often strangers, around shared interests. But does that matter? What does it do for people? Why do they care?
As the conversation moved through the room, I began to actively consider how “living an authentic life” should change my work. How should who I am affect the company I am building and the work I do? How does it determine whom I work with and whether we find our time together and the work we do to be personally rewarding. How would it change how we work at Gather (or whether Gather is the right place for us to work at all. In short, I began to wonder how to build an authentic company, that would line-up with my living an authentic life.
As we were talking, I started to sketch-out that thinking, and came up with these ground rules for our discussion:
1) Find a problem that matters to you
2) Make sure it’s a problem that affects a lot of people, or powerfully affects a smaller group of people
3) Hire a team of people who care about the same thing
4) Create an environment where team members can be themselves and bring their own solutions to the table
5) Build a solution that genuinely helps solve that problem
6) Talk about it honestly with the world, and explain to them why you are proud of what you do.
Part II. What’s our problem? (no…seriously): Gather’s Authentic Purpose
Admittedly, we were answering these questions a bit late. About 1.3M people come to Gather each month. On average, an active member comes here more than 8 times in 30 days and spends over 21 minutes/visit. So our members are finding value here, but coming into this conversation we didn’t grasp what that value was.
What problem do we solve? Our marketing and technology teams had examined the question with different approaches. Our marketing team surveyed a couple thousand members with open-ended questions, inquiring why they came to Gather, how they use the site, and what they find most valuable about the experience. Instead of guiding responses with multiple-choice answers, we asked our members to share their thoughts, then we grouped them by hand into buckets, so we could estimate how important each bucket was. We also evaluated the specific responses in each bucket to make sure that we thought we understood what our members had responded and had grouped them accurately.
Our technology team compiled data from member registration forms and profile data. We looked at how members responded when asked what they were looking for on Gather. They grouped answers by common words and created a list of the results that was easy to scan.
They presented their data and we found that, overwhelmingly, people come to Gather to make new friends. There were variations on the theme, of course. Some people come to Gather to make friends who love to do the same things they do. Some came to discuss the things they think are fascinating or important (where their current friends do not). Some came in search of people who share some life experience. Others come for counsel, advice from those more experienced, or comfort. And some came to express themselves creatively, in search of an audience who would appreciate, or help critique and improve, their work.
But what, then, was the specific problem that people had? “I want more/other friends,” didn’t sound like a problem. When people want food, their problem is that they are hungry. For about an hour, we poured through the data and tried phrasing things differently, but each answer felt like another step in an elaborate dance around the truth.
Finally, as the conversation slowed and we sat frustrated together, one brave member of our team finally spoke-up and said, “Why are we afraid to just say it? Why are we afraid of the word? Look, I’ll say it. People are lonely. Lots and lots of people are lonely. These aren’t losers or whacked-out people. They are the people we pass on the street and in the grocery stores everyday. Heck, I have been lonely myself in the last year and I bet a lot of others here have been too. That’s the ‘problem’ people have. That’s the one we help solve.”
It was a watershed moment for our group and for the company. It was a watershed moment for me as well. Her answer resonated with everyone at the table. The fact that we had been uncomfortable to use, or even consider, the answer showed just how real a problem it is. And how personal. It’s one we don’t like to talk about. But companionship is fundamental need for people and the drive to find companionship is intense. But many of us are shy when it comes to meeting new people, and it's often hard to find people that are interested in the same things that we like (whether those interests are parenting, poetry, or Paris).
We talked through the afternoon about this problem, and our discomfort with using the word because of the social stigma attached. But by the end of the day, we knew that this is the real problem we solve: we fix lonely.
Part III. Envisioning a Solution: We make it easy for people to make new friends.
That afternoon changed us. We left that room knowing who we are as a company. We knew what problem we solved for people, we knew why it mattered, and we discovered that it mattered to us, too. We validated our conclusions with the community. We found members writing things like:
- I don't think I could leave Gather. I'd rather gather than watch tv...In fact, I think it's my husband's TV habit that pushed me further into Gathering. But now, it's the like-minded friends I've found who are working on their writing, communication, and creative skills that keeps me here. Gather friends have become real life friends for me. We choose each other. -Janny H.
- You're so right that when life gets touch, you need all the support you can get. When my mother-in-law passed away in June, I was a mess. It was my many firends that got me through the day with a friendly word, or a prayer. Without my Gather friends, I am not sure I would have made it through such a tough time. - Angela A.
- In three days, I will celebrate my second full year here on Gather. I love the people I chat with, the folks I have met in real0time, the cool fiction stories, and the heart tugging real stories that we all share here. - Penni D.
Perhaps most powerfully, when we recently lost one of our own members, her husband reached out to tell the friends she had made explaining “she had made some of her best friends on Gather and she would want them to know.” How extraordinary it feels to know that when we do our job well, we make people happier by introducing them to others they come to care about.
We found, to our surprise, that tens of millions of people in this country alone (and millions more around the world) have felt lonely at some point in the past year. And some groups are affected disproportionately. In our Gather Moms survey (download a copy here), 58% of Moms reported feeling isolated or alone. So as we consider building a meaningful authentic company, we discovered that we have a large addressable market.
As we continued the conversation in the days that followed, we realized that Gather is different from other services like Facebook (which does a terrific job of keeping you in touch with people you already know, but does not allow you to meet new people). Gather is different. We connect people around shared interests, and allow them to make new friends. And the conversations here, started by thousands of people every day, form easy icebreakers for people who have not met yet.
Part IV. Making it Real
Now the hard part begins. We have identified the problem we address in the market and the solution we provide. We were, I believe, very fortunate to find that we care about this problem and are proud to be able to solve it. To make the solution real, we must:
2) Learn more about the marketplace, so we can understand who would benefit most from being a Gather member.
3) Communicate about Gather in a way that is consistent with our understanding. Describe how we bring people together, the friendships they form, and help people understand how real those friendships become, online and off.
4) Design and create new technology and services that make it easier for people to make new friends. How can we help them discover Gatherers that they might find interesting? How can we make it easier/less risky for them to join in conversation with them?
5) Build our incentive programs (Gather Points) so that it encourages behaviors that align with the problem we have identified and help solve that problem. In recent months, for example, we changed our points program to focus on “experience creation.” We want to reward people who share things on Gather that engage other people and allow them to connect and share their lives.
6) “Monetize” the business, or make the money we need to make to pay our team, share our success with member as points, cover other expenses (like hosting our servers and paying our office rent), and provide a reasonable return to our investors
7) Stay constantly aware of who we are, what value we create, why it matters, and to whom, and use these as guiding principles in our business.
Part V. Telling the Proud Truth
I was excited, when we were done, to discover that Gather creates real value for people: we help them make new friends and enjoy the new friends they meet here. And I was personally relieved to find that the value we create matters to me personally. These are key ingredients to building an authentic company.
One of the greatest benefits to having an authentic company, is that it helps me lead the authentic life I want to lead. I can tell the truth about what we do here, proudly. In fact, I like telling the Gather story now. I feel good when we do.
One of the other great things about having an authentic company is that it is easier to market, especially in a socially connected world. Where marketing has occasionally felt disingenuous to me, like I was trying to con someone into trying a product or service, I now feel like I am creating value when I introduce Gather and our terrific community. I feel like each time I explain what we do, I increase the potential for happiness in the world. And that, I believe, lets us tell the world about Gather in entirely different ways. I’ll share more on that another time.
In the meantime, I am pleased to report that when I stand up from my desk and look around me, I do genuinely like the people I see. When I look at the work on my laptop screen or piled high on my desk, I find it important and rewarding. And I am convinced that when we do our job well, we make the world a better place. All of these things make me feel lucky to do the work I do.
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Comments: 179
The idea behind what this site was supposed to be in the early days was brilliant. Had this been adhered to, things could have been different and an empire could have been built.
Now, how do you get it back? Certainly not by ignoring the voices of those who once really loved this site.
I know there are a core group of members who have been unhappy with a number of the site changes that we have made. I mentioned to some of them (on a private article one of them published) that we are actually making some changes that we believe will appeal to the writers on the site. I hope these updates might help address some of the challenges you refer to above.
Additionally, I am going to be spending a lot more time talking with members going forward, personally. I look forward to that dialog and hope it will help us respond to member concerns more rapidly. That said, we know we have a diverse community with lots of needs so part of my job will be setting rational expectations, too.
In any case, I am glad you are here and took time to respond. I hope we'll do a better job of meeting your expectations in the future.
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That's what all of your regular's on Gather do too. They just don't get the point bonus that they use too.. =)
I think we differentiate in two ways:
1) Allowing people to make new friends around shared interest. While Facebook is excellent at connecting existing friends, it's hard to meet new people there. And while Twitter lets you survey broad topical areas, I am not sure people develop real connection like they do on Gather. Our challenge (one we hope to address better with an update next week), is to allow people to find others that share their interests more easily. I would love your feedback once we launch our technology preview next Tuesday.
2) As you suggest, quality. We need to bring high quality contributors to Gather and encourage the ones we have. We also need to develop systems that identify quality more easily (a tough nut to crack algorithmically, but we have some good ideas using a technology we call PeopleRank). I'd love your suggestions here, as well.
Thanks again for stopping by, Casey. I look forward to continuing the conversation.
I didn't come here because I was lonely. I actually forgot I joined for about a year. I have met some talented people here since I became more active last summer. I've met some excellent people.
My impression was that this site was for those who took writing and art seriously. I was also under the impression this was a place for digital immigrants and not digital natives. Then I started seeing a bunch of one line bullcrap and learned the term "point whoring." I was attacked by an insect who went off her meds one week. I've been called nasty names by Christians. I've seen racism and disrespect to others' beliefs supported by this site by allowing such a group to openly display images that qualify as hate speech.
I don't get that much crap in real life.
I started to think that perhaps this was a grand social experiment to see how many clown shoes a centipede can wear.
Thanks for calling out an important point. I don't mean to say that "lonely" is the only driver. We know that people will come here to connect with others that share their interests. We know many will look to commune with others that will want to explore the same parts of the world they do. I am glad you found other talented writers here, we have been fortunate to have many here on Gather.
I think people that meet on Gather will connect in a lot of places, facebook being one. We have members that meet in cafes. We have members that connect on Twitter. Gather will be one of those places, increasingly integrated with the others, where we hope they will share and continue to meet other people that interest them.
We are working to improve topical organization of the site so writers can find writers, gardeners other gardeners, those that love jazz can find jazz performers, and so on. I hope that will permit more of the beneficial connection you were seeking and less of the noise. I'd be interested on your feedback on the interface we launch in a test mode on Tuesday of next week.
We'll take one step back for every two forward, I am afraid. It's the nature of creating a new experience. I believe we will take some terrific steps forward this year, though, and hope you will give us your thoughts on the coming updates.
In addition, there are some rules of which many of us have heard but none have ever seen applied. When someone flags others' articles out of sheer spite, nothing happens. While I know that this is a click-driven site, and allowing people to remain here for the purpose of generating more clicks is probably a business decision, you should understand that other sites manage to apply rules and are thriving. I don't see a thriving community here. I see people leaving and only a few interesting souls left amid a sea of deviant, hostile behavior, which seems to be encouraged.
Another good idea would be actually listening to what members want instead of adding features about which no one seems to care and which don't seem to work. How many people have asked repeatedly for a solution to the disappearing comments and the appalling tendency of Gather to eat posts when you click "publish?" How many times have people asked for a comment editor? If you don't give people the features they want, they'll find sites that do -- and we have.
To protect member privacy, we do not discuss conversations we have with one member with others. We do not discuss actions we take that reprimand, restrict or remove a member with others. It is often, therefore, not apparent when we have or have not taken action. Sometimes members do not report actions we have taken accurately to the community.
We maintain, however, that we would rather suffer in the court of public opinion by not discussing this information than violate member privacy by doing so. While this may foster the appearance that we do not act with an even hand, it is part of our company values that we do so, we train for that, and we strive for that every day.
I have to agree with Kris about the folks who are allowed to violate the TOS. There are people who have nothing to do but stir crap and then scream foul when the recipe is served back to them.
As Kris mentioned, the uneven application of rules is a real morale killer. It's not that we're all rule crazy, it's that if there are rules, they need to be applied evenly. If that means someone will have to do a little research when a flag pops up, then someone is assured of job security.
The person who flags should be held accountable and be required to explain why the flag was raised. Get rid of the ratings and just put a thumbs up so if a person likes something but doesn't have a comment, he can leave a bit of encouraging feed back. No one uses the rating thing anyway. They either leave a 10 or a 1. It's not helpful to anyone looking for constructive feedback.
Another thing I miss is the chance to review books. In a short span of time, I got to review 3 books. All of them were quite good. I was encouraged to read again because there was a purpose. Still love the pigeon book...
And to address another point Kris made- I think people figured out how I felt about that Manny character. I don't understand why that was even considered, as I don't understand the reason for turning this site into a lonely moms club. Women with kids need to break away from the mommy thing once in awhile. If they feel compelled to discuss kid stuff, there are a bunch of sites they can do that.
Bring on Tuesday.
It is not a violation of privacy to enforce terms of service for all, but it is an insult to those members who are actually asked to remain within the bounds of the terms when you allow others to step outside them on a fairly regular basis.
I think, with this behavior in mind, there is little question of why so many people are leaving. And while their accounts remain intact to be counted, this is something the community has noticed. It is management's job to notice this as well.
As I mentioned above, it is hard, when hearing things second hand from only some of those involved, to have a complete picture on how a dispute has unfolded. People will soften their own role in a dispute when describing it to friends and heighten the offenses of others (sometimes unintentionally, sometimes not). They will often take comments out of context when sharing them to increase emotion around them.
When we decide we need to get involved in member disputes, we often get a more complete picture than those close to anyone involved in the dispute might have. We learn things that are not obvious to members of the community. And then we do our best to apply our TOS fairly.
We do not, however, set out to correct misconceptions that might exist among those involved or their friends. We could not do so without revealing private member data. In other words, we cannot explain our decisions or actions without compromising member privacy. And this often makes it seem like our TOS are being applied unfairly, even when they are not.
You are raising an interesting issue, though. The perception of fairness is important in any community. Perhaps we need to consider alternative dispute resolution methods. Perhaps we need to consider alternatives that allow for greater transparency.
I think this is a very big topic and one I would like to revisit with you and other members of the community. We probably ought to have it in the context of having a discussion around how to have good discussion (related to some of the comments here on politics). I'll set-up a separate thread on that topic shortly as well.
On this point, you fail miserably.
When the KKK started it's own chapter here and put up a racially demeaning banner depicting our President and First Lady, two people they openly hate, that was WRONG and they had to remove it.
But when they switched it to a banner that insults, misinterprets, and is disrespectful to a minority belief system (as well as Christians), that is okay. I don't know if it's because many people complained about the first one and I was perhaps the only one who complained about the second one or what.
That such a group is permitted on this site is devaluing to the site.
The community is an opportunity to reach a new universe of intellectuals not found in their immediate neighborhood.
That said, our creatives form the life on Gather. The 10% of people who contribute regularly and get involved in discussions create the experience for the other 90%. And we need to nurture both groups of people to grow a thriving community.
i joined originally to be notified of art shows and then forgot about it for over a year until a friend told me i could make some money. now i'm not making much money and finding less people i have things in common with, so i don't see much sense in spending the majority of my days here anymore.
it's a shame that the place i used to be so eager to log into is now one of the last sites i want to spend my time at.
so now that the people i find most interesting, the very ones who were the reason i came to gather are no longer going to be here, that pretty much leaves me with C&P and "oh poor me" articles and bad photography.
but it will be interesting i'm sure to see what you come up with to make it different.
CC - check out Lisa's C.'s photos. She does some spectacular work.
In all candor, we haven't invested in this area because they don't provide real security. The disablers are effective at stopping the most basic form of image saving (enabled by the browser), but if someone wants an image on the web, they can save it pretty easily even when one is present. Anyone who has an image capture program (there are many, available free) can grab an image from sites that use disablers.
I would be happy to chat further about this and other alternatives however and do want to serve our creative community well. And I will pass the desire for better IP protection to our product team as well. Thanks again.
Sorry to say I am one of them. Gather no longer works for me.
Our groups are moderated (both in membership and content) by the group owner and anyone that owner designates as a group administrator. Do you know why someone was permitted to exhibit negative behavior? Why weren't they removed from the group?
Grems.
Way to much Obama hate and just plain lies now.
What do you think? How do we move from spin to thoughtful dialog? How (as a nation or as Gatherers) do we learn to listen and talk in a genuine way, rather than one programmed by special interests on either side of the aisle?
I am impressed you are actually listening though.
Thanks.
I remember standing at a protest myself years ago. The two sides of an emotional issue came together, chanting and screaming just feet apart. I realized after 30 minutes that I had been standing not 3 feet from a minister, across a rope line, shouting near him (at him?), and had no idea who he was or why he was there.
I stopped myself. I calmed myself. I reached over the rope line (causing the police to rush over) and offered him my hand. I introduced myself and told him I felt foolish for chanting without understanding. And I asked why he was there.
We talked for the balance of the afternoon. I met people he had brought to the protest and introduced some of the people with me. I heard their thoughts and, with more patience than I expected, they listened to mine. I am not sure either of us left persuaded by the other viewpoint, but we both understood it. And I have reflected on his thoughts and background since, bringing me greater understanding of the debate.
So my question, I suppose, boils down to this: how do we stop thinking of others as "hateful Christians" as we yell near one another, and really engage in patient, thoughtful dialog. How do we change the debate in our democracy?
There are some people I respect but I no longer comment on their articles because of the vicious attacks.
If people block views to friends only, then someone who may be trying to form an opinion on a subject misses out. It blocks one from meeting people and making new friends.
I believe what truly made me not want to engage politically here any longer was the formation and site acceptance of the KKK group.
You had a good thing going and screwed it up.
But all joking aside, I am not sure what you mean when you say that the "fundies" own it now. We have a pretty diverse group of contributors on the site, some conservative and some progressive. I believe that having diverse perspectives represented here (and represented well, by thoughtful people) benefits us all. Do you think we are trending too heavily in one direction?
Thanks, Sharon.
There are people on here who only write questions and whoa is me articles. The quality of the content shows through with the number of functional illiterates I see here.
I came here to write and meet and interact with other writers. I've met some of the most talented, intelligent people on the internet and they've finally thrown in the towel on this place.
I really mean it when I say I miss the old gather.
There are a lot of people here who have taken the crap and not tattled or deleted comments because they're grown and can tolerate it, but I'm thinking they're just tired of being tolerate so they leave.
Seriously, Tom. Check into those alliegations. (The group desolved before the "incident." The incident merely made them galvenize back to shift blame. I know, I was one of three for that whopping group, and another member not accounted for much at the end was the person "leading" the group.) According to TOS, even now this post deserves a TOS Warning or two or three or more. Kinda why we're all waiting for those promises - still! What you're getting here is exactly why most people are really leaving. Notice, they claim their group is leaving, and yet, here they all are.
Unfortunately, as others have pointed out, the site is basically overrun by fundies and point wh*r*s these days.
I find myself spending more time on Facebook and Twitter than I do on Gather. Sure, I still come here, but that is mostly to keep in touch with a few people that aren't on my other sites.
There is very little incentive to post quality writing on here. Why bring your "A" game when most people are bringing their "D-"? Especially true when the "D-" gets the A+ level rewards while the "A"s often end up with D- level rewards.
As I mention above, I would be grateful for your thoughts on our upcoming release. I think it will help the more serious writers on Gather to find one another and have ongoing, beneficial dialog.
As you may or may not have noticed, Tom, I seldom publish (oops..."post") anything of value here anymore. I still drop in to leave a comment or two or join in an amusing bit of repartee, but on the whole, this place has become a boring waste of time...and it sure as hell doesn't inspire me to put forth any creative effort whatsoever. I can do better at some of the two-cents-per-word sites writing garbage than I can here producing my best work.
It was nice while it lasted. Too bad it didn't last.
I've met a wonderful group of talented writers and artists that provide me with constant inspiration. The feedback I get here has helped me further my writing career and even gives me ideas for article and blog topics. Writing is isolated and Gather is like my virtual conference room or break room (depending on the mood). An unexpected bonus - I've made several wonderful friends.
I also see Gather is a place for lonely, ill or isolated people to relate. I think that's invaluable for those who cannot get out or socialize in other ways. Personal and professional connections are made here and it's all good.
Do you participate in writing groups for inspiration or is most of your interaction informal? I am excited to hear that you have made friends here as well!
Why are the intelligent, thoughtful, informed people leaving and the irrational ranters taking over Gather? Best think about it while there still is a Gather.
Those who refuse to do battle with the morons are ignored. We don't make the clicks happen.
In other words, bad conversation drives out good.
Have you noticed that when you publish, you can limit comments to only your friends? Have you tried that to see if it solves this problem? If that doesn't work, what else do you suggest we do?
What I do think there should be is some kind of process for removing or limiting the commenting ability of the handful of bad apples who hijack posts for the purpose of shutting down discussion or spreading obvious disinformation when it has a deleterious affect on the conversation - and when the offense is egregious and persistent (and the topic of some general interest).
I'd like to see those who perpetuate misinformation called to account. There should be some process whereby those of us who are affected by an individual in this way could make a complaint, and have it carefully investigated and considered. I promise you that if you were to ask all the people who post and comment on say, Climate Change, who the hijackers are, you would get the same name or names from the vast majority of us.
It isn't impossible or even that difficult to figure out who is writing thoughtful, informative articles and who is spreading misinformation.
Obviously, there are some issues that can't be dealt with this way. You'll never be able to arbitrate the question of whether or not Obama is a socialist, for example.
You could, however, determine who is spreading misinformation concerning vaccines because that's a matter of knowing the science (not much science) and watching to see who changes their position based on evidence. One characteristic of the kind of people I'd like to see gone (or at least gone from a given topic) is that they continue to pass on bad information even after it's been clearly shown to be bad.
Example: When we discuss vaccines, there are always a few folk who cry "Mercury!" and go on about the dangers of elemental mercury. Pointing out that the properties of a compound are very different from the properties of the element should return the debate to whether or not the compound actually in vaccines is dangerous. Instead, the same people will show up on the next article expounding on the dangers of elemental mercury all over again. If enough people bring this to the attention of an arbiter, then there should be a process for stopping this disinformation campaign. I doubt this would be much of a burden - after all, there are only a handful of hot topics that aren't subjective issue.
I mention vaccines specifically because this misinformation is going to get someone killed, and it's irresponsible to let it go unchecked.
So - a process for calling to account the spreaders of misinformation. Not a single complaint, but a general outcry about a given person on a given type of post. A process - a process with some teeth, please. Say, restrict the wrongdoer from commenting on that topic. If they persist, oust them.
And like the Supreme Court, you could decline to hear a case if there isn't a clear information/misinformation issue there.
This would make a difference, and do much to stop the Gather Brain Drain.
Then there's hate and hateful speech. New topic. New comment...(But not tonight!)
When confronted they attack and then the thread is no longer a discussion.
This is not the answer -- Sarah, Roy, Grems, I myself, and many others have asked for a better solution.
I don't care to limit comments to friends. I'd like to think I have a chance of interesting people I don't know every time I post an article. I think limiting comments to friends would imply that I'm a member of a clique and don't want to hear from people who aren't members.
All we've ever asked for is a way to eliminate certain individuals from the ability to view and/or comment on our articles. There are many of us here who feel that was counterproductive to the extra clicks that little battles generate for the site, so we've always been denied this, and just told to publish only to certain friend sets.
As a result, many of us have taken our clicks elsewhere.
Instead, we got pings.
I don't think anyone should be blocked unless they are shown to be irresponsible. You can block users now by creating a private group, so that option is already available.
In theory, you could create a private group on which to share your disinformation, but at least then you'd only be sharing it with the chorus, so to speak.
Gather is what we want it to be. It's actually not that hard to stimulate intelligent discourse. It takes discipline to not respond in kind while still calling people out for their dishonesty and lack of logic. There are times when I let my guard down, but if we all simply stopped responding to those who are dishonest or abusive, they would go away from lack of having their egos stroked. Or they would just talk to themselves ("sharing with the chorus" as Sarah says), which is what several people do now - except when others feel the need to extend the miscreants' reach by continuing to comment after it becomes merely a verbal dodgeball game. Those who have no credibility are well know to the others who frequent the topics being discussed, as are those of greater credibility. If we all insist on honest and respectful discussion, we will get honest and respectful discussion. But it takes discipline to keep from being pulled into the mud. Keep in mind that most of this relates to controversial topics like politics that tend to stir the passions.
For those who are writers and photographers, I believe Gather offers a strong and viable place to share work and get feedback. For those who use Gather to make and nurture friendships, I also believe it works very well.
So it comes down to us. We need to present our cases honestly and respectfully. We need to note when someone is being dishonest, but also not give them air space by continuing to respond to their lies. Eventually they will destroy credibility and end up just harmlessly talking to mirrors. Meanwhile, the rest of us can partake of stimulating and honest debates. Perhaps we can even start addressing real issues.
All it is is a different form of comment approval/denial or removal.
I wish I thought that kind of self-discipline was going to prevail. Unfortunately, after repeatedly being shouted down by the hecklers in the back row, few of us can continue to speak quietly and reasonably.
I would have it that we shouldn't have to. A serious public debate is not allowed to devolve into a shouting match because someone is in charge. Someone is responsible for booting the hecklers out the door. There is no one in charge on Gather, and I think that's a large part of the problem...
(The rest of the time I recall that well-behaved women seldom make history ;~)
Secondly, it's censorship, which isn't conducive to open and honest debate. Of course we're talking about those who abuse the openness by 1) not being honest in presenting facts, and 2) being verbally abusive (including racist, one-dimensional, etc.). We'll get partisanship even with honest debate, which of course is the beauty of this platform. Honest debate. We just need to direct it a bit.
So, how do we do that? I honestly don't know. But I find that keeping people honest helps. Only rarely do people get abusive on my posts, and when they do, I stop responding. For those who present their biased (and often uninformed) opinions but believe they are facts (even when they aren't), the only thing that can be done is to either 1) point out the errors, or 2) ask them to provide support for their contentions. Anything that cannot be supported with logic and facts falls by the wayside. Of course, anything dishonest has to be called out as dishonest. For those people who do that regularly I disconnect from them and generally don't comment on their posts.
The other thing that we can do, and something that I will try to do more of on my Political Futures group is write articles that provide the basic facts and actually moderate the discussion to keep it honest and civil. That takes a lot of time (which I'm very short of, as he reminds himself of his current deadline), but it is one way to stimulate real discussion while culling the hyperboly.
I try to follow David's policy of not giving negative attention. It's amazing how well simple child rearing stuff applies in interaction with supposed adults.
I don't think it's censorship to remove a heckler whose sole purpose is to derail the discussion - there are plenty of forums where not everyone gets to speak.
And one needn't ban someone forever unless they really couldn't behave responsibly. A week or two of being unable to comment on a topic is not that heavy a penalty - it's more of a wake up call. And what we want is for a few people to wake up and learn some manners.
Otherwise we relinquish the site to the lowest common denominator - which is what is happening now.
We introduce a set of groups – I’ll call them Hot Topics, (HT). There can be only one Hot Topic group per topic, and a member can only own one HT group at a time.
The group for say, Health Care Reform, is created. The owner, by creating the group, agrees to be the arbiter for responsible commenting on articles posted to that group.
The people who write articles agree that by posting them to the HT group that they are interested in serious discussion and will be called on misinformation provided within their article.
Those who comment on an article posted to an HT group agree that they will comment responsibly or face being banned for some period of time – two weeks seems a good deterrent.
The owner of the group (who has created the group because they are serious about the topic) receive any complaints re: commenters
Those who complain about a commenter agree that they will provide specific examples drawn directly from the comments, and will provide links to Snopes or whatever to back up their complaint. They will also take the time to explain the problem fully.
Tom gives the HT groups special status in that the owner can block an individual from commenting (and posting?), but otherwise has minimal involvement. He also makes sure there is only one HT group per topic. (Or someone does). He might also have to settle disputes involving owners who aren’t doing their jobs.
It would be good to have some way of explaining the system to new members.
This way the burden is borne by the people who are interested enough in the quality of the debate that they will do the extra work.
The rest of Gather goes on its merry way accepting all comments and living with the misinformation.
I also think the loneliness factor plays a large part in joining and appreciating Gather. It did for me anyway. I'm about 9 hours driving time away from the family and friends I was surrounded by my entire life. Also, as a stay-at-home mom it's hard to make new friends in a new area, but it's easy on Gather. There are others here who "get" me and the everyday struggles I face.
And I'm not one to complain about the content on Gather. I post what I want and read/view/rate what I want. It's not up to me to decide what others can and should post. For that matter, I like the variety that can be found here. I think that's a good thing. Differing views, differing opinions, good writers, bad writers, righties, lefties, etc. Why would we want everyone to be the same and post the same things? How "blah" that would be!
I recently began talking with a friend I made on Gather about important life choices she has made. Even though we have never met in person, I have come to trust and respect her a great deal. I thought that her decisions would help me counsel someone else I care about on their own. In hindsight, it's pretty amazing to me that I can have those conversations with someone I have never met in person.
I am really excited that Gather can provide a place where these Moms can connect, make friends, share their own interests, have a little time for themselves, and express themselves (creatively or otherwise). Watching my own Mom (who was heroic in the way she cared for us and the entire neighborhood) and my two sisters and sister-in-law who are amazing Moms as well, I marvel at the effort that goes into motherhood. Our team is really excited that Gather can provide a space where Moms can come together too for companionship.
Well, that's me waxing philosophical for the day. LOL
Sometimes, i think the two go hand in hand. The people I talk to casually about life often become friends over time. And the friends I have are the people I explore the world with. That happens offline and on here as well.
I would love your feedback on how we can do more there.
The fantastic thing about exploring the world together is that we meet new people, learn new things, and can be inspired in directions we didn't expect. The downside is that there are always people in the world who are angry or afraid or have low self esteem. They sometimes act on those negative feelings rather than seeking ways to resolve the core issues. And when they can hide behind online identities, they frequently act more harshly than they would in the real world.
We need to build better ways to allow members to avoid this kind of negativity. Perhaps we also need to coach exceptionally negative people about how to act in ways that might bring them greater happiness, rather than simply venting their unhappiness toward everyone they encounter. No doubt, we'd benefit from some of both.
I suspect we will need to try several options before we get it right, but we'll keep working on that.
I think perhaps a lot of the problem actually falls on us as gather members. You've given us tools to control who interacts in our groups, and how. You've given us tools to remove those who will not be civil in responding to our articles or limit their ability to post on them at all. We already have the ability to flag for comments that cross the line of attacking and abusing other members, which brings it to Gather's attention and allows staff to take care of it.
Yet, many of us don't use these tools, although we complain about the problems.
Perhaps we need to get over the expectation that someone should do this for us, take responsibility for what goes on in our groups and in the comments of our articles, and simply avoid commenting where they thrive on the kinds of debate we'd rather not participate in.
That doesn't answer the problems of cyber bullying and spamming, though, and I would like to see more done about that. In addition to your ideas about the exceptionally negative that you listed above, I might suggest better education for us all about what cyber bullying is and what to do if we find themselves the victim. In reading the site, I've seen many who feel they're being targeted but do not know who to report it to and how to document it (particularly when the bully deletes the comment to remove the proof of what they're doing). Attack articles where the poster knows how to walk just inside the line of TOS by not directly naming their victim while still holding them up for mockery and derision by giving just enough clues or sharing the name only in email are something else to consider whether more should be done about.
And I mention spam because I used to like to find new people to comment on and new articles by using the recently posted feed, but there are so many articles that are quickly-dumped bad advertising under throw-away accounts there when I look in the morning I've mostly given up on finding anything written by a person hoping to interact on the site. I tried flagging it when I first saw the worst of this spamming start, but it feels like trying to bail the ocean with a thimble.
I too came here to meet new friends - and discovered that I liked writing poetry (which I don't do nearly enough!) and read insightful articles on many different subjects - or even write them sometimes.
The points were never part of my motivation - in fact, it took about 6 months before I even discovered them!
And of course sites like FB have no points - and still have lots of folks who go there all the time. Most of my FB friends are folks I met right here on Gather, btw.
A recurring theme in this thread seems to be the unhappiness folks have with being exposed to comments by people who are rude/misinformed or really mean to others. Maybe we would all appreciate an "ignore" button: click on a username, click "ignore" and what that person comments or posts is no longer visible to you. If enough people do it to the same person, he/she would be "ignored" out of their detrimental behavior. I personally have always thought that the way to convince someone was by using truth - but there really are quite a few folks on Gather who are quite active and who spend their time attacking those who think differently from them.
That said I very much want to thank you for building and maintaining a platform for all of us to interact!
And yes, the questions you ask yourself about your life and work - were/are also my guidelines - and led directly to the work I do every day!
I really appreciate the perspective on the potential "ignore user" feature. There are days when I wish there were a similar real-life option. :-) I will be back to chat with the community more about alternatives in the future. I hope you will join us for the conversation.
I am glad you identified with the "authentic company" concept as well. From your profile, it sounds like you do really wonderful work. As an independent consultant, do you find yourself selecting work engagements based on similar principles? What do you do if there's a client that you don't find enriches your life?