After much consideration, discussion and dialogue, we at Gather have made the difficult decision to end the Gather Guide program.
We would once again like to thank the founding Gather Guides for their helpfulness, creativity, and contribution to the site. It's a tribute to the original Guides that nearly 100 members applied to be part of the next class of the Guide program.
When the Gather Guides were first introduced last summer, their goal was simple; welcome new members to the site and answer general questions related to Gather. We still strongly believe a positive new member experience is crucial to keeping new members excited and engaged. However, in the weeks to come, Gather will be introducing several site upgrades that will address this objective with the help of technology.
In just a couple weeks, Gather will introduce dramatic improvements to the way members connect with friends and navigate the site. This upgrade will go miles in helping all users create a more personal, customized, and intuitive experience. You will be able to organize your friends into sets you determine and create, you will have more control over who gets to see your content, and Gather will radically simplify the process in which new members are introduced to the site.
Although technology makes our lives easier, we realize nothing takes the place of good, old-fashioned, human interaction. We are warmed by the fact that Gather has grown into a well-functioning community where people look out for each other, giving advice, help, and feedback whenever it is needed. By eliminating the structured Gather Guide program, we hope people will feel empowered to come forward and help their fellow Gatherers.
We look forward to keeping you informed about Gather's next great improvements in the days and weeks to come.
recommend this
email
print
link to this page
Comments: 129
I have to say that those words strike fear in my heart. What next? I didn't care for the emphasis on the search program to find similarities. I didn't care for the expanded profile and opted out of that. Whenever there is an "upgrade", it means many glitches and problems.
I think the original guides did a great job. I'm a little surprised after all the promotion, that the program is being dropped.
Now that you have to go to the 2nd page of their profile to find out their start date, I don't bother with that anymore.
I should clarify. A huge part of the upcoming release is the ability for members to have MUCH more control over their privacy and security across the site. It's what Gatherers have been asking for, and we are listening.
Also - the member's joining date WILL return to the front page of the profile.
More control over security and privacy sounds good. Will have to see what develops.
Trudy P - Just a reminder that Gather already has functionality that allows you to "turn off" ratings on any of your content before you publish. That would eliminate those drive by low scores.
Technology can't replace that.
What about the email...I haven't figured out a way to separate my messages. Can you explain a bit more?
As for the gather guides, I'm not sure what they did because I don't remember being in contact with a guide. I just started December 24, 2007. Was someone supposed to contact me or something? Sorry, I'm new and confused.
I look forward to the new gather programming.
I am sorry to see the guides program shelved (I assume you have valid reasons) but given the nature of the culture forming here, I wouldn't be surprised to see such a function spring to life again organically, or self-organizing-ly or whatever the proper term is.
Keep up the good work.
I am sadden to hear of the discontinuation of the Gather Guides, but I guess you have your reasons.
Look forward to actually seeing what the new improvements will be like!
Im looking forward to being able to separate contacts better!
Do you know if they are going to make it easier to add and delete friends and groups??
I'm don't know which saddens me more, the discontinuance of the Guide program or my not being a Guide any longer. I only hope that my fellow members know I along with my fellow founding Guides are always here to help you all and only an e-mail away.
VERY SAD!!!
That said, I am really looking forward to seeing the new upgrades and changes.
What will the newbies do? Hopefully, they can read and will do what any intelligent person does. Click on all the links that explains things in detail, from the "Learn More" link on the homepage, to the "Help" link in the corner that leads to the FAQ, to the "Article Publishing Tips" and "Image Publishing Tips" on the right side of every publishing page. Really-it's not that difficult.
Failing that, they can always ask a question in an article or in comments. There are many helpful Gather members here.
I hope that you don't get too technical on us, as part of the fun is trying to navigate the site. (Just kidding!) Anyway, I hope my Gather connections stay connected to me and I hope to hear from the ex-Guides once in a while.
I loved being a guide. I loved helping others in the community and meeting so many new people. I loved the team with which I worked and the gather staff that we interacted with on a regular basis. For the most part I love the gather community and am saddened that the official program that we all poured so much into is coming to an end.
That being said though, I'm excited that as a team the founding gather guides will still be working to better serve the community through our new program, and hope you will all, community and staff alike, continue to show us such outstanding support. As guides, we did what we did on a voluntary basis, so carrying on without the official gather guide border isn't going to be that big a change. We did our guide duties because it gave us joy to do so---before, during and now after.
That being said, it is what it is....I enjoy Gather and my connections....so I will carry on, but I still do wonder!
I'm heading for my bunker.
I'll see some of you when the smoke clears. Let us pray.
I find myself posting less and less. Who knows, it may be time for me to stay at my other on-line homes.
Why don't you let the Gather Community decide if they like the Guide program or not?
I mean, what could it "hurt" to have a functioning Guide Group?
Has anyone ever heard negative reviews on any Guide??
If Gather cancels the Guide program I predict there will be a few "unofficial gather guide" groups popping up. ;o)
Hey, there are a lot of people on Gather who just like to help. Wouldn't it be nice if they all belonged to the same group so it would be easy to find one one when you need them? Maybe a "Today's Helpline" article...
It could work, I tell you. *lol*
I would like to have been a guide. Too bad I cannot be one. Oh, well.
thanks for the article... i'm sorry for all the gather guides.....
(Yeah... right.)
Kathy- I, too, will miss the guides but many communities do not have them. If you ask a question,I think you may find that Gather members will try to help. Just as an example, when I was about to tear my hair out with a homework issue, I posted a question on Gather and had the answer in record time.
Granted, that may not be the norm but people around here are willing to help, based on my experience. The guides will be missed, of course, all those familiar faces! It was always reassuring to be able to contact one in a pinch :)
I do think communities evolve, though, for whatever reasons.
Looking forward to seeing what the changes are!
--L
The reason I choose Gather was the Guides. Why do you go to one store over another? The feeling you get there. The old Guides provided Customer Service. Now, service will be a button.
Having read and studied all of the above comments, I have to agree with so many of them. Here are some of my random thoughts:
I, too hope Gather does not evolve into another MySpace. If we wanted that, we would have gone there.
The personal interaction and the feeling of community can not be replaced by "click here".
We are a rather large family, and families don't throw the past generation to make room.
Many of us are boomers and need the interaction to figure things out.
Was consideration given to the number of members that will disappear?
There are a lot of members I haven't seen for awhile.
I love my Guides.
I love the site, loved the guides and feel so bad for all those who applied for the position to have it shelved is an insult to their time and energy.This comment from above to me says it best
"WOW...I think some forsight on Gather's part would have been nice. Why bother taking applications and getting peopl all excited until you knew for sure what you were going to do? I really don't understand that at all....."
now we must once again batten down the hatches for the new upgrades.
Change happens
Heres hoping!!!!
I for one think this kind of intermediary group, no matter the technology, is very important. It keeps access to the community real. As it is, access on resolving problems is not easy. Many disruptive elements thrive. Many messages to support@gather.com go unanswered. Real people are needed for both practical and psychological reasons. I urge the Powers That Be to reconsider.
I liked the Guide program and especially am fond of those who were your original guides. I personally, consider the removal of the human guides to be a downgrade no matter what tech you put in its' place and call it an upgrade.
We'll have to wait and see I am sorry to say!
Go figure.
The Guides were a good thing.
Small tweaks usually go better. Something like the ability to drop more than one group at a time would be useful.
Gather Guides were able to help newbies like me who were confused. They were also ones we could contact when we realized that getting a response from support would normally take a week to ten days. Guides had an answer within hours. That will be missed.
You know, I once worked as a marketing director for a chain of restaurant/entertainment centers. What they offered was like a ChuckECheese, but bigger - with mini-golf, go-carts and rides outside. There were about 21 locations when I worked there, and they were adding one or two every year. Then they did away with marketing directors (who handled group sales) and with the humans at each location who took birthday party calls. Both positions were replaced by technology. You know what happened? The company went out of business. They don't exist anymore. People wanted human interaction when they were planning birthday parties and group functions. (Hotels know that - they don't eliminate humans to plan group events.)
When I have invited friends and relatives to visit Gather, their first reaction is one of puzzlement, surprise, disbelief. Most have at least visited the other social network types of sites and cannot believe that I spend my time here. I tell them how different it is here, not only because fo the rewards, but because fo the human interaction. By that, I meant the Gather Guides. While I can certainly help friends to some extent, the Guides were more able to answer all questions. I know I very rarely read FAQs if i can ask someone. Or if I do read them, it's great to have humans to clarify. Unless the response time from support is planned on being something far less than a week to ten days, you're apt to lose folks who function like I do when they arrive at a site like this.
NO threaded articles/comments years after opening, NO consistency of policy i.e. 'we want your help.... but we suddenly! have decided we don't', NO this, NO that BUT people WILL BE ABLE TO MAKE THEIR OWN LITTLE CLIQUES, EXCLUDING THE UNWORTHY If I am reading this right..
sad days.