FreeLists / webproducers / [webproducers] Re: Forums

["vera-jayne nwajiaku" <vnwajiaku@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Annie/Courtney

Thank you so much for your feedback it really gave me some food for =
thought
A couple of questions to consider:

* What kind of community do you have or are you building? Help, =
Dialogue,
Hobbyist, News, Etc?

We are the online version for a very popular consumer magazine in the UK =
-
so we want to provide a useful member service, by allowing Which? =
members to
get answers to consumer questions from Which? in a controlled way, and =
to
get help from other members.

* What features do you want from a forum - from both an end-user and a
moderator position?

This is a basis list of features we've put together

>       Discussions boards grouped by site topics
>       Discussion boards organised in parallel with the top level site
topic structure (topic list, plus 'About us').=20
>       Discussions are threaded, and people can add to the bottom of a
discussion, or respond to a specific post on a thread.
>       No facility for discussion outside those topic areas=20
>       Two clearly distinguished discussion types - Q and A for a fixed
period with staff, only moderator can initiate, open discussions where
members can post queries and discuss with one another
>       Users who are logged into the site should be able to automatically
log into and post to the forums
>       Only paying subscribers can post in most discussions. Possibility
for people to set up 'guest login' for specific campaigns or policy
discussions.
>        'Member centre' should allow users to search by user interests.

Moderation
Moderators will check boards daily and move posts or threads in the =
wrong
place, edit inappropriate posts or contact users directly to request =
them to
behave or apologise.=20
Need an 'alert the moderators' button which automatically sends the
moderators a specific url for the offending post, and allows the user to
explain why they've sent it.


What type of system are you using now?
I don't really have much information on the one were using now - I =
believe
its called WEBex

Migrating forums

With regards to migrating the forums - we haven't even thought about how
were going to do this - but if you have information I would really
appreciate it

* what are some of the moderation difficulties & other problems you're
hoping to avoid?

What's going on in the existing forums?
A small number of regular users spend an enormous amount of time on the
board. A high proportion of the posts are critical of the organisation =
an
even higher proportion are completely unrelated to consumer issues. For =
the
'core group' the boards are considered very precious.
New members do come in and post questions, and get answers from the
organisation, and from other users. All questions answered or =
acknowledged
within 24 hours. However, very few of them become regular board users.
No rules of behaviour, sanctions or policies in place. There is a =
general
atmosphere of rudeness and disrespect from 'old guard' to staff and new
board users, including mocking people's spelling.
No parameters setting our expectations of how people should use the =
boards,
or our resources.
Resourcing
Customer services monitor the boards, but don't moderate in the =
conventional
sense. They have no ability to move posts or threads. There are no rules =
to
enforce, but they will sometimes post a 'cool it' request if things get =
too
heated.=20
Approx 16 enquiries a week are referred to legal, and get one response -
approx 0.5 day a week of W?LS time.
Overall, a serious amount of resources being dedicated to something =
which is
offering very limited benefits to members and to the organisation.
Completely disproportionate.

* are your forums the only "community" feature on your site or do you =
need
something that will integrate w/an existing member database and other
interactive tools?
Yes it's the only community feature on the site - which we hope to =
integrate
with other site content

* do you want something hosted on your site or would an ASP work for =
you?

If possible we want it hosted as part of our site - but if it has to be
hosted else where as it currently is then we would have to see what =
support
would be offered

I'd appreciate any help you could give on collecting requirements as the
organisation is really confused right now.

-----Original Message-----
From: webproducers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:webproducers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Annie Beretta
Sent: 13 August 2005 19:08
To: webproducers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [webproducers] Re: Forums


Some additional questions for you to ponder--=20
=20
* what are some of the moderation difficulties & other problems you're
hoping to avoid?
* are your forums the only "community" feature on your site or do you =
need
something that will integrate w/an existing member database and other
interactive tools?
* do you want something hosted on your site or would an ASP work for =
you?
=20
As Cortney mentioned, migrating forums is no small task. You might want =
to
consider posing this question to the "onlinefacilitation" yahoo group =
too --
lots of good folks w/this specific experience.=20
=20
Identifying your "requirments" for the new system is key, and I've found =
one
of the best ways to do that is to simply observe what I like & dislike =
about
the software used in the various forums where I participate.... and make =
a
list from there. If appropriate, you might even want to poll your =
members
for a "wish list" -- this is, after all, their space, and finding ways =
for
them to contribute to the process will go a long way towards making this
transition as smooth as possible (you know, make 'em feel appreciated &
validate their importance in the process)
=20
There are good quality, inexpensive packages out there, most of which =
are
highly customizeable and fairly scaleable too. Similary, you'll find =
lots of
great freebies too including these yahoo groups and prospero forums. It
really depends on whether you need control over your membership database =
as
well as your needs regarding branding/advertising (prospero has a =
private
label option for a premium). One of the advantages to using services =
such as
yahoo or prospero is that you'll have more avenues for driving traffic =
to
your forums through their (rather large) membership databases.
=20
If it'll help, I'd be happy to share a list of board/chat requirements =
I've
used in the past--might be helpful as a starting point. let me know.

Cortney Sellers <cortney@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hey,

A couple of questions to consider:

* What kind of community do you have or are you building? Help, =
Dialogue,
Hobbyist, News, Etc?
* What features do you want from a forum - from both an end-user and a
moderator position?
* What type of system are you using now?

There is a lot to consider when migrating forums. If you'd like to =
discuss
this further, please feel free to contact me offline for just honest
brainstorming and potential solutions.=20

Cortney

-----Original Message-----
From: webproducers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:webproducers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of vera-jayne =
nwajiaku
Sent: Friday, August 12, 2005 6:45 AM
To: webproducers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [webproducers] Forums

Hi

Were in the process of changing our forums - the existing forums are =
very
difficult to moderate which has caused us no end of problems. Were
re-launching our site at the end of the year and hope to have a more
manageable forum solution. Does anyone have any good research around =
forums
or experience of good products on the market? How do you evaluate what a
good forum is?

Thanks

Vee


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