Sarah, I've been running a closed group for about
a year now - it's building at about the right
rate. There are some definite critical success
factors to a successful group - constant (or
sufficiently frequent) discussion and a
sufficiently targeted participant list is a big
help. A good group doesn't need lots of
moderation - you should anticipate rudeness (so
have plans and policies) but allow the group to
self-level before you become too
restrictive. I'd suggest that you think
carefully about the three questions that FB
allows you to ask as part of the participant's
application, and then select participants based
on their answers and match to the group's
agenda. We've done that, and had only one
flareup in over 12 months, so relatively high
signal-to-noise ratio. EG: if it's an
Australian Tech Communicators group, nobody says
you have to approve a resident of Outer Yugoravia
whose other FB groups are unrelated to writing or communicating.
I produced a policy page for our group and placed
that page on a website, since you don't get to
see very much about a closed FB group until
you're a member. Doing that has already proved
to be a good move, since nobody can claim we're
being capricious about group policy.
If you contact me offline I'm happy to point you to some of this stuff.
I don't think FB is the answer to everything - in
many ways, it's the answer to nothing, and other
tools are far better (forum, list, email,
quicktopic, wiki). But it's hard to argue with the pervasiveness of Facebook.
John
At 09:03 09/07/2018, Sarah Maddox wrote:
Oh, that's interesting, thanks Christine. I haven't had any experience with Fb Groups. I did notice that there's an option to create a group that's associated with the page. Can groups be independent of pages too?
The problem of name-calling, bullying, or just plain rudeness is a concern. One of the things I want to do is to create a notice about the code of conduct for the page. I need to discuss this with the ASTC committee members.
Cheers
Sarah
On Mon, 9 Jul 2018 at 08:32, Christine Kent <<mailto:cmkentau@xxxxxxxxx>cmkentau@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
You may need to determine whether you want a Page or a Group. Pages tend to be one way notice-boards that do not encourage communication. They are "the business" telling observers what is going on. Groups, on the other hand, are participatory and do encourage communication, and can also be used as notice boards. So what purpose is your FB presence serving? Do you want a noticeboard or communication and discussion as well as a noticeboard? I have experimented extensively with both, and find Pages very badly designed from an administrator point of view, and a total waste of time. Groups are easier to manage technically, although do require serious moderation to establish a culture where name calling and bullying is not tolerated. There is a lot of skill required for running either.
On Sun, Jul 8, 2018 at 5:45 PM, Bob T <<mailto:bob.trussler@xxxxxxxxx>bob.trussler@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Sarah,
I actually prefer the email chats we used to have.
But if this has a different purpose, such as reaching more tech writers, than let's try iy.
Bob T
On 8 July 2018 at 14:01, Sarah Maddox <<mailto:sarahmaddoxmail@xxxxxxxxx>sarahmaddoxmail@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hallo AusTechWriters
The Australian Society for Technical Communication (ASTC) asked me a couple of days ago to set up a Facebook page for the society.  So I've done that:Â
<https://www.facebook.com/astc.org/>https://www.facebook.com/astc.org/Â
If you have a mind to drop by and see what's happening, we'd love that. The site features two upcoming events already! You can chat by posting messages, express interest in events, and use the pages as a place to swap experience. Like the pages if you do like them. :)
The new Facebook presence is an experiment on the ASTC's behalf, with the goal of reaching more Australian writers at the various places where we hang out online.
If you have any ideas about other places where the ASTC could or should set up a presence, I'm sure the committee would love to hear your ideas.
Cheers
Sarah
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Bob Trussler
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Christine
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