[color=darkblue:7f4b5f38c9]The new addition of what appear to be complete forums for each of the communities fractures the effort to bring all of the old forums into a central one.
It was going so well, we had managed to toss the bad guys and the interest of the wider audience was beginning to coalesce here, or so it seemed to me. There are active threads in many many categories on many many subjects. so why not have the members of the communities participate in the larger forums and categories? Why give them what they seem to think is their own little corner of the world? They had an announcement section before and didn’t use it. Why now this?
Jim
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Is CFI Returning to the Old Distributed Forums?

The new addition of what appear to be complete forums for each of the communities fractures the effort to bring all of the old forums into a central one.
It was going so well, we had managed to toss the bad guys and the interest of the wider audience was beginning to coalesce here, or so it seemed to me. There are active threads in many many categories on many many subjects. so why not have the members of the communities participate in the larger forums and categories? Why give them what they seem to think is their own little corner of the world? They had an announcement section before and didn’t use it. Why now this?
Jim

No idea, Jim.

My feeling is that the best use for community folders is for community-relevant announcements and the like. If separate topics open up there we can always move them to the appropriate folders.

This is no longer my concern so after this I’ll shut up.
The reason that the order was given to create a slot for each community ties back to the “branding” issue. It comes from my use of meetup.com and its message boards within a CFI community.

Those little discussions got interesting. They were seen by DJ. He concluded that it was more important to have them on the CFI forums. When I said I couldn’t make them use the forums I suspect this notion was born.

If you look at the first message from Joe in the Miami forum slot you will see he thinks that is where he and anyone else in the Miami community is to have their little discussions.

All they need is a place for announcements and I was the only person to use that facility at all. This all goes back to the notion that the websites are the brand when it is the components of the organizations that make a brand up. All the websites do is advertise it if properly set up and linked together.

Nuff said.
J

Advertising & Brand Continuity

All the websites do is advertise it if properly set up and linked together.

That advertising can indeed be very, very useful.  Well-linked websites do just that—connect people to information.  Say someone first heard about the organization through the podcast, Point of Inquiry.  Then he might go to the POI website, pop over to the CFI site to learn more, maybe click around the CSICOP pages, then find out that there’s a CFI community locally.  Presto, a new member/volunteer/activist.  Having a more centralized area for information and discussion, with brand continuity, lets people more easily plug into the larger community, find out about affiliated organizations, and so on.  In fact we hope to work on the CFI site soon, which would include more effectively integrating the forums as well as other improvements.

And actually, I suggested the expension of the community forums after meeting many community leaders at the conference two weeks ago.  I thought, among other things, that it would be a good place for new members of a community to contribute ideas for speakers, events, meeting locations, etc.  Rather than e-mailing the community coordinator, a discussion could be held among a group.  Meanwhile, that member would see all the other fun things we’re talking about on the rest of the forums and maybe join in.  Current forum members would also be able to see all the communities listed and perhaps find a local one.  I’m hoping that as the communities grow, so will forum use, and as the forums grow, so will the communities.  Yay!

Debbie