Permalink Reply by Lisa on November 6, 2007 at 11:57am
Hmm voting is a good idea. What to vote on, though?
OH what about nominations? Ever week we have a different "featured blogger of the week". The featured blogger is chosen (by me?) from the nominations other bloggers send in. YEAH! I'll start that now, but lets keep thinking of other ideas!
Sorry if I opened a can of worms with the newspaper thing. I really didn't think he would publish the site but hopefully it's a good thing overall...ack!
Anyway, I think if people want to join and they just do not fit the criteria of being a "real" blog, then they should not be allowed. (ie the car blog thing, which I never saw, actually...)
Or are you worried about people joining so they are on the list, but not participating? I don't know how to moderate that...
Permalink Reply by Lisa on November 6, 2007 at 12:56pm
No, no, it's great that we were on the paper! Because then legit people can find us!
- definitely let's get rid of people who aren't even blogging, you list some site that's not a blog
- how to make sure people participate? That's the question.
i think that whatever's decided it has to be realistic and scale-able. i wouldn't be surprised if you had 1000 members quickly. granted, that may never happen, but being ready for it goes a long way.
i think two methods are possible...
one is catching everyone at the front door. making sure a real blog exists before you can join. nominations might be the answer. starting ANOTHER network (20somtehingbloggers - waiting room) for applicants might help organize that...meaning closing off this group and only approving people to join. it's a 'submit, review, accept' sort of model.
the other way would be a moderator group within the 20something network. this could be as simple as letting users just flag suspicious members (maybe in a thread or group) or putting together a team of members who volunteer to watch all the new members and police the area. this seems reminiscent of wikipedia or metafilter...it really just relies on the community.
I like this idea of creating teams of moderators to focus on different aspects. It'll not only help maintain 20somethings, but will also give noobs go-to ppl for help/questions/concerns/advice/feedback.
On the other hand, I don't think creating another network as a "waiting room" for applicants is a good idea (sorry d! I still think you're awesome, lols!!!)...mainly because it's similar to how it's said to not be a good idea to moderate comments (i.e. give approval) before comments can be shown on blogs. If this plans on growing fast (which I def. see the potential of happening) this can create a backlog of "waiters" and hinder the progress of 20something's growth and expansion.
Then again, BlogCatalog (a very popular social networking site for blogs) does require blogs to be approved and verified before adding it...so I mean, it could still be a good idea to considers, especially since this ning is niche specfic (aka for 20somethings).
Permalink Reply by Lisa on November 6, 2007 at 3:43pm
A team of moderators might be a good idea... they're like a semi-faux welcome committee. We're welcoming and helping them, but also making sure they're legit bloggers, and trying to encourage them to participate?
yeah. it always seems to help to have a group dedicated to making the community work. everyone's naturally gonna help regulate, but having a few resources will help move things along. people who's emails can be found on the site (or even a Gmail account set up for the whole group of moderators would work) and can be used to answer questions, check out suspicious links, etc.
takes the load off of any one person. keeps things organized.
I agree that Ning was confusing at first and that most of what I learned was through NaBloPoMo. I don't want to be kicked off because I just didn't get it at first! And I'm sure other people wouldn't either.
I'm glad I got the email today because I very nearly almost forgot that I signed up for this site but I'd love to be more active!
Initiaion!? If I have to sit Indian style for five hours again I am going to be pissed...and really sore.
I joined this community yesterday after reading the article in the Washington Post. Honestly I did it to promote my site but also to find other up and coming bloggers to network with.
I think that either a link back or some kind of sponsorship/referral program would be a good way to make sure that people joining the community are doing it for the right reasons.
You could also implement some kind of timeout where accounts are deleted if they are not active after 30 days.