Back in the Saddle

ScottD · ‎02-02-2009

So I'm back from vacation, and I'm pretty fired up about the upcoming changes we have in store for the community - so time for everyone to temper my enthusiasm!

The most obvious changes to come will of course be visual, with a brand new design to showcase our new product abilities (and the skills of our designers!), but we're not quite ready yet with previews in that area. Once we have something we're ready to show, I'll post some pictures for everyone to see.

Equally as important and challenging, however, is the restructuring of content in the community. As I mentioned before my time off, what we think people are going to talk about before we launch and what people actually discuss is always somewhat different. So now that we've had a chance to see where discussions are going (and confirm that these constitute real trends), we're going to shift the structure into alignment with those topics and activity levels. To sum it up, we're planning to consolidate all public discussions into one broad board on community help and best practices.

So, I've been thinking of some names for this new board, and I was hoping you fine folks could tell me if I'm going in the right direction or not. I thought about putting up an idea exchange and voting, but I was hoping to keep it more conversational at the start - if we come up with a couple of winners, I'll see about posting the best ideas for people to vote on.

Anyway, here's some possible names for the new, consolidated board for you to ruminate on:

Growing Successful Communities
Community Help and Advice
Talking Shop About Social Media

I've got more, but let me know what you think. If you like any of these or if you have questions or an idea of your own, feel free to post it in the comments!

And it's great to be back!

Photo by a4gpa

Update: I was nearly remiss in thanking the team who made my vacation possible! My heartfelt gratitude to you Tom, Aubrey and Brad for attending to everything on the Lithosphere while I was away, ensuring my relaxed and uninterrupted vacation. Thanks so much!

Message Edited by ScottD on 02-02-2009 12:03 PM

Nikias · ‎02-03-2009

My entire time here I've neglected to read this area. I suppose I never realized that updates on the Lithosphere were posted here. 🙂 Anyway, I can't wait to see the new design! I actually like the one on the Lithosphere now.

As to the names of the 'consolidated board,' I'm not too sure. Out of those thread, I would say Growing Successful Communities simply for the fact that all questions and such are not about the social media, exactly. (Unless, of course, you're using social media to include some of the community management problems and advice requests on the forums).

ScottD · ‎02-03-2009

Thanks Nikias!

I like the existing colors and graphics too, but I can't wait to show off what we've come up with for the new design! It does a much better job of integrating the Lithopshere into all the tools we are planning for community success. I will have some pics soon, I promise!

I like the Growing Successfull Communities too (or even Growing Community Success), as its very much to the heart of what we are all striving for. Do you think that new visitors will get that as well? Its the balance between newcomers and those of us who've been living it for a while that I think is the hardest to get right

Message Edited by ScottD on 02-03-2009 10:35 AM

Nikias · ‎02-03-2009

With Growing Successful Communities it really does illustrate the purpose of the community managers/representatives on the Lithosphere (aside from getting support for the product, etc.). I shouldn't think that it would be too difficult to understand for new members, especially if there is a short desription of the forum.

I'm wondering a little as to what the Lithosphere will entail. Will there still be the same blogs and whatnot, but only one discussion forum?

ScottD · ‎02-04-2009

Nikias wrote:

I'm wondering a little as to what the Lithosphere will entail. Will there still be the same blogs and whatnot, but only one discussion forum?

Forum structure and UI updates are where our biggest focus is, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was some retooling in other areas as well, perhaps in the blogs (reflecting our organizational growth more than anything else, I think).

Ultimately, though, the goal is to keep the same kinds of conversations and topics we've been having, but to reorganize them in ways that make sense with how members have been using them. That, and take advantage of a lot of new UI improvements in the product!

Do you have any suggestions for areas of improvement? It's a good time to take a look at them.

Message Edited by ScottD on 02-04-2009 01:06 PM

Mark_Hopkins · ‎02-06-2009

Welcome back Scott. Let me echo Nikias is saying that we are enthusiastically waiting to see what Lithium comes up with next !

Interesting tangent on Community vs Social Media. To my mind, they are very intertwined with Social Media perhaps being the over-arching term, however all of the social platforms - twitter, facebook, myspace, blogging, youtube, flickr, forums, all link people together in ways that form a social network. The dynamics of these social networks are in fact communities in their own right.

Mark