What are Groups?

boran

September 05, 2008, 08:42 AM posted in General Discussion

I think the groups feature has an identity crisis. It's not sure what it wants to be - an area where like-minded people can discuss similar interests or an attempt at topic categorization. I think that groups are trying to be two separate things which makes the implementation and usability a bit awkward.

If groups are truly a place for special interests than they should be treated as such and not mixed in with the other general conversations. General conversations are getting buried even faster now since the groups feature has been introduced. As such, I'm seeing more and more messages that don't apply to me. I think it's great that people can connect like this but it's current implementation is creating more noise (purely subjective here) for me to navigate around.

Also, some groups are really analogous to a sub-forum, an attempt to categorize certain conversations. It seems weird to me that I have to "join" these groups to post in them. Again, it adds more noise for me.

My suggestions:

Do not mix group conversations with the rest of the general conversations. Perhaps have a separate list on the same conversations page allowing the user to see all group conversations or just those that apply to them.
Have a search feature to find the groups that interest you as well as a better way to navigate the current groups. This becomes even more important as more groups are added and the possibility of duplicated groups increases.

I'm not really sure how to distinguish between groups and groups that act like sub-forums. My fear is that more of these sub-forum groups will be created but without a proper UI to navigate through them, it will become a mess.

I understand that the groups feature is still new and can definitely see people getting value out of them but I'm concerned about what things will look like as more groups are created.

henning

September 05, 2008, 09:08 AM

boran,
I see it as a first step to turn the Community section into a full fledged bullitin board like we see it in the CPod forums. Add two or three addtional hierarchy layers, smilies, enhance the search options and you are there.

That in mind, it can be both interpreted as topic classification and gathering points. Or (as in the 红楼梦 group) joint project areas.

sushan

September 05, 2008, 12:31 PM

I often find interesting posts in groups, but then can't reply because I am not a member. It seems tedious to apply to join all groups. I would like to be able to choose the groups whose conversations show up when I access the community page.

lostinasia

September 06, 2008, 11:10 PM

Amusing, isn't it, that all many of us really want is a typical forum like you see on countless other sites, and have seen for many years now... I like to think there's SOME reason for ChinesePod to set up a rather unique (to put it politely) forum structure, but I'm not too sure what that reason would be.

(Yes, I know there's also a re-vitalized ChinesePod forum, but I don't WANT to visit two sites to find information that may be useful - I want to just visit one.)

mattwhyndham

September 07, 2008, 12:00 PM

for heaven's sake don't let them add smilies. The UI is bad enough as it is without another layer of laggy graphics.

missing/odd features right now:

- add new post should be near the top

- user can't edit initial post, only their comments

- link to groups shouldn't be on the page footer (nor whould most of that stuff)

- Groups get mixed up with Conversations, in a weird way

- there's absolutely no concept of threading!!

calkins

September 07, 2008, 02:49 PM

Matt, you are able to edit initial posts, but it's a bit more tedious to do:

- Click on the "Me" button at the top banner.

- Click on the "Posts" tab.

- On the right side of the page, you'll see "Manage Posts," with a list of all your "published" and "draft" posts.

- Click on the "Edit" pencil to edit your original post.

CPod, I recently noticed a glitch in the "Draft" function of posts. You can create a new post and save it as a draft. But other users can still view (and post to that draft) because drafts are listing under users' "Other Posts". Is there anyway to block drafts from being viewed?

mattwhyndham

September 08, 2008, 09:22 PM

Thanks. Though that kinda proves my general point though, interface needs to shake off the beta feel soon.