Seeking feedback on groups
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We've had our groups feature up now for a few months. I thought it was time to solicit some feedback, especially as we are in the middle of some upgrades to the core of folkjam.org that involve reworking lots of little corners of the site. It is an opportunity to tweak groups, among other things. I think the forums within the groups are the essential feature. Should they be moved into the main group page? (right now the main group page shows the upcoming group events, the map of group events and the list of new members) The file are feature strikes me as pretty good as is, but I'd like to know your views. Who else besides me puts events into their groups? Do you use that feature at all? What about the group jam map? Does it matter to you, or is it just a page to navigate past on your way to the forum page? Scott Submitted by scott.mclewin on Sat, 2007/07/21 - 11:16pm
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United States
January 3, 2007
"Who else besides me puts events into their groups? Do you use that feature at all? "
I hadn't even been aware of that ability! I will make use of it as a monthly reminder.
I think at least a listing of the most recent posts to the forum on the main page would be good. I have had a couple of people who admitted it was difficult to navigate the site once they got to the group homepage.
I'm not really sold on the map being there - it recently seems to change locations, and the group pin is stuck in the middle of the State Park, not anywhere near the meeting location. I also had visitors two months ago who got bad directions from the Google map. Wrong street name and wrong turn direction. I don't know is that is a problem with the site, or the provider of the mapping service.
Looking forward to seeing the new upgrades.
You know what would be a nice little feature? It would be really nice if I (the moderator) could see a hit counter to see how much use the site gets. Home page, files, and forums.
Brad
United States
March 23, 2006
"I hadn't even been aware of that [group events] ability! I will make use of it as a monthly reminder."
That says a lot to me - thank you. In design this was the crux of the whole thing! Allowing people to have a private map of their events. Granted, there are more features slated, such as being able to collect up favorite public jam sessions and show them in the group map. This fits better for something like a bluegrass club that wants all of their public sessions in one place for their membership than it does for the use you and I make of it for running a regular jam group.
"I think at least a listing of the most recent posts to the forum on the main page would be good."
I've been leaning that way myself after using the site. I'll do this as I perform the update on groups.
"I'm not really sold on the map being there - it recently seems to change locations, and the group pin is stuck in the middle of the State Park, not anywhere near the meeting location."
I had noticed that you were running a sub-aquatic jam. :) The group pin only allows to be set to a city, where the events in the group can have a full address. I will keep the map, but it will likely be on another tab where the forums are on the main page.
"I also had visitors two months ago who got bad directions from the Google map. Wrong street name and wrong turn direction. I don't know is that is a problem with the site, or the provider of the mapping service."
That's sadly not something we can address as the driving directions are all provided by whatever mapping service the person clicks the link to visit.
"It would be really nice if I (the moderator) could see a hit counter to see how much use the site gets. Home page, files, and forums."
Sure! I like that. We collect that information and we can see it. Making it available to the owner of a group should be quite possible. I'll put that into our features queue for implementation after we get our core update done.
Thanks for taking the time to respond Brad. I do appreciate it. You and several others are really helping us get this community going.
Scott
United States
November 22, 2006
But my groups have not gotten much use. A private group of hammered dulcimer players kind of fell apart before it had a chance, and a banjo group hasn't taken off at all. Neither of these has much to do with folkjam. In the HD case the lead person has health problems and wasn't that fired up anyway.
The banjo one, well I have not put much on-the-ground effort into it. Perhaps I'll do so in the fall. I know that banjo_brad has put a good bit of effort into the planning and implementation of his music circle, beyond the use of folkjam. We have some vague plans for a general old-time group built around two fiddlers and myself to be organized in the Fall, if the three of us ever get organized ourselves. The initial focus of that group will be some college students (violin students of one of the fiddlers), and the college crowd may well be motivated to use a folkjam-based group.
Erich
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http://vrteach.freepgs.com/banjo/