Hello EXers!
Nearly one week into the new Jive Community and we’ve gotten a lot of feedback. We love it! It’s great to see how many of you are embracing the change and helping each other. We’ve spent a TON of time preparing help documents in the Community Help section and Getting Started Guide, and it’s great to see that so many of you have been using them!
We’ve been discussing your comments and suggestions, and will be making some initial changes based on your ideas. We fully expected to be making these kinds of “tweaks” and adjustments over time to make sure this new platform fits our unique Community. There are some limitations to the ways in which we can tweak things, so unfortunately we won’t be able to act on all the changes you have suggested. Here are 3 changes that you will see over the next week:
Change 1: Easier to send Direct Messages
We’re removing the requirement for members to be following each other in order to send a Direct Message (formerly known as Private Message). We weighed the demand for this feature against the risk of our members getting solicited by spammers. We will be watching closely to see if this becomes a major problem, but we think based on your comments it's for the best to enable freer messaging. If you encounter a Direct Message that appears to be from someone with intentions other than quitting, please forward the entire message to communityadmin@becomeanex.org. You can also send me a Direct Message with a link to their profile.
Change 2: Clarifying Leaderboard
We heard loud and clear that leaderboards were giving the wrong impression, that they were somehow about user’s quit status. That has never been the intention. Points are simply a tally of each person’s activity level on EX. Someone may show lots of points because they have been an active member for many years, regardless of their smoking status. As you know, active members are the lifeblood of any community; the intent was to make it easy for others to identify active users using this point system. Nevertheless, we will be removing the Leaderboard from the Home page and looking to revise the Your Progress from the Conversations, Community Help, and Events & Celebrations Communities. We’re evaluating if points/leaderboards can be downplayed in other places as well, but this is a more advanced configuration that may take a bit more time to investigate. We’re learning the new platform too!
We’ll be hosting a live chat on Thursday, February 2 from 10-11am EST to discuss how leaderboards can work best for everyone on EX, new and long-time members alike. Please RSVP and attend! It’s free, you don’t have to download anything, you can stay as long as you like, and we’re looking forward to hearing from you.
Change 3: Adding Status Updates… Jive’s version of Message Board posts!
We’re enabling Status Updates (formerly known as Message Boards). On Jive, there isn’t a concept of a Wall or Message Board but you can accomplish something similar by creating a Status Update and mentioning the people you want to reach out to. They will be notified of your message, and you can have short conversations via this method. The advantage of Status Updates is that your message and others’ replies will all be visible within one thread rather than the somewhat disjointed experience from the Elgg Message Board posts. You’ll also be able to link to places on the site and upload images! As Amanda noted in her Warm Welcome post, your previous Message Board posts will be migrated at a later date.
We recognize there is a significant learning curve and that many of you are working hard to find your way. We hope that you will reach out with questions – big or small – so that we can help you get settled in quickly. All of us are working hard behind the scenes to be as helpful as possible!
Thanks again for providing your feedback. Please continue to leave it in the Community Help community.
Have a question about these changes? Please leave it in the comments below. If it is related to another topic, please join a discussion/question already in progress in the Community Help community or start a new discussion/question if one doesn’t already exist. Be sure to mention me with @Mark or @Ex to select Mark in the "suggested" list.
Mark
EX Community Manager
