This and That ( new group )?

[Mandolinrain]

Putting this out there just to see if there would be an interest at all for a group called 'This and That'?

Thought it would be fun to have an area where we could share ideas,recipes, crafts, grandchildren, our pets, fitness,diet, music, art.. camping, hobbies...just about anything really.

Only rule would be no Political or religious debates....Actually, no debates would be perfect. Lets just all get along, be nice to each other.

?????  Anyone ???? 

If so and theres an interest, how to start??? Mark‌

[pir8fan]

We used to do that on a persons page (message board)! I miss that!

Sent from my iPhone. Tommy

[Giulia]

So do I.  But we must adapt.  

[MarilynH]

I miss that too pir8fan .....

[Mandolinrain]

Be cool if we could have live chat but am betting that may cause trouble, ph well. Was just looking for a spot to all kinda get to share and get to know each other better aside from the smokes,lol.

Maybe I'll just start a weekly chat blog, hahahahaha

[CommunityAdmin]

Mandolinrain‌

Yeah it is being explored.  Posting discussions on the site so they're searchable brings people to the community.  If a large amount of those discussions that normally happen in the community switch to a live chat that isn't discoverable in Google/Bing/Etc, then activity and membership here in the community could really dip.  Similarly this would happen if all discussions only occurred in private messages. I agree it would be helpful but it has to be in a way that adds to the community without hurting it.  Connecting in aways beyond quitting smoking is definitely important.  

gregp136‌

Yes, something could be "tacked on" but wouldn't necessarily be beneficial long-term to the community.  Several things need to be figured out.  Tacked on things usually come at a price as well. 

Mark
EX Community Manager

[Mandolinrain]

Good points I didn't think of....thats why you manage the site and not me, lol

[CommunityAdmin]

Giulia wrote:

I thought  this "chat corner" thing was why the Cafe was started.  I had originally just thought of having a meeting place where everybody could go talk to one another.  Right now we're ending up talking to each other on other people's blogs.  And that doesn't make sense to me.  X person may start a blog about beating cravings and then someone way down in the responses will make a point about something else or a joke, and then someone else will respond and off we go on a totally different subject!  And it's lots of fun, but we get totally off topic.  I would love to see a group called The Chat Place, or something like that, but there would only be ONE point of communication in it.  Not a different blog subject for each listing, but rather ONE blog or One conversation where everybody would just jump in whenever they felt like it.  You wouldn't need things like Baristas or anybody in charge.  It wold just be a page where people could drop by and comment at will.  

Giulia‌ It doesn't make any sense to have a group with only one discussion in it.  That could happen in Conversations‌.

You could just create a chat place discussion and then keep participating in it.  If you've participated in it will be part of your feed and will also appear on the home page in the recent activity widget every time someone responds.  Having a catch-all discussion can kind of get overwhelming though as it can amount to a lot of notifications.  I know people already get a bit overwhelmed by notifications. This could get overwhelming especially if someone joins the discussion and you're talking about grandkids and all of a sudden you're switching subjects and you're talking about crafting.  85% of the people may not be interested in crafting but suddenly their getting inundated with messages about crafting. This could make them not want to come to the site any longer and would be unfortunate.  These were just two topics I mentioned at random. 

I do miss the EX Cafe. It was a great idea. Someone watching it consistently probably isn't necessary but having norms (who, what, where, when) would help people find it every day without using one catch-all discussion that would become overwhelming.

Other communities often have an "Off-Topic" area where anything and everything is talked about that isn't related to the communities purpose. It would be great though to have some of the groups that exist take off and have things added to them.  Seeing cute pictures and quotes in https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/groups/picture-and-quote-sharing?sr=search&searchId=5d706c2f-70df...‌ or pictures of people's pets in https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/groups/pet-lovers?sr=search&searchId=8d1567d0-446a-45e1-9eca-50e4...‌ or great DIY projects in https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/groups/creative-and-crafty-quitters?sr=search&searchId=b5308ecd-9...‌.  There is already a lot of great stuff happening in https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/groups/laughter-is-the-best-medicine?sr=search&searchId=d7feb855-...‌.

Mark
EX Community Manager

[JACKIE1-25-15]

Thank you for expressing your idea.  In the beginning it did not matter to me whether there was a chat group or not.  BUT since we have changed formats and other things have not worked or not working.  A place where one can truly express themselves.  Whining included.  

[CommunityAdmin]

JACKIE1-25-15‌

Yeah, there are plenty off places to express yourselves.  We even have https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/groups/its-our-party-and-well 

Check out https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/docs/DOC-1101-finding-your-group?sr=search&searchId=1cc61138-5c48...‌

Can you make sure you are more specific about  things not working in https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/community/community-help?sr=search&searchId=a00df3c0-59cd-46dd-a9...‌ but make sure you search before you post as some things may already be known and/or responded to.

Mark
EX Community Manager

[gregp136]

I would agree.  If there was some way to piggy back a chat program on to Jive...but I am sure that has been explored.