Social Groups

[Daffa]

I have been thinking of this lately and I think we can talk a bit about it.

First, I found out Social Group is far less visible than thread [and I need to subscribe to each discussion to keep up to date]
Second, there's no way to Mass VM/PM Social Group members, notifying any updates and such, it's possible with the current VM and PM method, but VM need to one by one and PM have a limit of 5 at a time.
Third, Group Leaders has a very limited power over the group, especially modifying Discussions Name.

why I discuss this because some group is active [I'll take PRS (Pinoy Resources Society) as proof] and this 3 limits are hindering improvement a lot, I also have a group to manage, it's a bit active but since group are far less visible [Point 1] many member rarely post in the discussions on the group, since they don't notice it.

If anybody also has (an) opinion(s) about it, please drop a comment as well

~Daffa the Mage

EDIT
Once The Discussion is over, please close the thread, to avoid spamming

 

[Doomlord]

Oh yes. Social Groups often serve as a temporary forum for projects and I think these features suggested above are necessary for a project to function properly.

Another few things that I may suggest

• It is really annoying when a member requests to join your group and you cannot access the Pending and Invited Members of a group directly. It would be very nice if that could be improved.
• The current Invite to join group process is quite awkward to be honest. A single window for the invited user to choose whether to join the group DIRECTLY or not is a much better alternative.
• Concerning Daffa's first suggestion, I don't really understand how the Group Subscrition functions. It doesn't notify me of new discussions or anything, which I suppose it should. Can somebody explain that?
• Is it possible for Group Leaders to 'hard' delete a discussion? 'Soft' deletion doesn't exactly free up space.

Thank you for reading.

 

[Daffa]

Concerning Daffa's first suggestion, I don't really understand how the Group Subscrition functions. It doesn't notify me of new discussions or anything, which I suppose it should. Can somebody explain that?

Here's what to do mate : Open the Discussion you want to subscribe > Open Discussion Tools on the right > Choose Subscribe to this Discussion > Choose no email notification [it's annoying if you choose the other one]

Is it possible for Group Leaders to 'hard' delete a discussion? 'Soft' deletion doesn't exactly free up space.

I agree, Group that has deleted discussion can still have those discussion accessed by group leader.

The current Invite to join group process is quite awkward to be honest. A single window for the invited user to choose whether to join the group DIRECTLY or not is a much better alternative

Yes, considering many people confused with the current system

 

[Binsu]

Now you both feel my pain, I have HT group as a point for my temporary project drop point or whatever and when people's are not being notified, it makes the group quite dead.

 

[Daffa]

Now you both feel my pain, I have HT group as a point for my temporary project drop point or whatever and when people's are not being notified, it makes the group quite dead.

I have felt this Pain from March [If I was right]

Oh yeah, slight info, the tip for making notification in groups doesn't seems to work.

 

[Ralle]

Social groups was a half-assed feature in vBulletin 3. I hope we will have something better in the future.

 

[Daffa]

Social groups was a half-assed feature in vBulletin 3

well, now that's annoying :/
VBulletin isn't going to develop this one well I guess, which is annoys me.

I hope we will have something better in the future.

I agree, it's should be better.

however, this is just a random alternative I found in my brain last night [but trust me, this one is annoying to develop with Hive's current state] : Make a Forum which is hidden like Mod's Lobby, then make a social group which requires reason to join [like Medivh Tower], so basically, the idea is to hide the forum unless the member is on the "specific" community group [I know it's VERY annoying, but the only thing I can get on my mind for now] > I think this is a good one for country based groups [Indonesian Mapmakers, Vietnamese Modding Council, Pinoy Resources Society, etc.]

 

[Ralle]

That would require quite some labor for every social group. But you're right. It's once of my pet peeves with vBulletin. Why did they have to re-implement forums? I mean, social groups are just forums only visible by certain usergroups.

 

[Daffa]

That would require quite some labor for every social group

not to mention how many country, that's a ton of work for the admin team.

Why did they have to re-implement forums? I mean, social groups are just forums only visible by certain usergroups.

Yes, Social Group are only visible to some members.
that's why I think Social Groups are redundant due to their limits.
that's why I think about this :

however, this is just a random alternative I found in my brain last night [but trust me, this one is annoying to develop with Hive's current state] : Make a Forum which is hidden like Mod's Lobby, then make a social group which requires reason to join [like Medivh Tower], so basically, the idea is to hide the forum unless the member is on the "specific" community group [I know it's VERY annoying, but the only thing I can get on my mind for now] > I think this is a good one for country based groups [Indonesian Mapmakers, Vietnamese Modding Council, Pinoy Resources Society, etc.]

 

[sonofjay]

hide the forum unless the member is on the "specific" community group

NO! How can I stalk some of the social groups then? I think the current Social Group is fine, it requires only a few second to navigate them on your group list and open them and browsing groups(as long as its neatly moderated by their respective owners) should be easy.

 

[Daffa]

NO! How can I stalk some of the social groups then? I think the current Social Group is fine, it requires only a few second to navigate them on your group list and open them and browsing groups(as long as its neatly moderated by their respective owners) should be easy.

well, don't hide them, like Medivh Tower.
that's not much difference

I know, several group has a decent activity, but if we sum all group, its only about 5% from the whole list that has activity, which really is annoying

 

[sonofjay]

Well social group isn't supposed to be the focus of this site anyway.

 

[Daffa]

Well social group isn't supposed to be the focus of this site anyway.

Yes, but some social group has a good usage, well, especially the "country based & Project based" groups. some of them are active while the rest are inactive, which is annoying also, almost all group I ran across, most of them don't display real activity at all.

wish VB at least make a better way for subscribing and making + editing discussions for groups, which is a good thing if they do.

 

[Cacciatore]

Hmm..hmm
I agree

 

[Doomlord]

Well I guess I can live with the current stuffs. An improvement is still very nice though

OT: Could somebody explain why is this Cacciatore guy is causing my User CP to not discard the new post of his in this thread? It is mildly bugging me tbh because this thread just won't go away

 

[Daffa]

His post is deleted it seems Doomlord, that's how thread works, it ignores wether last post is still there or gone.

 

[Doomlord]

Ah right. Thank you for sharing that

 

[Map Designer]

@OP For me, I think it will be very conveniet to make it forum like thing, much more convenient than the current Groups method.

So, is it possible to make forums for each social group and the owner become the moderator of that forum? and all becoming under the Social Group section or soemthing?

 

[Daffa]

^this one I agree pretty much, and the current social group method is really annoying :/
But the above option is only proof to be VERY useful on country based group like IMM, PRS, VMC and other country based groups.

 

[DivineLight]

agree to everyone opinion..
no suggestion atm

 

[Map Designer]

^this one I agree pretty much, and the current social group method is really annoying :/
But the above option is only proof to be VERY useful on country based group like IMM, PRS, VMC and other country based groups.

why just in country based? I am in melee map makers group and I think it will be very usefull there as well. I, and I think all are like me, rarely check the group to see if there is anything new and even if someone write no one will ever know before ten years later, but if it is forum it is easier, especially that one can search forums for his posts ( I always search my posts in forums and see new in threads i have written in sometime ago, but this dont work in group i think)

sorry for block text D:

 

[Daffa]

^hmm... Interesting, but the main core of the problem is that how we're going to place these forums, there are so many country based groups, project groups and some other important group such as Map Category Lovers (I.E : Melee Nation) as well, don't forget about the reviewing groups such as Map and Spell Reviewers group. Mostly, the main reason that group are inactive are these :
1. Lacks of accessing capability, many people rarely remember their groups (this includes me as well) since they can only be accessed via Groups List and Your Profile (which most people ignore)
2. Groups are limited at discussions, they are hard to remember (and it seems subscribe don't help <--- Need Verification), I mostly contact my members to inform news (which is, annoying)
3. Hard Joining Method, the current method Is a bit confusing [stated by Doomlord]
4. there's no way to Mass VM/PM Social Group members (for group leaders), notifying any updates and such, it's possible with the current VM and PM method, but VM need to one by one and PM have a limit of 5 at a time (you can say "damn, I have to waste time for just one stuff")

According to Sonofjay, we can try to get ourselves active and kick ourself and manage the groups, but this become big trouble if the leader is half active (worst : inactive or gone). Most Group Leader who resigns forget to change their leaders

 

[Map Designer]

What I thought of is that each group has one forum, and it has moderators and it only its memebers should be able to post (in some forums only some people can post, like mediev tower, not all can post)

But it could be that divided into subforums of categories IF needed and IF aproperiete

 

[Daffa]

^well, for most group with a specification (Map Type Fans, Country Modders, etc) , this can be done,moth exception that Projects Group (CoSC, HT, WoSA, etc) can't benefit well (since it's almost like making another forum (turning it into like a Hosted Project). Some Group such as RP Group should be possible to be merged at RP Section (unless a forum for that RP is really necessary).

 

[Map Designer]

ummmm,
can we here from Rale something, please?

 

[Hakeem]

vBulletin social groups are a mess on the back end. I blame Facebook entirely.

It's best to just accept how it is for now and wait until vB gets their act tog—

Yeah okay we're doomed.