Community » BeWelcome Forum

Hi

I'm working on the group app at the moment and I'm looking for some input and feedback. The topics I have in mind are:

1. categories:
- at the moment, the hierarchy between groups is that of groups and subgroups. Or rather, groups and their parents. This is purely a relational thing - the groups don't share anything. This is basically a good idea, but I would like to remove the hierarchy from groups: it should be based on categories instead so there's no hierarchy between groups. My basic idea is something like www.dmoz.org - that is, having categories for themselves, and then being able to place groups in these categories as one sees fit.

2. featured groups:
- right now, there's no such thing. However, an option could be to have 'featured groups' that are displayed on the groups overview page. These would be interesting groups (in whatever sense of interesting we choose) and are thus teasers. As for choosing which groups are featured ... it could be anything from member-chosen to admin-chosen and in between.So, any and all feedback on these topics would be great :)

Blue skies

Fake

Even though I m still Group Team Coordinator I lost totally the overview about the last developments and sicussions about groups.

It always lacked volunteers really willing and with time available to implement the system. Looks like this situation has changed.

The Categories are just ment to facilitate the navigation between groups afaik. There is no need for a hirarchy in the group system from my point of view.

I assume that we talk here about the groups excluding the local groups, right? I think these are really good drafted in here (http://www.bewelcome.org/gallery/show/image/663)

I don t quite understand the featured group thing. Isn t it easier and more helpfull if we sort them with their activity?

I would warmly welcome a Chat Meeting with people interested in this topic. If Peter is really seriouse about his offer I would love to gather people for a seriouse brainstorn in the chat.

Who is up for that?

Thanks for the replies so far :)

I should have done my homework better and trawled through the BV wiki some more - I'll make sure to do that now :)

Also, this is not an offer - I am actively working on groups-code ;) So I'm posting this to get feedback on some ideas and to hear what people want out of groups so I can help make that happen :) You can follow the work on test if you have access there.

As for a chat about this, would love to join if we can find a good time. Probably has to be during the weekend, as I'm fairly busy during the week.

And just a quick note about hierarchies and categories:

My main idea with this is to separate the hierarchies from the groups themselves and instead have that hierarchy in the categories. Hence, for a group located in, say, Paris, this means that the group is NOT a sub-group of the France group. However, if you look at the category France, you'll see the France group showing up and then you'll see sub-categories showing up (such as more specific locations). Going down in the hierarchy, you'll then find Paris.

The difference with what we have now is that groups are related directly to other groups - hence the Paris group would be a subgroup of the France group. To me this is confusing: am I member of both when joining the Paris group? What if I don't want to be?

Also, having categories and groups separate means no empty groups that are just there to be able to have a shared 'parent-group'.

And, obviously, categories are not exclusive to groups - we can use them for anything we want.

Blue skies

Peter

Nothing like a bit of hive-mind to pull all the details together and make sure that nothing is forgotten :)

Was looking quickly thread mentioned above and one that strikes me is the idea of having local stuff "float up" to a more general level - like, say, having posts in the Paris group float up to the France group. Not sure if this can be done without group hierarchy but will have to think about it (I'm also not sure how it can be done well even with group hierarchies, but that's a different thing ;) ).

Blue skies

Peter

I'm in Denmark from the 20th till the 4th - how about the 5th? :) Would be nice to meet for a cuppa.

Regarding test: that sounds rather strange to me though I think it's been a problem before. Try clearing your cache and delete any cookies from http://test.bewelcome.org/. Just tried logging in on test and I get no problems.

Blue skies

Peter

Hiya

Philipp made a good point in an email regarding this: the hierarchy for local groups is already in place, it's the geo structure.

However, personally I'm still against groups and subgroups - the Paris group shouldn't be part of the France group. Or, put another way, you shouldn't automatically be a member of the France group just because you're member of the Paris group.

This doesn't mean you can't have fun features though :) It's still possible for the France group to subscribe to the Paris groups posts, for example. And browsing through the groups I hope it should make it easier and more natural to find stuff - seeing as groups won't be 'hidden' in their parent groups.

Note: Sitarane, the two links you posted are identical ... could you repost whichever was wrong?

Regards

Peter

Sorry but I m not going to be Online at this time.

I ve got to play soccer -ö it s our final! Schalalala..

We had a minor discussion on the bw chat about groups - anyone interested just head to the chat and check the history. And if you have anything you feel like adding to that, comments or feedback, just post stuff here :)

Regards

Fake

Hiya

Sorry, been busy christmas'ing so haven't had much chance to work on this. I hope to pick it up early January :) As for drafts I'm working from stuff that Matthias has made - not quite sure if Matthias has put it somewhere yet but I think he meant to.

Happy New Year

Peter

I plan to get some geek-time in this weekend, so hopefully a bit of progress ;)

Happy New Year

Peter

Testing the new profiles wasn't enough, I went testing the groups too, yeah!

• Hidden group: you can see who's member (not necessarily bad, just reporting).
• When you want to post a topic in a group, it doesn't preselect this group in the field: "Choose a group below if you want to connect this forum thread to a group"
• The URL of a group is just the group's number. Wouldn't it be nice to have the name of the group (too).

Also

• I created a private group. Can someone apply to be part of it?
• Can user 'Globetest' invite me to join his secret group?

I accepted you.

The accept button is missleading. It says "accept?". I was expecting it would take me to another screen where I would have to confirm accepting, with a couple of options. But no, it just accepted. It would make more sense to name it "accept".

Or, it would make even more sense to keep the "accept?" and have that intermediate page where I could see the profile of the appliant (or a shorter version), a short message he would have written on why he wants to join and the final accept button.

Though it can be planned for future improvement...

What's the status of the group option? Is it gonna be ready for us anytime soon???? 

• I tried to leave a group that I was the only member, and it returned an error.
• The creator of a group can delete it. Even if there are still members in it? That sounds bad.
• Editing and saving wiki pages returns an error page (even though the entry is saved.

Boy! There are threads in trac? Wow...

Just added a couple of stuff. So far the errors I got 1 month ago didn't show up.  Good job :)

PRIVACY OF GROUP POSTS

(I'm cross-posting this.  Originally posted on New Features but I just realised it's more relevant here. I'm just learning how to find my way around the groups - Sorry!)

-----------