sorry, the above was a mistake!

think the ideas you mention are good. Already like the updates on the Forum Threads featuring

I also like the idea of a calendar so you can see what is on by date - consolidating Member Activities and Events. [And with a click transferring these to some kind of calendar of your own could be cool too - your personal Glocal event calendar, that you could share, or Outlook, or Nokia PC suite, or Google calendar...]
SimSim, Aug 2, 2008 @ 01:54

[quote][b]SimSim (01/08/2008)[/b][hr]sorry, the above was a mistake!

think the ideas you mention are good. Already like the updates on the Forum Threads featuring

I also like the idea of a calendar so you can see what is on by date - consolidating Member Activities and Events. [And with a click transferring these to some kind of calendar of your own could be cool too - your personal Glocal event calendar, that you could share, or Outlook, or Nokia PC suite, or Google calendar...][/quote]

Thanks SimSim

Can you please elaborate a bit about this Calendar of Activities and Events?

Should it be a list of all activities and events happening today?  A calendar that allows you to click on a date and see everything happening on that date?  Something else?

Thanks

Oded
SiteAdmin Oded, Aug 2, 2008 @ 11:13

Thanks SimSim

Can you please elaborate a bit about this Calendar of Activities and Events?

Should it be a list of all activities and events happening today?  A calendar that allows you to click on a date and see everything happening on that date?  Something else?

Thanks

Oded[/quote]

Exactly, a calendar that allows you to click on a date and see everything happening on that date. With perhaps that day / week showing on home page so you can see at a glance as you log on.

I find myself going in and out of Member Activities and Events, sorting each time by date, to see what to plan to do. And of course could do this every day as things constantly being added to (a good thing:D). For me, it is not whether it is a Member Activity or an Event that counts, it is what the happening it that defines whether I participate or not, and I just think that the Events get too little visibility. I do have alerts for them going to my Yahoo but that is overwhelming and can't be sorted by date. Plus there is some duplicity or confusion in some of the posts between these two denominations anyhow. A consolidated view, through a calendar I think would be cool.

Anyhow, if I am the only one interested in this then the demand is not there for you to make any changes...

Thanks for your interest
SimSim, Aug 2, 2008 @ 14:25

Thanks SimSim

The issue of Member Activities vs Events is also one we are thinking about alot, and opinions on whether or not we should combine them into 1 section are varied.

What about the 'News Feeds' that show you the last actions by your friends?
Do you think they would add value to the Homepage?

Thanks again

Oded
SiteAdmin Oded, Aug 2, 2008 @ 16:00

 

jeepers, I have done it again!

And how about if you just combined them, where they meet on the calendar pages for that day? But remained separate in the listings?

News feeds that showed upcoming actions by friends could be more interesting... (than last actions). But I am not sure how you would manage this unless you could combine it with the way they signed up for events in a way that wasn't an email exchange to the event organiser? That way you could be further motivated to join up. Ideally would be possible only if there were places left (where limited).

There any way that signing up for events could be facilitated by signing up through site interface, with organisers stipulating max. no it would accept? If so, and organisors could then confirm who actually came then the no-shows would be clear, and disincentivised in this knowledge... I am not saying that this info needs to be forevermore attached to their profile but perhaps over time people would be aware that they could cross a threshold of events that they had signed up to and then not showed up to, with weighting where the event places were limited... Getting carried away here?!
SimSim, Aug 2, 2008 @ 16:59

Quite honestly, dear friend, I think your website is really not bad so far, and people get used to it. In terms of content, it really is not bad at all.

I wouldn't mind if the content structure remained like this.

What can change, of course, are a little bit the colors and the design, and some functionalities, that are a bit outdated or slow at present (like the chat tool, or the message box).

But really, content structure is not bad at all. Keep it simple...
fran1008, Aug 2, 2008 @ 18:57

I second simsim's suggestions. I like calendar idea a lot.

News feed on friends network would make the front page more interesting. Please skip one new feed - when someone joins another's friend network. Activity related news feed would be most interesting. Members could register for activities that interest them (for hike or dance or movie categories)... and whenever a new activity is posted under that category, it would be nice if this could appear on their home page. Similarly, members could register for City Guide or Market Place category updates that interest them ... and this could appear on their home page news feed.

Chat options box could be taken out from the home page. It takes too much of valuable space on home page. Instead, consider personalized defaults on chat preferences (may help women who get too many unwanted chat requests).

Simsim mentions signing up interface. That too will be nice, along the ideas previously posted in these forums by Youmeco and many others. Also, take a look at the RSVP, calendar and news feed features of meetup.com; I organize outdoor activities through meetup and find the RSVP feature / activity organizer interface simple, useful and convenient. Almost everyone who signs up, shows up - probably for reasons Simsim mentions. Something similar here may be well received.
colorado, Aug 2, 2008 @ 19:33

Thanks alot for the feedback guys - its really helpful.

Re showing a calendar or Activities/Events on the site homepage -

I agree that a calendar would be useful on the Activities/Events pages - but I'm not sure it is really necessary on the site homepage.
What if we showed a list of newest Activities and Events (like the activities list we show now) and added a 'Show Upcoming' option too, so you could click on it, and the list would change from Newest to Upcoming?  Would that do the trick?

Colorado - Aside from the option to RSVP for activities, what tools do you find most useful for you, as an organizer, on Meetup?

Thanks again

Oded 
SiteAdmin Oded, Aug 2, 2008 @ 21:09

SiteAdmin (02/08/2008)

Colorado - Aside from the option to RSVP for activities, what tools do you find most useful for you, as an organizer, on Meetup?

[\quote]

Features I find useful.......

- Members can pre-register for activities that interest them. For example, into groups such as hikers, wine tasting, movie, dancing, spa, expectant moms, whatever. Once pre-registered, they get notified whenever new activity is scheduled.

- Members can choose whether they wish to receive emails notices or not. As an organizer, I feel comfortable that any messages I am sending is going only to those who want it. Nobody's inbox gets crowded with unwanted email.

- While scheduling an activity, the system allows me to link it to maps, humorous photos and other details of interest to participating members.

- I can put an RSVP limit. If the activity is full, there is way for members to communicate interest to join if a spot opens up.

- I can change any member's RSVP. If someone was a no-show even though there was a waiting list, and did not care to inform or send a courtesy sorry - I can remove them from future activity. This way, those who are compassionate of fellow members and who seriously wish to join, can.

- Automatic reminders are sent by the web site to those who RSVP'ed yes. As an organizer, I have the ability to email additional information only to members who RSVP'ed yes.

- Each activity page has information about the activity, list of members who attended, RSVP'ed yes, RSVP'ed may be, RSVP'ed no, link to uploaded photos from the activity. You can see most of this info, even after the event is over. As an organizer, this aids and simplifies organizing future activities.

- Members who attended are asked by the website to rate the activity, once the activity is over. The attendees rate the activity, the venue and leave any other comments after the event. I find all this helpful as an organizer.

Meetup has flaws too, and a lot of scope for improvement. Additionally, meetup lacks the depth and scope of glocals. Nevertheless, the above features are some of its strength. 

Hope glocals will consider the above. As Intel, GE and others preach - observe, learn and adopt best practices regardless of their source.
colorado, Aug 2, 2008 @ 22:19

> I can change any member's RSVP. If someone was a no-show even though there was a waiting list, and did not care to inform or send a courtesy sorry - I can remove them from future activity. This way, those who are compassionate of fellow members and who seriously wish to join, can. <

To the above, I should have included the following - If I change the RSVP for someone, the web site automatically sends an email to that member informing them of the removal or addition to the attendee list. As an organizer, I like this because it takes the burden off me to inform the member what happened.

There are a few other flexible display, polling and news feed features I like as an organizer, which may be easier to view than explain. You can view them here.

On the subject of home page, it would be nicer if "Housing" link on the right is replaced with "XX new posts in Housing", "Jobs" link on the right is replaced with "XX new posts in Jobs" etc.

I like the idea of photo post on home page... perhaps a randomly selected photo from most recent events, as well as including the title of few recent posts in city guide. If you include simsim's calendar idea, it would be nice to have birthdays embedded in the calendar instead of the home page.
colorado, Aug 3, 2008 @ 02:35

Wow Colorado - thanks alot for the great suggestions and examples.

I am observing and intend to adopt alot from Meetup and other sites, but because glocals includes a few different sections, its very hard to include all the fuctions/options that a specialized 'Activities' site includes.

I also think that the more fuctions/options a section includes, the steeper the learning curve becomes, so am trying to make the defaults simple, while also including more avanced tools for those willing to spend a few more minutes learning them. 

We will definitely be adding guestlist and RSVP options to our Activities section, and an option to add photos and comments to an activity, but we will also keep the simplified - 'I want replies by email' option too for smaller activities like laguage exchange, tennis partner...

Any other suggestions on how we can improve our homepage and/or other sections folks?

Thanks

Oded  
SiteAdmin Oded, Aug 3, 2008 @ 13:14

hey man,

On top of everything we talked, my strong suggestion is to keep it as simple & personalized as possible. Cheers!
Rasputin, Aug 3, 2008 @ 13:34

I follow Fran & Rasp's suggestion of keeping it simple, but as i've mentioned in a PM more about the layout:

- combing Members&Freinds Ntwk and within the tab you can distinguish all vs your friends.

- combing Activities & Events in a similar fashion but within the tab you can distinguish members vs general events by some organizations.

As for the front page:

- would be nice to utilze the right side of the page to maybe bring the photos of the 'new members' vertically down the side becasue I doubt many peploe scroll to the bottom to have a look, at least I don't.  which i bet not many people do. 

- instead of having the "who can chat with you' feature on the upper left corner, perhaps we can see a preview of your inbox (person, subject line), so you can see who's left you a message.  I know some companies blox the inbox so for those folks they could at least see who's left a message, instead of seeing the flashing inbox and not being able to access til they get home.  At least if you show the begining part of the subject line, pple can write 'call me' or 'srry, can't go tonite' or 'will b l8'. 

And btw, the 'chat' function rarely EVER works so I've given up changing it, and the setting always reverts to 'all' upon login.
YouMeCo, Aug 3, 2008 @ 22:45

what about highlighting the activities organized by people in your network?



(in this way, you can know in advance when your friends are meeting)



marcomarco, Aug 4, 2008 @ 00:24

Agree with the theme - keep the home page simple. None of the RSVP and other organizer tools for member activities should be on the home page.

Like Youmeco's idea of moving the newest members to more visible space. On my laptop, I too have to scroll down to see the newest members, and I never do that.

It is good to display newest member pictures on the "login+Join Glocals" home page. Does it serve any purpose on the home page after a member has logged in?
colorado, Aug 4, 2008 @ 04:19

[quote][b]colorado (04/08/2008)[/b][hr]It is good to display newest member pictures on the "login+Join Glocals" home page. Does it serve any purpose on the home page after a member has logged in?[/quote]

Hi Colorado

The purpose / hope is that, after logging in, people will see the newest members who joined, and will say hello/welcome to them.

Makes sense?

O
SiteAdmin Oded, Aug 4, 2008 @ 10:59

SiteAdmin (04/08/2008)

The purpose / hope is that, after logging in, people will see the newest members who joined, and will say hello/welcome to them.

Makes sense?

O[/quote]

Good intentions there. Humor me, and lets consider if the reality correlates with these intentions. 

We know your team's hard work has made glocals interesting enough to attract about 30 or more new members everyday. Perhaps not-too-distant future may see 70 to 100 new members everyday. The reality then is the space limit on post-login home page. We see only 4 new members out of all those who signed up. If welcome is the aim, perhaps somehow all of the latest new members deserve to be squeezed in there.

Then there is the other reality question... do other members regularly contact new members simply because their pictures showed up on the front page? I don't do that. Do others? It may be worthwhile to check if other members, on regular basis, contact new members whose info is posted on the post-login home page.

My preference is to clearly display the pictures and info of new members only on "Login+Join Glocals" home page. Take this out from post-login home page to make the home page simpler, more useful and personalized.
colorado, Aug 4, 2008 @ 17:25

tinkie (04/08/2008)

-I disagree that new members should be more visible. They already have opportunities to make themselves visible in the forums. Also, I think we recently talked about a new members guide idea, with maybe some mentoring going on. Remember that members sign up for all kinds of reasons, as simple as wanting to sell sthg. Who clicks on the new members pictures on the front page with nice intentions? Nobody. Only some stupid veteran members who are trying to find some naive new targets to chat up.

[/quote]

On the "Login+Join Glocals" home page, the new members info is cool. It provides social proof to potential members wondering... should I or should I not join this community. Making the new member pictures+info more visible may help market glocals.

I agree with Tinkie with her other comments. The new member pictures on post-login home page is irrelevant for reasons she explains. Instead of making 4 new member pictures more visible on post-login home page, consider taking them out. It may be more interesting to replace them with some pictures from recent member activities along with member names who hosted it.
colorado, Aug 4, 2008 @ 20:27

Another thought...

On the post-login home page, instead of pictures of new members, consider displaying pictures of members who do one of the following

- have a pending and upcoming member activity, even if the activity is not a newly posted activity (for example, if JulianT posts ....!BBQ on the Snow!...; the home page could display his picture with text: Check out JulianT's ....!BBQ on the Snow!...)

- members who post a review or something in the City Guide, along with title of their post

- new member who posts his or her first post in New Member forum, along with the title of their post

The general idea is to build on your intentions SiteAdmin.... bring visibility to something interesting to glocals community. Such member picture and caption displays on post-login home page may increase readership, participation or just celebration of those who who contribute to this site.
colorado, Aug 7, 2008 @ 20:24

Colorado - thanks for the very useful feedback and suggestions.

We are working on a big re-design right now, and will be implementing alot of your ideas into the new design.  

Bedrock - as per your suggestion, we will consider hiring a designer who can see this time :-)

Please keep the suggestions coming

Oded
SiteAdmin Oded, Aug 7, 2008 @ 22:17

Well, lots of great suggstions came forward and I hope your task will be simplified...my two-bit suggestion would be to remove the left side of the page from the home page since the "who can chat with you" i think would be better under "settings"...

agree with comments about posting more pics and utilizing the right hand side of the page....as well as combining categories/calendars etc.

maybe this has already been suggested, but someone commented by having trains trams etc....perhaps the home page should hae links to a "city guide"...i also think marketing and promotions should be kept on top of the main page....gives the site "grandeur"

what about adding one of those ...dont know what you call them....but like a banner rolling at the bottom of the page that mentions upcoming activities?

i also think a clock and today's date would be great on the home page....:D

can't think of anything else..

good luck..and happy designing...

rcheers/ros
divagirl, Aug 15, 2008 @ 00:44