Hi Alex, I think it's great this discussion has been brought up. Personally, whether Google Group or Zoho forum, they both have pros and cons and I'll manage either way.
The only thing I wanted to say was that I believe there should only be a single destination at any given moment. That is, I would not try to maintain a Google Group and a forum. It's just one more thing to keep up with. If we were to migrate to something else, we ought to tell everyone to stop using the Google Group and start using the new thing, with a big bold flashing message in the Welcome section to tell new people where to go. I recently experienced something like this with our local PHP user group. We tried to maintain both a forum and a mailing list, but in the end just confused everybody. We eventually deleted the forum. $0.02 Gerard Sychay http://www.cincycoworks.com On Feb 9, 1:42 pm, Alex Hillman <dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com> wrote: > I'm 100% with you, and will be doing some more research on Zoho's email > integration. > > My hope is that for the people currently using the group and loving it, very > little will change. Zoho will just be a new engine that provides more > options for organization and interaction. The BIGGEST gain, in my mind, is a > better process for guiding new people through existing > information...something that even searching here is hard because with > search, you have to know exactly what you're looking for. > > Threads, sub-forums, and context can guide new people to figure out what > they're looking for...even if they don't know what it is yet. > > Again, great feedback from John, thanks man! > > -Alex > > /ah > indyhall.org > coworking in philadelphia > > On Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 1:11 PM, John Sechrest <sechr...@gmail.com> wrote: > > You will want to ask that question just a bit more detailed. If you compare > > how Facebook provides email notifications and how NING uses mail > > notifications, you will find a really wide variance in usability. > > > I live in my email system, doing most of my work by email. Drupal Forums, > > Facebook and NING all fail for me in the notification of updated threads. > > They drag me away from where my attention is focused and are divergent > > forces on my attention. > > > With NING it is REALLY bad at managing your connection from email to the > > website and updating you about a thread and letting your attention to > > quickly flow to the task and back again. > > > Again, I don't know Zoho forums, but I am not able to engage in these other > > 3 methods of linking forums to email in a meaningful way. > > > I am however, able to read and track and process the google groups flow > > (since I live in my email space) > > > So the question I would interpret that you are wanting to ask is: > > Can I see an updated zoho thread in my email and know what happened with > > it, without going to the forum? > > > (otherwise, what is the value of getting an email that says: "The thread > > was updated, follow this link"? ) > > > On Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 10:03 AM, Mike Schinkel < > > mikeschin...@newclarity.net> wrote: > > >> Hmm. Will Zoho forums provide email notifications of new and updated > >> forum threads? > > >> -Mike Schinkel > >> Ignition Alley Atlanta Coworking > >>http://ignitionalley.com > > >> On Feb 9, 2010, at 12:46 PM, John Sechrest wrote: > > >> The difference between mailing lists and forums is much more complex and > >> much more subtle that you are outlining here. > > >> I have seen several efforts to move to forums blow up discussions. In > >> addition, I have also seen moves like this end up translating into a > >> biforcation of the conversation into two different groups. > > >> The choice of how you view data is a critical one. And I totally agree > >> about the need for a tool that helps you focus your attention well. For me, > >> google groups + gmail does this well. > > >> In general, I have yet to meet a forum that I like. Web based forums hide > >> information and make it harder for me to find things. I find this > >> especially > >> true of forum sites like NING. (pet peave) > > >> I do not know how zoho forums work, having never used them. > > >> For me, I am immediately suspicious when I see the word forum. Since > >> forums usually take me more time to process, take more energy to keep in > >> context. > > >> I suspect it is an information processing style issue, since these are the > >> very issues you are trying to address. > > >> I would just urge caution. A shift like this from google groups to zoho > >> forums is likely to quietly and subtly alter who is participating, and who > >> stays connected to the group. > > >> I have watched other groups have a significant shift of membership with > >> tool changes like this. > > >> Be sure you are getting what you think you are getting. And be sure you > >> know which audience you are serving with the change. > > >> On Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 7:52 AM, Alex Hillman < > >> dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com> wrote: > > >>> So, Woody just suggested that an active thread be moved out of the main > >>> channel so as to not disrupt others. While I think it was a good topic to > >>> keep in the group's visibility, his question of "can I move this to a sub > >>> folder" reminded me of something. > > >>> Google Groups kinda sucks. > > >>> To be fair, it's become our home. This is the most active repository of > >>> information for coworking, and the place where I send people first to > >>> learn > >>> more and meet more coworking people. But the Google Group is anything but > >>> good for discovery. Spam moderation is chaos for the people who actively > >>> manage it. The lack of sub-threads is annoying, and the lack of message > >>> context makes it hard to know what messages to pay attention to. > > >>> Recently, the open source javascript library jQuery moved away from > >>> Google Groups for a lot of these same reasons...to Zoho forums. > > >>> I did some research and found that a Zoho forum to support our group > >>> would cost $75/month, and incur a one-time $500 fee to migrate all of the > >>> existing data (messages, threads, and even users) from Google Groups to > >>> Zoho. There's even an option to interact with Zoho via e-mail for those of > >>> us that like this. > > >>> The pros: > > >>> - Much better organization of our knowledge. The ability to set > >>> message "topics" to things like "question", "introduction", "idea" > >>> would be > >>> HUGE for this group. > >>> - Easier on-boarding for new members > >>> - Better spam moderation tools > > >>> The cons: > > >>> - It's not free > >>> - Since it's not free, somebody needs to pay for it, which means > >>> somebody is ultimately a "keyholder" > > >>> The cons aren't huge, but they do need to be addressed. > > >>> I think this could be a very valuable evolution of this discussion forum > >>> that we all love so much. What say you, the coworking group? > > >>> -Alex > > >>> /ah > >>> indyhall.org > >>> coworking in philadelphia > > >>> -- > >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > >>> "Coworking" group. > >>> To post to this group, send email to cowork...@googlegroups.com. > >>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > >>> coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<coworking%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com> > >>> . > >>> For more options, visit this group at > >>>http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en. > > >> -- > >> John Sechrest . > >> Corvallis Benton . > >> Chamber Coalition . > >> 420 NW 2nd . > >> (541) 757-1507 . sechr...@corvallisedp.com > >> . > > >> . > > >> -- > >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > >> "Coworking" group. > >> To post to this group, send email to cowork...@googlegroups.com. > >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > >> coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > >> For more options, visit this group at > >>http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en. > > >> -- > >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > >> "Coworking" group. > >> To post to this group, send email to cowork...@googlegroups.com. > >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > >> coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<coworking%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com> > >> . > >> For more options, visit this group at > >>http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en. > > > -- > > John Sechrest . > > Corvallis Benton . > > Chamber Coalition . > > 420 NW 2nd . > > (541) 757-1507 . sechr...@corvallisedp.com > > . > > > . > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > > "Coworking" group. > > To post to this group, send email to cowork...@googlegroups.com. > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<coworking%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com> > > . > > For more options, visit this group at > >http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. 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