As promised, a link to this thread is now on the home page of this group: http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en
-Alex On Friday, September 14, 2012 9:15:09 AM UTC-4, Alex Hillman wrote: > > Thanks for this, Rachel, and for your dedicated help moderating the group > to keep it sane and valuable. > > We should probably put a link to this post somewhere on the welcome page > of the group since it comes up once in a while, so I'll do that today. > > -Alex > > On Sep 14, 2012, at 9:10 AM, rachel young <rac...@camaraderie.ca> wrote: > > > Hi folks, > > This is mostly for new members or those who are posting for the first > time, but also for some existing members who may not see their messages > post to the group immediately. > > The list gets a fair amount of spam, so the list is moderated. That means > that messages from e-mail addresses that aren't already approved get sent > to the moderation queue for someone to look at and decide if it is spam or > not or if we think something is a bit off with a message. There is a small > number of moderators who volunteer to moderate this list, and we all run > our own spaces and other businesses and/or projects. We do our best to get > to the messages as soon as we can, but when you see several messages come > through at the same time it's probably because one of us went in and > cleared out the moderation queue. Sometimes it's a day or two (or three - > eek!) before one of us goes in to do that. > > So what are we looking for? > > *1. Obvious spam* > None of us need to see any more spam messages about watches, car > insurance, or that little blue pill that rhymes with Niagara (even if I > type it I fear it will attract more spam), so we delete and ban those > automatically. > > *2. Real messages from new people* > These are awesome, and we allow them to go through and when we know the > messages are from a real coworking person, we are sure to click on the > little icon that allows future messages to automatically be posted, without > being caught in the moderation queue again. Sometimes someone can game the > system and pretend to post as a real coworking person and post spam after > that, but we can catch and ban those pretty quickly. However, and *this > is where those who have already posted before should take note*, > sometimes an existing member who has posted here several times before also > gets caught in the moderation queue. It happened to me just the other day, > and I'm one of the moderators! I don't know why that happened. I'm using > the same e-mail address I always have and haven't changed anything else > about my mail set up, so maybe google detected the message about the > freelance industry report as spam by the way the message was structured, > two links within a very short message, etc. So, even existing members may > get caught in the moderation queue. > > *3. Real messages from new people marketing their space to us* > This one is a bit tricky, but it's usually something along the lines of > "We're a new coworking space in xxxxxxx with this amenity and that benefit, > and we'd love to have you sign up for a membership. Book your first day at > xxxxx!" Sometimes they attach really awesome looking photos and it's a > great marketing pitch. The problem is that the majority of the people here > on the list own or manage a coworking space, but the message reads like an > invitation to join the space, which is unlikely when we already have our > own. We're colleagues, not a target market, so chat with us instead of > marketing to us. So when I see one of these messages, I don't allow it to > go through. Instead, I send a friendly message to only that person > explaining what the list is for and not for, and to encourage them to > reconsider what they are posting to match the audience. By all means they > should introduce themselves by name, announce their space, and share their > website link, but also tell us what is unique about their space, why they > decided to start a coworking space, who some of their awesome founding > members are and what they do. And then of course ask questions, ask for > help, bounce ideas off of us, and help others. And also, when they do post > again, they'll still be in the moderation queue, so it might take a day or > two for one of us to get to your message, but once we do we can enable > their to new message directly. This is all meant to be very supportive > guidance, and most people take it as such and post again with an awesome > introduction. > > *4. Other miscellaneous* > Then there are other odd messages here and there, like a message from > someone at a new coworking space asking if this is the right place to post > messages, duplicate messages, messages asking if the first one got through > (especially if the first one is still in the moderation queue), and > requests to unsubscribe, etc. Those are all addressed directly depending > on the message. > > If anyone has any questions about the moderation process or why we do what > we do, please ask. > r. > > > *____________________ > rachel young > *rac...@camaraderie.ca > > *Find us in person:* > Camaraderie > 102 Adelaide St E 2nd Floor > Toronto, ON M5C 1K9 > (647) 861-4350 > > *Find us online:* > Website/blog <http://camaraderie.ca> and > Newsletter<http://bit.ly/camaraderienewsletter> > Google+ <http://bit.ly/CamaraderiePlus>, > Twitter<http://twitter.com/camaraderie> > , Facebook <http://bit.ly/9zv3Fx>, and > LinkedIn<http://bit.ly/CamaraderieGroup> > > *Be in business for yourself, not by yourself! * > *Continue the conversations you started on May 27* > *at FLCTO2 by joining the LinkedIn group <http://linkd.in/FLCTO>.* > * > * > *Are you a coworking commitmentphobe? * > *Try the Coworking Toronto Passport Program<http://bit.ly/CTOPassport2012> > * > *for a day pass to seven spaces for one price.* > * > * > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Coworking" group. > To post to this group, send email to coworking@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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/coworking/-/rwsCjNP8240J. To post to this group, send email to coworking@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.
