I am new here and will also say, in the short amount of time I've been here, I've also seen slightly 'dysfunctional' group. I will say that as the previous owner of my own software company, these user groups provide lots of value to the users as well as the publisher. I fully support the existence of these types of groups and whatever the publisher can do to support and encourage them.
As a first point (and having been on both a user and a publisher), how the publisher plays a role in these groups is very important. If the publisher fully controls the group, then it's not really a "user's" group. The users start to feel the publisher is just using it as a forum to push their own agenda. However, some publishers need to do this initially if the impetus from the user community isn't there to keep a group going. But then need to step away once it gets going on its own from support from the users. From what I've seen, this is a strongly supported users group and I don't think this is an issue. If the publisher steps back and doesn't participate, then the users feel that the publisher isn't listening and could care less about them. It's a fine line and the best I've found is a group that is run and supported mainly by the user community. And the publisher participates heavily in the discussion and uses the forum to clearly communicate its direction (especially on enhancements), what it is doing to fix technical problems and their stance on enhancement requests. (Even if the answer is 'no' and/or 'under consideration'). They provide resources in people, software and even monetary contributions but the publisher understands this is a 'user's' group, run and moderated by the users. As to the 'dysfunctional' nature of this group, I would break it down as really two issues. One is the inherent structure and organization of an email based system and the other is true 'dysfunctional' issues. These include people posting for their own agenda (i.e., pushing a certain religion or culture), outright spamming, flaming and 'vendor bashing'. One of the reasons for the above problems is that email based groups, such as this, technology-wise are somewhat behind the times. The nature of every posting getting distributed as an email was good, when that was all we had, but newer solutions have emerged. As a suggestion, has anyone considered moving this forum to something like Yahoo groups? Some of the other software I use have gone this route. Heck, my kid's school uses Yahoo Groups to communicate amongst the parents. It's great! Just some of benefits would be: 1. You don't have to sort through every email to save topics that might be of use. You could follow a threaded discussion from start to finish. 2. You don't get stray emails because someone replied to a persons email address instead of the groups (and vice-versa) 3. If you don't want to receive every posting, you don't have to. If you do, you can. 4. It will keep a history of all the threads so you can go back years to see what was discussed in the past. Great, because what is discussed and deleted in some of the emails today may be of importance to you next year. 5. There is a real-time chat section. 6. You can upload pictures and files to share with the group. 7. There is a polls section where the users (or Millenia) could set up questions to see what's important to the user community. 8. It's free! Disadvantages: 1. Someone or several people need to step up to moderate the group. Moderators should be the very knowledgeable users of the group who are participating in a lot of the discussion anyway. They help add value to the discussions via their expertise. The downside is that they can spend a lot of time educating new users on how to navigate the group. I've seen other groups where they set up a 'rules of the group', 'how to use this group' and even 'etiquette of using groups' posting and request that every new member read them first. The other downside to moderating is that the moderators can spend a lot of time trying to keep 'spammers' and 'flamers' to a minimum. While they can ban abusers from the group, the insistent spammers and flamers just log back in under another id. There are ways around this which can be discussed if this users group wants to go in that direction. I've seen organized groups set up several moderators at a time. An advantage of this is that this sometimes onerous task, isn't the burden of one person. In addition, the group doesn't feel like one person is dominating the group. The group can even vote on who the moderators will be and rotate their terms in that position. Users of the group quickly see who the valuable contributors of the group are and quickly elect them to this position. To further encourage moderators, I've seen the software publisher offer things to the moderators for their time, such as free upgrades, coffee mugs, t-shirts, (free or discounted tickets on their cruise...<g>....), etc. 2. Another caution is that if the group becomes really dysfunctional, I've seen splinter groups get formed and then you don't know which one has the most value and I've seen talk in the groups becomes more about why their group is better then the other rather then the main reason the group was formed in the first place. Sometimes subgroups are good though. For example, in this users community, if there were to start some international subgroups (Australian, UK, Chinese, etc.) this helps focus the subgroup on their specific issues, but remembering to participate in both the subgroup and the main group at the same time. I will say that since the current email group is hosted by Millennia (on their email system), it keeps users in one place, even if they are somewhat 'dysfunctional'. I would support moving this group to something like Yahoo groups. I think it would solve some of the issues Stan is referring to as its 'dysfunctional' nature. Sorry for this lengthy posting but I think a few minutes spent on organizing this group would add value for everyone involved. Thanks! Trent Wong -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2006 11:28 AM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [LegacyUG] Can You Help Please Of all the mailing lists I belong to...this is the most broken. I've not seen one that even approaches the level of dysfunction that I run into here. They REALLY should hire some outside help to get the list up and running smoothly. Things like checking from addresses properly would be a significant improvement - that alone is responsible for more failed messages than anything else I've been able to identify. The repeated foreign email problems are just further symptoms of this badly configured mailing list. Bring in a consultant to configure the thing - you guys concentrate on the genealogy software. PLEASE. Stan Young -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Kay Keating Sent: Wednesday, 29 March, 2006 14:17 To: [email protected] Subject: [LegacyUG] Can You Help Please I received this message this morning from a person in Australia, and am not sure why I got it. KAY -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.385 / Virus Database: 268.3.3/296 - Release Date: 29-Mar-06 Enter the drawing for a FREE Legacy Cruise to Alaska or a FREE research trip to Salt Lake's Family History Library. Open to users of Legacy 6 Deluxe. Enter online at http://legacyfamilytree.com/FreeTrip.asp Legacy User Group guidelines can be found at: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp To find past messages, please go to our searchable archives at: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup%40mail.millenniacorp.com/ For online technical support, please visit http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe please visit: http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/LegacyLists.asp Enter the drawing for a FREE Legacy Cruise to Alaska or a FREE research trip to Salt Lake's Family History Library. Open to users of Legacy 6 Deluxe. Enter online at http://legacyfamilytree.com/FreeTrip.asp Legacy User Group guidelines can be found at: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp To find past messages, please go to our searchable archives at: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup%40mail.millenniacorp.com/ For online technical support, please visit http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe please visit: http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/LegacyLists.asp
