Idea For An Incredible, Awesome, Community-Building Message Board!
| By Sean Shealy - Dec 3rd, 2007 at 4:03 pm EST |
See, these blogs are great. They're SUPER!
Trouble is, they tend to be a very one-way conversation. And the only person participating is the person writing that particular blog. Notice all the "no comments" on all our blogs. What is it, like, 99%?
Contrast that with this message board I post on frequently. Notice that their aren't 4 "featured blogs" on the page; without scrolling, there are a dozen topics. Without going to a different page, there are 75 different topics to choose from.
And, rather than hot, juicy topics steadily disappearing to the bottom of the page, the subjects that people are interested in and want to discuss get bumped back to the top. Yet every topic has a chance to be heard; all you have to do to get a subject at the top of the list is to produce a new post. There's little-to-no "moderating," either; it isn't necessary. If your comments are boneheaded, "the people" will let you know: no one responds, and they disappear.
We desperately need this type of board for Colorado liberal-centric topics of discussion. It's dynamic, it fosters community, facilitates real two-way debate, and builds coalitions. I'd highly recommend an exact replica of the SelectSmart board.
Here's the software: http://www.phorum.org/
Questions, comments?
Yes: you in the back with your hand raised?
Trouble is, they tend to be a very one-way conversation. And the only person participating is the person writing that particular blog. Notice all the "no comments" on all our blogs. What is it, like, 99%?
Contrast that with this message board I post on frequently. Notice that their aren't 4 "featured blogs" on the page; without scrolling, there are a dozen topics. Without going to a different page, there are 75 different topics to choose from.
And, rather than hot, juicy topics steadily disappearing to the bottom of the page, the subjects that people are interested in and want to discuss get bumped back to the top. Yet every topic has a chance to be heard; all you have to do to get a subject at the top of the list is to produce a new post. There's little-to-no "moderating," either; it isn't necessary. If your comments are boneheaded, "the people" will let you know: no one responds, and they disappear.
We desperately need this type of board for Colorado liberal-centric topics of discussion. It's dynamic, it fosters community, facilitates real two-way debate, and builds coalitions. I'd highly recommend an exact replica of the SelectSmart board.
Here's the software: http://www.phorum.org/
Questions, comments?
Yes: you in the back with your hand raised?
Comments are closed for this post.
In any case, to do live links in posts. you click on the "turn on html editor" right at the bottom of the text box. highlight the text you want to turn into a link, press the little link button (it looks like a chain link) and enter the website....woo
"I do assume people like having their name attached to the site where they blog."
Right. But of course, these things aren't mutually exclusive. If you post a topic on the message board, you can always link to your blog.
Right now, there are dozens -- probably many dozens -- of Colorado blog comments on public financing of elections, for example. Trouble is, they're all independent, and none of us are talking to each other, organizing, sharing ideas. The message board would provide a central "assembly hall," so to speak, for sharing these ideas, and even driving traffic to our own pages, if that's what we're trying to do.
Just another comment (and then I'll stop with the sales job ;<} ): I read a thread on the Iowa caucus this morning on Selectsmart. Now, I could have read an "article," or someone's blog, and gotten those two points of view. Instead, I got ten different points of view -- someone from LA, someone from Ohio, a conservative from Chicago, a politico from Oregon ... it's just a much more concise and compact way to get a wide variety of informed opinion. And it's self-correcting; if you post BS, you get called on it PDQ.