Member Communications and it's Importance
Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2019 10:49 am
Honestly I know it's a stress considering CH and it's strict policy but honestly speaking, trying to connect with other keepers is such a darn hassle on this site. To the point that it really puts a dent in the sense of community here. That's not to say that this isn't a great community because it is - but it's lacking in "environmental comfort" for lack of better terms.
I understand that the logic is that Chat is what we as members make it and that's fine on paper but the fact of the matter is seeing one or two people in chat every hour for maybe five minutes isn't going to change due to the strict conditions of communication and the fact that better is offered elsewhere. I've even seen one or two members claim they want to leave or are leaving (not sure if they have yet) because of this divide between sharing experiences and providing a welcoming familial environment.
CH takes a great amount of pride in being the first of what it is, and that's awesome, but IMHO it should also take pride in its forum members and provide them with means of communication outside of forum topics. To my understanding there are pm's for tenured members but even then sharing something as basic and small as an email isn't even allowed. How do you expect to provide a community to people who have no way of communication outside of a chat that no one uses...
I can't speak for others, but I know my personal reason for not using it is...
1) It's terrible on Mobile for me and I don't have a PC atm and...
2) It looks and feels severely outdated personally speaking
I'm sure others might have a better reason, but it's clear members want better from CH and so I looked at the reasons CH didn't implement better communications.
The first reason I found was fear of members being scammed. That's really sweet of the owners but I feel this is an odd excuse as members are adults and there's a seller review section, so they can make their own choices and don't need their hands held and safety gates put up.
The second reason I found was the more common fear of members being taken advantage of, especially young ones. That's an easy fix too...put an age limit on private communications. You've already put a limit on members based on whether they're tenured of not. Put all members who aren't eighteen in a group and have that group limited. And on the off chance someone lies about their age I'm sure it'd be reported, and at that point it could be ban worthy.
The third reason I found was site safety and member privacy, but most of the sections here are public so that didn't make much sense to me either.
I'm sure there were others but I honestly can't recall them. My blunt-point here is, there's clearly various ways to go about keeping a site and its members safe without keeping all forms of contact and content behind a reinforced magically chained missile proof metal door...and if you really don't think emails, pm's for everyone, etc is a good idea after considering all of that...then why not just make a CH Discord with some mod volunteers to run it?
That way it's your own private chat that's much safer than someone's own personal form of communication such as email, you wouldn't have to change anything about the site, there are website codes that can even implement a Discord chat on the site although that may depend on the code you use yourselves, and on top of that you can verify and screen members at your discretion, set up channels that are private or public, keep everything discreet with certain bots, give mobile users 100x more usability, help members connect safely, and most importantly...build a better and more connected community as a whole.
To be frank it feels less like a worry for safety and more of a worry for lack of activity, but I've seen many community forums that actually have had more activity because of a Discord chat or a funny thing in Discord that started a thread or gave a member an idea they otherwise wouldn't have had. On one forum I'm apart of they now do a giant yearbook every year due to a Discord conversation, and that year book inspires people to make intricate posts and threads and really include everyone, what's better is that all the members work on it together along with two or three mods. That amount of passion and dedication could have never happened without the Discord server being there.
So I guess what I'm trying to say is...please consider giving members Some form of leeway. I promise we won't have a mutiny and steal your pirate ship or what have you.
Edit: Also don't you think censoring the word Discord is a little much? Next it'll be YouTube and Aim and Skype and Facebook and...wait how many of these are actually censored??? Oh just discord. Weird, it's almost like Discord feels like a threat...
--SEE MY RESPONSE ON PAGE 6 - MAGNOLIA--
I understand that the logic is that Chat is what we as members make it and that's fine on paper but the fact of the matter is seeing one or two people in chat every hour for maybe five minutes isn't going to change due to the strict conditions of communication and the fact that better is offered elsewhere. I've even seen one or two members claim they want to leave or are leaving (not sure if they have yet) because of this divide between sharing experiences and providing a welcoming familial environment.
CH takes a great amount of pride in being the first of what it is, and that's awesome, but IMHO it should also take pride in its forum members and provide them with means of communication outside of forum topics. To my understanding there are pm's for tenured members but even then sharing something as basic and small as an email isn't even allowed. How do you expect to provide a community to people who have no way of communication outside of a chat that no one uses...
I can't speak for others, but I know my personal reason for not using it is...
1) It's terrible on Mobile for me and I don't have a PC atm and...
2) It looks and feels severely outdated personally speaking
I'm sure others might have a better reason, but it's clear members want better from CH and so I looked at the reasons CH didn't implement better communications.
The first reason I found was fear of members being scammed. That's really sweet of the owners but I feel this is an odd excuse as members are adults and there's a seller review section, so they can make their own choices and don't need their hands held and safety gates put up.
The second reason I found was the more common fear of members being taken advantage of, especially young ones. That's an easy fix too...put an age limit on private communications. You've already put a limit on members based on whether they're tenured of not. Put all members who aren't eighteen in a group and have that group limited. And on the off chance someone lies about their age I'm sure it'd be reported, and at that point it could be ban worthy.
The third reason I found was site safety and member privacy, but most of the sections here are public so that didn't make much sense to me either.
I'm sure there were others but I honestly can't recall them. My blunt-point here is, there's clearly various ways to go about keeping a site and its members safe without keeping all forms of contact and content behind a reinforced magically chained missile proof metal door...and if you really don't think emails, pm's for everyone, etc is a good idea after considering all of that...then why not just make a CH Discord with some mod volunteers to run it?
That way it's your own private chat that's much safer than someone's own personal form of communication such as email, you wouldn't have to change anything about the site, there are website codes that can even implement a Discord chat on the site although that may depend on the code you use yourselves, and on top of that you can verify and screen members at your discretion, set up channels that are private or public, keep everything discreet with certain bots, give mobile users 100x more usability, help members connect safely, and most importantly...build a better and more connected community as a whole.
To be frank it feels less like a worry for safety and more of a worry for lack of activity, but I've seen many community forums that actually have had more activity because of a Discord chat or a funny thing in Discord that started a thread or gave a member an idea they otherwise wouldn't have had. On one forum I'm apart of they now do a giant yearbook every year due to a Discord conversation, and that year book inspires people to make intricate posts and threads and really include everyone, what's better is that all the members work on it together along with two or three mods. That amount of passion and dedication could have never happened without the Discord server being there.
So I guess what I'm trying to say is...please consider giving members Some form of leeway. I promise we won't have a mutiny and steal your pirate ship or what have you.
Edit: Also don't you think censoring the word Discord is a little much? Next it'll be YouTube and Aim and Skype and Facebook and...wait how many of these are actually censored??? Oh just discord. Weird, it's almost like Discord feels like a threat...
--SEE MY RESPONSE ON PAGE 6 - MAGNOLIA--