Greetings Painter Community.
Change is certain and one thing that has drastically changed is community. I have noted the Painter Factory has been filling with spammers very rapidly over the past year. The underlying software we use is dated and in need of an upgrade that takes time and resources away from building better software. As a consequence, we are faced with some options, one of which I would like to share and get your feedback on.
Start a New Factory Forum using Google +Plus
Google Plus is a very powerful, free and well thought out framework for personal, public or group communications and collaboration. Over the past six months, I have noted more and more functionality, flexibility and user privacy options. The likes of Google, Facebook and Yahoo are in business to build communities and happily, they are competing to keep it compelling and in most cases, respectful of people's privacy.
Since Google is free and it has a very long track record around user privacy, I believe it is the logical place to consider for a new and improved community use. I realize there are downsides, but in my opinion, the benefits far outweigh them. Consider these points:
- Google Plus it is free, open and available 7x24, not to mention, it is maintained by a focused group of developers. Since it is highly integrated across more and more Google properties, it has long term staying power in the market
- it has tremendous new communications capabilities that our current software does not have. You can actually Hang Out with Forum members, connect over video and even share your desktop if you choose to
- it has the perceived upper hand over Facebook as it relates to user privacy. But then again, you could sign up and call yourself Bill the Cat... not that you heard that suggestion here.
I could go on with the upside and downsides, but the world has really moved to more open, scalable community frameworks. It is likely, some of you may refuse to join in if we end up proceeding with Google Plus as our new home for the Painter Factory Forum. We cannot please everyone, but if I do get considerable push-back, then I am more than willing to look at other options.
I have created a working prototype you can join...please don't assume the decision is final. This is simply a placeholder to help you visualize and try it out. Note, you will need a Google Account.
Check it out here:
https://plus.google.com/u/1/communities/118294394721741468091
You are welcome to comment on this thread, or within the Google Plus community.
Happy New Year to all!
Andy
Looks great Andy. Smart move!
Skip
Thanks for the feedback Skip. I am concerned about social media fatique since many find Facebook a challenge to keep up with or even use. Since google properties continue to integrate Plus, I think it is the winner. If we do close this community and switch to Google, it is one less network you need to actually log into.
Wasn't implying that you should host your own forum software, just find a hosting company that you like and host an IP Board or whatever software there. For starters, contact Karen Bonnaker of Painter Talk and ask how she does it.
If one or two persons can run Painter Talk, surely Corel could run a similar setup; could they not?
Doug B said:Wasn't implying that you should host your own forum software, just find a hosting company that you like and host an IP Board or whatever software there. For starters, contact Karen Bonnaker of Painter Talk and ask how she does it. If one or two persons can run Painter Talk, surely Corel could run a similar setup; could they not?
I don't know how she manages Painter Talk now, but when I was more active there, Karen had at least a couple of moderators, and two people who either did design work for the site (Chris) or served as a webmaster/technical problem solver (Ken). I assume the latter two are paid and the moderators are volunteers. I was given moderator privileges to manage my own forum there, though there was some overlap from the volunteer moderators. In other words, Karen has considerable help but it's clear she runs a very nice message board where the members are happy and the atmosphere is peaceful. It can be done.
In addition, when my own message board, TutorAlley forums, was active from October 2002 'til July 2007, before I began moderating The PainterFactory forums...
It can be done, and with a little help, done even better!
The PainterFactory is a Community of Corel Painter users and artists.
We don't need to be owned and run by big corporations who have only their own interests at heart, no matter what they want us to believe.
Jinny
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I presume Jinny is not the only one removing spam? I don't see that much spam so whoever is involved is removing it very quickly. Wouldn't more volounteer mods deal with the influx in the meantime? It's always good to have eyes on the forum around the clock.
Having said that, a deliberate and determined spam attack can be very troublesome to deal with, usually ending up with the forum shutting down for a time. It's a very depressing thing to deal with and these days spammers are very devious. It's often not long before they're back. Mods are helpless. Only those who understand the software and keep up to date stand a chance of really doing something to stop these attacks. Most of you are probably aware of this anyway!
I'm not overwhelmed by the idea of involving an anonymous giant like Google but I suppose it's worth looking in to. More and more people are communicating this way, using smart phones, etc. and keeping all their bits in one package. The more people who test The Factory on Google+ the better I suppose but it's far easier for those of us who already have a Gmail account. I hope a solution can be found.
JoeC said:I presume Jinny is not the only one removing spam? I don't see that much spam so whoever is involved is removing it very quickly. Wouldn't more volounteer mods deal with the influx in the meantime? It's always good to have eyes on the forum around the clock. Having said that, a deliberate and determined spam attack can be very troublesome to deal with, usually ending up with the forum shutting down for a time. It's a very depressing thing to deal with and these days spammers are very devious. It's often not long before they're back. Mods are helpless. Only those who understand the software and keep up to date stand a chance of really doing something to stop these attacks. Most of you are probably aware of this anyway! I'm not overwhelmed by the idea of involving an anonymous giant like Google but I suppose it's worth looking in to. More and more people are communicating this way, using smart phones, etc. and keeping all their bits in one package. The more people who test The Factory on Google+ the better I suppose but it's far easier for those of us who already have a Gmail account. I hope a solution can be found.
Joe,
Please check your PMs in a few minutes as I'm going to respond to the above that way.
Thanks,
Andy,
The google + painter factory looks great, I'd say its a fairly logical decision to move to it. I'm not a fan of facebook at all, but google + is different in many respects. It also feels more classy and professional.
To be honest I much prefer forum layouts to Google+. I get lost and bored looking for the thread of the conversation. :/
Fes said:looking for the thread of the conversation.
Definitely an issue.
Fes said:To be honest I much prefer forum layouts to Google+. I get lost and bored looking for the thread of the conversation. :/
Ditto. I hate Facebook and only use it to advertise classes. I only belong to Google so I can occasionally comment on people's blogs and I also have a blog of my own there. Otherwise, I am not a big fan of Facebook, Google+ or Gmail. I prefer using a straightforward forum, and I concur with Doug, the forum Karen Bonaker uses at Painter Talk works very nicely.
Elaina
Not to mention, the message threading is automatically passed back to one's GMAIL account. Carrying on in a dicussion using this framework negates the need to navigate to another property, login, find the post and update it. One can respond back to a discussion thread rather seamlessly right inside GMAIL.
I don't have or want a GMail account. :/ I have a Google account tor the same reasons as Elaina and personally only subscribe to very few threads (or I'm bombarded with emails). Call me an old stick in the mud... but I stll prefer the clearer layout of a forum. : )) It's easy to see at a glance what is being discussed.
Google+ and Facebook sites are ok for 'chatting' but as clear as mud for an ongoing discussion that is intermittant and may be left and come back to after several weeks. It all gets mixed up together. Style over substance.