Moving forward

[Amira]

I have no idea if/when the clubs will be back to normal.  I don’t think it’s a priority for the board managers, which is completely reasonable since it’s a lot of work without much benefit for them.

Here are a couple of things we might do in the meantime. Feel free to vote on the comments, on the google group, or send me a pm.  I’ll post this on the google group too.

1. Start a new club.  I can start a new, closed politics group and we switch to using that. The obvious drawback is that we’d lose everything here (if it comes back). But we could also clean up the membership a bit (there are nearly 400 members of this group and obviously the vast majority don’t ever post).  I’d have to approve anyone who wants to join, but it would be similar to how we did the google group and that seemed to work okay.  If the posts here do come back, we would have an archive of them at least.  This is probably my preferred option even though it’s not perfect.

2. Keep waiting for this group to get back to normal.  The biggest benefit is that everyone is already part of the group and we don’t have to move somewhere else again, and all of the old posts might come back and we can merge threads.  But the privacy settings are a major problem for a lot of posters right now.  I’d much rather than my posts here weren’t public. I’m fine with this option also.

3. Move back to the google group.  I didn’t like the functionality in the google group as much so I’d rather be here if possible, but if everyone would rather move back there, we’ll do that.  

 

 

[Pawz4me]

I'm fine with whatever the majority wants to do. Thank you SO much for dealing with this, Amira.

[chiguirre]

I'd prefer a new, closed club. I do occasionally think twice about posting when I know everyone can read what I write.

[Jane in NC]

I suspect that a new, closed club is probably the best option but ultimately I think the decision is in your hands, Amira. 

Just another grateful meerkat

[Minerva]

I am voting for the new closed club but grateful for whatever method we decide. 

Would there be any point to keeping this club open (though not in use) in the off chance that our old threads return?

Thank you, Amira.

[Pam in CT]

36 minutes ago, Jane in NC said:

I suspect that a new, closed club is probably the best option but ultimately I think the decision is in your hands, Amira. 

Just another grateful meerkat

 

And another.  Whatever you feel will work best.

Personally, I am not troubled if a lot of group members pop in only very rarely, or lurkers-only only ever lurk.  For me that's like the IRL folks who show up for DTC or town meetings and never speak; that's valuable too and and they are welcome too and I'm glad they come (though as with our lurkers here I hope they someday speak!).

For me the value of having a separate group-- whether it's private or public--  is first, we can discuss topics that are off limit on the general boards; and second, truly trolling behavior (not different views) can be managed appropriately.  That has only happened a handful of times with "open admission" parameters.

[Wheres Toto]

I'm okay with either option that keeps it private.

I think I post enough to be just over lurker status.  ;-)

 

[Innisfree]

I'm fine with either option. 

[Cosmos]

Agree with the others. Thanks for being proactive about this, Amira.

[Amira]

Right now, I have no control over group membership.  In fact, I think anyone can post here whether they’re a member or not and I can’t change that setting.  It’s obviously not been a problem, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t become one and there’s nothing I could do about it.  

I absolutely don’t mind lurkers.  I set up the original group to make it easy for people to join because I think we talk about lots of worthwhile things. If we started a new group, I’d definitely want lurkers to be welcome to join.  It doesn’t look like there’s a way to set up club privacy like before where anyone could join but the posts were private. If the posts aren’t visible to everyone, then I have to approve members before they can join.  I do think that having the posts be private is the more imporant thing here though.  There are a number of people not posting right now because of that.

[Amira]

23 minutes ago, Minerva said:

I am voting for the new closed club but grateful for whatever method we decide. 

Would there be any point to keeping this club open (though not in use) in the off chance that our old threads return?

Thank you, Amira.

 

I’d definitely want to keep this one alive, just in case everything comes back.  

[CindyH in NC]

I don't post much, but I read daily.  Whatever works best for you, Amira, is fine by me, also.  So many of the posters here are much more knowledgeable than I am about politics-government, and I appreciate the wealth of opinions and experience.  

[Peach]

Would a new group be here or somewhere else? If here, I don't see much difference than keeping this one and stuff there may vanish too as they tweak the groups. HOwever, I'm good wherever we land.  :)

Thanks so much Amira!

[Amira]

8 minutes ago, Peach said:

Would a new group be here or somewhere else? If here, I don't see much difference than keeping this one and stuff there may vanish too as they tweak the groups. HOwever, I'm good wherever we land.  :)

Thanks so much Amira!

You’re right, posts in a new club could just as easily disappear (although apparently our most recent batch of disappeared posts is sitting in a different club right now, so I don’t know how lost they really are). The biggest advantage to starting a new club here would be the privacy settings.  I have no control over those settings, including whether people who aren’t even in the group can post here.

[Penguin]

I have just been only a lurker, but I keep telling myself that I ought to post here so I am grateful that you are willing to keep the lurkers  :) 

[umsami]

I'm OK with either option.

 

I'm honestly surprised that my private group stayed private from the get go.  I have no idea how I accomplished that. LOL

[Bluegoat]

What I wonder is if it might be a good idea to wait and see what happens with the clubs for a bit, and let them get the wrinkles ironed out.

[goldberry]

I vote wait a bit longer.  I think migrating would lose a ton of people.  There's no way to make this group private right now?  That option still isn't available, huh?  That seems to be the only hangup to continuing here.  I vote to wait a bit longer in hopes of making it work.  Maybe another week.

[livetoread]

My only preference is not going back to the google group. It worked in a pinch, but the format here is better. Other than that I don’t care.

[Amira]

Okay, I’m going to create a new, closed group here.  I know it’s not ideal, and I know that thus group might get back to normal, but after nearly a month of this group either being down or completely open, I don’t want to keep waiting. I know this is just more switching around which is a hassle, but we have so many people not posting here now because of the privacy settings.  

I’ll create the new group now and post the link in a new thread here and in the google group.  The new group will be closed which means it will be visible in the clubs listing, but the posts will be private.  You will be able to request to join and I can approve you.