Hi everyone! After my thread for a Facebook group was immediately (and correctly) taken down because it had the potential to drive traffic away, I had an idea that could keep everything right here on the site and I was asked to post this poll and get the opinions of other users
The idea would be to have a “groups” category (similar to the “Instagram Marketing,” “Tools of the Trade,” etc) within which “regular” members (trust level 2) could create subcatecories (or subforums) for any specific topic of their choosing. These would be the groups.
So, for example, a member could create a subforum for “CPA Discussions” or “Retailers” and others could create posts within that subforum. All guides and other non-group-specific information should still be posted in their respective categories (and linked to in groups), of course, but I think it would be great to be able to have different groups right here on the forum
Anyways, I would love some feedback on this idea and feel free to suggest any changes you feel make sense.
Although I think this forum needs more sub-sections to keep all this information as organized as possible, giving level 2 users the ability to create their own sub-sections will likely cause disorganization to the point its better to not have any sub-sections at all.
There are lots of “Member” (trust level 2) so that’s a lot of possibilities for disaster.
However “Regulars” (trust level 3) have worked hard to earn their status and are the most reputable users on the forum (aside from admins). If anyone should be granted the ability to add sub-sections it should first be tested with “Regulars” (trust level 3) first.
Regardless, anyone has the ability to request a sub-section on the forum by posting a topic in the section below. It will be reviewed by an admin, and then if they think it is a good idea, they can then proceed with creating it.
If there are not enough posts currently on the forum for that sub-section the chances of it being created are very small.
If there are a lot of posts currently on the forum for that specific sub-section (such as Guides/Tutorials - one of my requests) then they should have a high chance of being created.
In the end it is still up to the Admins to make the call.
You are more than welcome to request a sub-section by creating a topic in the section below:
The reason why I would consider the potential disorganization to not be of much concern is that all of it would be within its own independent category where people who have been moderately active for at least 15 days could create open groups for whatever strikes their fancy. I think this could perhaps be better suited as a temporary solution to the lack of proper groups on MPSocial.
Anyways, thanks again for your insight and I look forward to hearing the input of other users as well
EDIT: Perhaps a decent half-way measure between our ideas could be a “Groups” category in which you have to prove that at least 3 members of the forum would be joining a new group to have a sub-section created. This would definitely reduce the disorganization you were concerned about while still being fairly open to the creation of new, diverse groups. That could also be a way to make it less about your trust level and more about actual interest from forum users
As far as what you said, it does seem like a good idea, however I am not completely sure about the risks of this. An Administrator will need to take a look and address any concerns they may have regarding those who may abuse this privileged.
Basically your saying you want a Sand Box category that people can use to create as many sub-sections as they want to. Then once an admin comes across and sees that the category is doing well, they may approve it and move it to a new section,
It makes sense. In the end it will be up to the admins to decide, so we will see what they have to say
Actually, there would be no moving to a new category. There are two possible ways I can see this working (after reading your comments, I now prefer the second way)
There’s a “Groups” category which would indeed be a sandbox for any Trust Level 2+ users.
There’s a “Groups” category. To create a subforum, you have to have at least 2 other forum members confirm that they would take part in your new group (otherwise, private chat would serve perfectly well), which would then be grounds for approval to create the new group.
Of course, there may be a plethora of other potential routes to implementation that I haven’t considered
I dont think the forum has an ability to have people vote for a topic before being approved to create it. Although I could see a possibility if a topic was created inside the group category which contains the rules, and requires users to reply to that topic with a poll on whether or not the community agrees with your option to create that group/sub-section. Once the poll reaches a specific amount of votes, then you are allowed to post. Those that disobey get demoted back to trust level 1. The only issue is the fact admins will now need to spend time enforcing the rules on this section which will take up more of their time away from updating massplanner, and helping others.
Admins will agree with me when I say that the majority of people already post their topics in the wrong sections. If the majority cannot post their topics in the right category, there is a slim chance they would consider allowing them to create their own categories.
Well, I don’t know if this is possible, but what if every time someone wanted to create a group, they could create a subcategory (not a thread, but a subcategory as each group should be able to have multiple individual threads), and if there aren’t 2 threads created by 2 unique users (not including the subcategory creator), the group’s subcategory would be automatically deleted within 24 hours. That would also be an incentive to not create groups unless you already have interested people.
Although it seems like an interesting idea, I dont think MP staff will have the time to implement such a thing, when their old school method of suggesting features is working just fine.
Well, this isn’t a way of suggesting features. This is one feature that would allow people to have a pretty streamlined way of creating groups. This is in no way a replacement to asking for a new category (such as your asking for the “Guides” category). If they were to approve this, it would only be a place for people to create groups, since creating groups outside of MPSocial (such as a FB group) isn’t really viable because we aren’t allowed to post links to them.
forum is not that huge so even if you create your own subcategory/group it might get no replies and that won’t help, what I mean is 90% of the people are interested in 10% of the stuff we talk here and vice-versa
this would in time create a very big network of subcategories that might be even harder to follow than the current setup.
not even sure if this forum script would support such a thing, but considering it’s been around for 10 years and it was used to create tens of thousands of forums if no one did this successfully before there might be a reason for that.
We’ll see how we do it going forward though, as Brandon said, there will be a need for more categories the more the forum develops and this could be a idea.
