Let's discuss Groups!

The site is pretty much configured with the modules that made it somewhat similar to the old site, of course things will probably change nothing is set in stone, but for now it has the main things that were needed. I am going to create topics possibly one a week or one every two weeks like this one that discuss certain features of the site and I really need people to reply and participate.

I am in the middle of an exacerbation and it has been brought home to me that I really need help, the load has to be spread amongst members, I need people to take on roles on the site so it's not all left up to a few, I will write a blog about my exacerbation, not for sympathy, just so people understand why this series of posts are needed and of course so I can log my MS problems so I can have my own history of my MS.

What I need for now is people that would be willing to be a group manager, probably naively I kinda thought that the groups would be a great feature, maybe people just don't get why they can be a good thing for a site like this, so let's discuss groups in greater detail so people can understand how they can be used and what benefit they may have.

I will list below what would be expected of a "group manager" so don't worry if you already are we will discuss it now and try to get some interest generated for the groups.

This is like a first draft and will change from this discussion and ideas people contribute.groups and

Group Managers Tasks

They will be like a Moderator for their group they can delete, edit and of course add content to forums, articles, events, polls etc.

The content for groups will be specific to that state or country things like events, news and content that will interest members of your group.

Help people in their group if they ask a question about what's available in their state, this could simply involve linking to content on this site that has already been added previously

See if the MS Society in your state has newsletters they send out and asking the newsletter editor if content can be added eg. copied and pasted from the newsletter they send out.

Thats basically it, I don't envisage it being a huge job and yes you yourself can ask members of your group to help contribute to the group as well via the group forum or they can write articles about the happenings in your state, maybe write reviews on events they attend eg. MS Society events for example.

It will be all about spreading the load amongst members guiding them on how to do things after you have learned yourself of course.

Don't look at this like a full time job because it won't be, but yes you may have to spend a little time at the start to learn the new permissions you now have, it won't take long, no doubt I will need to write guides and possibly even have a forum just for the managers, so they can help each other as well.

There are many things I still need to sort out on this site, it all takes time and things like exacerbations also make things difficult. The reason I changed to this system was partly because permissions can be configured to let certain people have the power to help take some of the load, I realise I may not get any responses but please have a serious think about it as I really do need help if the site is to continue, as I say the exacerbation has given me much time to think about things, I was going to ask this at some time anyway but it has been pushed forward because of recent events in my life.

If by some chance more than one person wants to help manage a group, that's fine I will see if some permissions can be applied to more than one person, but unfortunately it seems that one person only can be manager of a group, that's not to say that it can't be changed in the furture, because it can be when people burn out, I burnt out long ago so I know how it is, so having one two or three people that are willing to help each other in managing the group would be a huge bonus.

Anyway that will do for now, please do participate and ask questions if you need to know more or are unsure. Yes this is a plea for help it is not just a thread I have created for something to do, it's a discussion that really is needed. Feel free to make suggestions, everything will be considered but understand not all things may be possible.

I will sticky this on the front page until the next site feature discussion is created.

Cheers.....Darin ;o)