{"id":951,"date":"2004-01-15T15:30:00","date_gmt":"2004-01-15T21:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lordandrei.com\/blog\/?p=951"},"modified":"2004-01-15T15:30:00","modified_gmt":"2004-01-15T21:30:00","slug":"new-lj-suggestion-community-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.lordandrei.com\/blog\/2004\/01\/15\/new-lj-suggestion-community-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"New LJ Suggestion: Community Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yeah, yeah. I know. I take a week off and then become the posting monster. Deal \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

I posted to LJ’s suggestion board with this. It hasn’t shown up yet (I hope it’s just the moderation and not a submit bug)<\/p>\n

I’d love comments from this journal’s readers:<\/p>\n

Title:<\/strong>
\nCommunity Guide<\/p>\n

Short, concise description of the idea:<\/strong>
\nA yahoo-style hierarchical guide<\/p>\n

Full description of the idea:<\/strong>
\nCurrently the only ways to discover communities are<\/p>\n

  • Go to a community promotional commmunity\n<\/li>\n
  • Find it on the (possibly truncated) list on an interest search\n<\/li>\n
  • Find it on someone’s userinfo\n<\/li>\n
  • Word of mouth\n

    If I actually want to find a community on (random example) alyson hannigan I can go to:
    \nhttp:\/\/www.livejournal.com\/interests.bml?int=alyson+hannigan<\/a>
    \nthe results of this (mercifully under the filter cap of 500) present me boards on BtVS, RPGs, fan boards, character relationship boards… I have to pretty much read each one and decide if they fit what I am looking for and possibly if the community is still active.<\/p>\n

    I’d like a hierarchical list that one could search from generic down to specific topic for communities. For an example see:
    \n    http:\/\/dir.groups.yahoo.com\/dir\/1600036306<\/a><\/p>\n

    This list of topics should most assuredly be searchable.<\/p>\n

    An ordered list of benefits:<\/strong>\n<\/li>\n

  • An easier search mechanism for communities\n<\/li>\n
  • A filter mechanism for communities that may not apply to a search\n<\/li>\n
  • Possible revenue for LJ for people wanting to feature their communities on a topic\n<\/li>\n
  • Possible view of community activity\n

    An ordered list of problems\/issues involved:<\/strong>\n<\/li>\n

  • New data needing to be attached to every community\n<\/li>\n
  • May have to be entered by comm moderators which lends to data accuracy\n<\/li>\n
  • May require approval mechanism (people requirement)\n<\/li>\n
  • Could be a resource hog\n<\/li>\n
  • Could infringe on Yahoo Patent?\n

    An organized list, or a few short paragraphs detailing suggestions for implementation:<\/strong>
    \nPersonally, I think the mechanism of having moderators chose their own topic in a yahoo sense is the best approach. If each topic is merely an longinteger it’s a minor additiion to the community dbase entry (I haven’t really researched this)<\/p>\n

    Basically you need a way to have a set of stock topics and sub topics and then the ability to easily suggest a sub-sub topic or suggest splitting a subtopic. From there, comm mods can request a primary and possibly a secondary topic(s) for the community. If you want this verified that can be done. Or… you can give that power to the community members.<\/p>\n

    This mechanism (to deal with the resource usage) could be another revenue stream. Cost for listing under multiple topics. Cost for promoting in a topic as a featured community.<\/p>\n

    Most importantly would be the use of the community or multi-user view that shows or lists when the community was last updated. This can be very helpful to deciding between two communities. This view (while this probably belongs in a separate suggestion) should also list number of members.<\/li>\n

    Share this:<\/h3>