We’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to improve exchanges on Circle of Moms. While the vast majority of our moms are helpful and supportive, we do see (and we get complaints about) unpleasant spats. Unless there’s a clear violation of our Community Guidelines, we like to let each community determine for itself what kind of behaviors are acceptable and encouraged. This does not mean we want communities to drum out unpopular contributors; rather we want to empower every community to stay on a productive track to begin with.
With this in mind, we’re wondering how you and your community members would feel about having more control over the kind of feedback you get when you post. We could build in a menu of options, and you could check off what you’d like to get back from other moms from a list that might include: support, stories of similar experiences, inspiration, ideas, recommendations (solutions, products, plans of action), resources (books, experts, websites, etc.), debate…or honest, no holds barred feedback.
Thoughts on this idea? If there’s support for it, we’ll implement it!
While I like the idea of being able to select the types of feedback – very useful too, I think – if I select “no holds barred” I just know I’m still going to get some very unhelpful woman who will comment without actually thinking first, who will be insensitive, opinionated, arrogant or just down right rude. There is no way to prevent that and still get honest feedback.
I think it would be great if you had a place where we could post suggestions on site improvements and some features that don’t work well. Like, being able to add more photos after creating an initial milestone for a child, etc.
As for community issues- I think disagreements, trolls, and whacked people are just part of social networks. You can’t really go anywhere without having to deal with it. It’s about finding the happy medium to reduce the amount of people negatively effected.
I think it would be great if the Administrator on the main page was actually ACTIVE. No one has moderated the ‘Welcome to COM’ forum since DECEMBER ’08.
It’s full of “work from home” ads and ‘hot topics’ that end in personal attacks. Many new members have complained that their questions never get answers, as there are so many ‘arguments’ over other topics – some with up to 19 PAGES of replies.
I think that having an unmonitored ‘Welcome” forum gives a bad first impression to new members that expected to find advice and support in the forum.
Someone needs to actually DO the job that they are credited for, as it’s a total mess the way it stands.
*thumbs down*
Jenn – That’s a great point. We will get somebody on that right away. We should be doing a better job with the Welcome to Circle of Moms community.
i BELIEVE THAT YOU REALLY NEED A PAGE TO WHERE A PERSON CAN POST THINGS THAT CAN BE HELPFUL TO ALL PEOPLES. SO THAT WHEN A PERSON IS TYPING YOU DONT CUT THEM OFF BEC WHEN ANSWERING OR WANTING TO BE HELPFUL .HOW ELSE ARE WE GONNA BE ABLE TO HELP?