Absnasm is mostly elsewhere.
..according to the newest entry on the Robot Coop blog.
I don’t think this is a good idea. It’s one of the downfalls of Facebook that you can tell when someone has got sick of you and unfriended you, and one of the pleasures of 43T that you can’t tell without asking who is following you. And even then they don’t have to tell you.
What do you think? Actually, don’t tell me, go over to the blog and let them know.
Absnasm is mostly elsewhere.
Many of us tick the box saying “Email me site news and announcements”, but site news and announcements always seems to be stumbled upon by those of us who watch the blog, and info trickles down to the rest of the community through entries like this one, rather than users being actively informed about changes to the site. I’d welcome emails from the Robots.
About 2.5 million people have that box marked. Mailing them conversation about proposed features or changes just is not practical. The blog seems to work OK for the few hundred who really care.
Absnasm is mostly elsewhere.
I take your point about it being impractical to email that many people, but I don’t agree that the blog is an efficient way to get information out to people. I do wish more people would subscribe to it, but it’s not widely advertised or known about.
Would it be possible for you to make it a bit more obvious to more users of 43T when there’s a new entry to the blog? Perhaps there’s some way to put “new announcement” on the front page of 43T? Or you could make a link to it as part of the customisable sidebar where people show their cheers, recent activity, about me and all that stuff? I think it would really help us to feel better informed.
I think the Co-op blog works OK for getting information out to the small group of people who would get pissed if they don’t get notice about a change, but I agree it could work better and reach more people if it were set up differently.
We would need to make a new blog for 43Things if we were going to advertise it on 43Things more broadly. Right now it is a compnay blog for robot co-op, not really about 43Things specifically. We need to have a place to talk about nonsense, vacation photos, and the other sites we run. That might just be confusing on a “product” blog advertised from the 43 Things homepage.
Personally, I think a 43Things blog, tied into the site, is a good idea, but I haven’t won over the other ‘bots. Lobby Kathy and Joe! They might listen to you.
On the blog we have now though, I’m not sure we lack participation on the blog, so much as civil and constructive participation. We are already at 40 comments on this latest post, but many of these could just as easily be about “buttongate”: “don’t change the site (idiots)” or “are you trying to kill the site by making it like facebook?”. Only a few have thought about how they’d address users who want to know who subscribes to them. We’ve had a couple commenters question the existence, source and significance of these customer requests all together. Its not really the sort of dialogue that makes me think “let’s have more of this” and especially not want to feature it on the homepage of 43Things. Certainly, if we had a blog promoted across 43 Things, it would be hard to say we’d have open comments given the threats, obscenities, slanders, etc that folks use when they don’t like a change (or the people making the site).
We’ll definitely discuss a 43Things specific blog when we are back in the office on Tuesday.
that people are still smarting from Buttongate and so may be inclined to react more negatively this time than they otherwise would. There’s also the fact that to a lot of us, this site is a sort of home, populated with people we care about, and it’s a very human thing to fire up in defense of your home and family without taking the time to be diplomatic about it. And of course, different people have different styles of communication. I’m not condoning incivility, just asking you to be understanding.
I have to add that I’ve been shocked by the dismissive, belittling tone of some of your responses to commenters on the blog post. I understand that it must be really frustrating to have your genuine efforts to improve the site met with resistance, but by taking it out on the people who care enough about the site to come and give you their opinions you’re just alienating them. That’s the real issue, as I see it – it feels like you care about the site more than about the people and forget that without the people, the site is meaningless.
foreverHoping wants to plant a garden
find the career that fits my skills, natural talents and passion
Buy a motorcycle
visit all 50 states
Stop caring what other people think of me
Read every Far Side Comic Strip
Finish my website
learn stenography
Find someone who loves me for me
go to France
ldklf wants to read a book
Do homework the day I get it
see more plays
Learn how to make music with Reason
stop saying "you know" and "I mean"
desitorrent
learn to make tamales
practice better time management.
Comprar um carro
lose 10 lbs
create a non-profit organization
