First of all - Thanks for all your hard work. You've done a fantastic job on the new look and feel of the site. I think the navigation works great on the beta.
Where I think we're all hung up is our need to "push" news and content to facilitate local activism. Ideally, this needs to be a)automatic, and b)simple.
The current (old) system does that, albeit not perfectly. Notification of new local content is entirely dependent upon the user completing the profile and flying their flag. I believe that there are many people who do not fly the flag, or who live in more than one place, like students - So, unless they proactively seek out the locale page, they do not see it.
What the old system does do well is provide an emphasized notification: Instead of being just another thread link, it is a bold notice in the upper left hand corner.
The old system's Locale page is also different than a thread in its informal look and feel - I believe this may encourage posts that otherwise might not be added to an actual thread, lest they draw the ire of the thread Nazis. It is also overwritten, rather than permanent, making it more chat-like than a thread. This format encourages a looser dialogue than we see on the threads, IMHO.
It also provides an alerting function, so we can call each others attention to threads of importance, and comment on local implications of the thread discussion, which may not interest other Freepers. It is like a thread about threads. The Locale page is also an ongoing, permanent discussion, not a thread which needs to be constantly bumped to show up in a state category. Even if we were to create such a thread, it would quickly become unwieldy, and suck up bandwidth to download old content which nobody cares about any longer. Of course, we could regularly create new threads, like the Guild does, but that creates its own archiving and bandwidth headaches.
What the new system does do well is provide a state category, so that multiple articles referring to a particular state will come across my screen on a regular basis.
What I would like to see is something that takes the strengths of what you've done on the new software, and incorporates the strenghts of the old system. My take on what this would look like:
-Notification needs to be automatic, like the old Locale page.
-Notification needs to be emphasized as higher in priority than regular threads, as it is now in the upper corner of the Forum page. After all, we are first and foremost a community of activists. Reading the news is great, but I want to be able to rally our local Freeper troops when necessary.
-The format should be less formal than regular threads, to encourage participation in free-ranging local discussions on multiple topics.
-We ought to come up with a way to include those who are either too techno-phobic or too lazy to fly a flag.
-I'd like to have a simple, memorable, local URL that we could provide at rallies, in the elevator, wherever - So that if we are talking to someone who may be interested in seeing what we're about, but may not be ready to sign up as a Freeper - We can provide an easy to remember link to get them onboard as a local activist - Which is, as we saw in 2000, often the first step in getting them onboard as a Freeper. How about something like Freerepublic.com/Wisconsin - This would take someone to the locale page, where they could read about upcoming activities in the chat on one side of the page, and see the state category articles listed on the other side of the page, with local Freeper names moved down to the bottom of the page.
-I would also like to have the ability to push to local Freepers via e-mail. Have you considered Freep mail forwarding to personal e-mail? That would allow us to rally "fallen" or intermittent Freepers when the need arises. I know this is not a trivial function to incorporate, but I thought I'd at least mention it.
I know that there is a lot of work involved in maintaining the software - But I think facilitating local activism is probably the single most important thing FR does. We ought to ensure that we maintain our capabilities in this area.
I hope this does not come across as critical, John - I certainly appreciate all that you and Jim do, and I know that there is a lot of work involved in operating and maintaining a site as complex as this one - I just want to ensure that improvements do not have the effect of fragmenting our local clusters of Freepers.
Freegards,
-LouD
I have to say, I think the state message boards work as well as they do probably because not a great number of people use them. I think a busy, chatty state board would be useless.
I do like the idea of having a convenient URL. The forums were going to have such URLs eventually. Something like freerepublic.com/news for the News/Activism forum. If I go forward with the cork board "forum-lite" forums then I think each state should be a forum.
You've given me several more angles to consider, thanks.
The best thing about the old locale (and I'm not sure when it first popped up) is that it just beckoned me one day with its waving flag, and I discovered all these brainy, witty, conservative Wisconsin people posting. I didn't have to do anything special to be part of it. It was automatic. I think that is really important because people (especially newbies) have too much to do figuring out this site to learn to sign on to separate forums -- unless it's made really easy.
I've been around a pretty long time, and I navigate around here pretty well; but I don't know where to find all these new forums you keep talking about.
BTW, LouD, are you coming to the Fox Valley grill-your-own steak gathering so that we can finally meet you? I think I met you at Cathedral Square, but it was so cold that day that I cannot remember your face. Besides, everyone was so bundled up, that we wouldn't recognize anyone from those marches anyhow -- except Lt. Gov. Farrow in her red coat, that is.
I like LouD's ideas. What it brought to mind is a format where the State pages had 2 columns. One with the current (or similar) "chat" forum, and the other column with an index of that state's topic threads. Have the names of registered FReepers in that state on a page 2.