Social Groups

[Ultimater]

As you may know, I gave the forum's recently added group (http://www.webdeveloper.com/forum/group.php) feature a shot. Ariell may have beat me to starting the first group but in general I think the feature has potential and can be utilized further with a bit of added creativity. Perhaps it is about time others started incorporating their own group ideas, surprise me.

[Dok]

I've never been a Guru before so I joined your group to boost my selfconfidence :)

[Stephen Philbin]

Oh. So that's what that notification thing about some group thing was.

I thought it was something else.

[Declan1991]

I joined your group to boost my selfconfidence :)
I fully agree, it's a brilliant way to make oneself feel good, join a group that says you are.

[Sunny G]

Cool, we have groups now. I joined a couple groups, and made some of my own.
Join, and we will raze this earth to the ground.

[toicontien]

I've joined a couple groups, but there isn't much going on. I guess I'm not quite sure what the utility of the groups section is. It might be nice to come up with a group classification system so when I'm a member of a JavaScript oriented group, for example, in the JavaScript forum it shows I'm a member of "JavaScript Gurus" group, and provides a link.

Not sure how the classification system could work. Maybe come up with some predefined tags you can associate with a group that relate the group to certain forums?

There's also just a message board that allows people to post comments. The "conversation" aspect of a group is missing completely. Comments are posted chronologically, which is the exact opposite of forum topics, which do a great job of fostering conversation. You start out at the beginning of the conversation and progress from there. It's near impossible to carry on a conversation in comments.

As a programmer, I like to share code. I see this as a possible use for groups, but there isn't really an efficient method for doing this. I see groups as a medium through which we can share knowledge. I wonder how this can be done better through groups.

Thoughts, anyone?

[toicontien]

Another thought too is integrating group updates with the user control panel, so it shows the topics you are following with new posts, and also groups you are a member of that have something new in them, be it new members, new comments or new pictures.

[Stephen Philbin]

I haven't got a clue what they're for. I haven't even seen anything group-related since that group joining notification.

What is it?

[TheBearMay]

Groups are useful for allowing people with a common interest a place to communicate with one another, but vB 3.7 provides limited functionality for this feature and no notifications of updates to the group. I'm told that 3.8 (in beta) provides extended capabilities that actually allow this idea to be of some constructive use.

[xvszero]

What does "social" mean?

[Mayday]

"Sad and demented....but social." - John Bender, The Breakfast Club

:D