Dear all
Google+ is shutting down soon. Please help me select a new home for the community as I don’t see many obvious options yet.
Each option has its pros and cons but none of them fully fill the bill.
At the moment my preference goes to a good old bulletin board. One one hand I can setup a phpBB (or other?) instance easily, it’s independent and packed with well enough features. On the other hand it requires a new account and might be overwhelming for newcomers. I’m not too attracted by existing forums which have the same drawbacks, but without the benefits.
Next I thought at facebook groups. A lot of people have a facebook account, so it’s easy to join a group. Also it’s probably very easy to setup and follow. But… as I don’t use facebook myself, I don’t know exactly how it works exactly and whether it would be a good option or not.
Similar to a forum is google groups, but I don’t like this option. It’s outdated, slow as hell and I’m not 100% sure that it will not follow the same path as G+ soon.
Next are other social networks, but they mostly share the same issues: need a new account, lack of independence, no personal experience (but yours matter).
Please tell me what are your preferences (and don’t restrict yourself to the selection above). Also this new community, wherever it will be, will need moderators. Who is interested in taking this role ?
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Facebook would be my choice… Either that, or Discord. I personally have both. My Discord is. Hannarchy#8203
It’s worth noting the format of my username. When you register for an account, you are asked to create a name (Pierreox for instance). Once the name is created, it’ll assign a number (“#8203” for instance). So when people go to search for you, they need to remember that your name is [name]#[####]. Catch me on Discord and I’ll help you along.
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Facebook, Reddit, XDA. In that order.
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phpBB with OAuth for sign up with a Google (or other) account? Would fill the need for a new account, I think
Discord is ok, I guess, but things get lost too easily I believe
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There’s already a subreddit created https://www.reddit.com/r/LightningLauncher
I suggest contacting them to make you admin
reddit.com – r/LightningLauncher
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a phpBB forum could be the best and easiest solution for you. Or a Forum like XDA
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Pierre Hébert I don’t think you’re going to get around requiring new users to make an account, at least to publish posts (viewing them shouldn’t require an account preferably). Many users might have Facebook, but I think it has enough power without people using it as a forum as well. Personally I don’t have Facebook and I’m glad I haven’t “needed” it for something yet.
A quick web search also led me to many decentralised networks (diaspora, mastodon, etc.) So if you really want to be independent, but still have some kind of framework that could be a good option.
I’ve seen many people create their own discord server for their community as well, but I it would be more of a help chat than a forum. It’s not indexable by search engines either.
Then there’s Reddit. I think it’s pros are that it’s indexable by search engines, many people might have an account already and it generally lends itself quite well to being as forum afaik. The only downside is that you’re less independent, but I don’t see it going anywhere soon.
Lastly I’d like to suggest MeWe. It’s quite new and actively developed, but the most promising feature imo is that they’re planning to make posts indexable by search engines when the user chooses to. Sadly, this isn’t implemented yet.
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Xda uses XenForo I believe. Awesome forum software, but not free. Can’t move to xda, as LL isn’t open source.
I think a forum with oauth would be ideal. Everyone that uses LL should already have a Google account. So as long as you allow accounts to be created with Google, shouldn’t be too many issues.
XenForo is worth the money if you’re willing to give it a try. Imagine you could gather enough donations to purchase it.
What REALLY sucks is losing all the info already shared to this community. Think you could export to WordPress, but that is it (not even sure how well that works.)
Other forum software allows you to import from WordPress too, so you MIGHT be able to transfer things with two exports.
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phpBB + Google sign-in option. One doesn’t need a separate account and can use their Google login as currently for Google+. (But with possibility to have a separate phpBB account, if one wishes)
Google Groups has a web interface and might be an option.
Facebook is like instant messaging and you couldn’t do any successful searches on any posts more than a day old, you couldn’t browse or sort posts in a meaningful way 🙁 This is more like a place for announcements and short-living information.
Can’t comment on Reddit.
Might also be a sub-forum of some existing popular platform, like XDA, but this might require additional account.
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Anything that allows Google sign in removes the need for a new account.
I do use Facebook, but for very different reasons than I use G+ or technical forums. Personally, I don’t think Facebook lends itself to this sort of use, and I’d vote against it. Apart from anything else, I don’t trust Facebook any further than I could throw it.
A number of the G+ Communities I’m a member of are migrating to MeWe groups (and many were vehemently opposed to using Facebook groups). MeWe groups have a lot of similarities to G+ Communities, plus some additional features, such as the ability to ask questions when requesting access to a restricted group. On the other hand, there’s no way to disable comments on a post, or (yet) to link to a particular post. And there’s no way to see any posts without signing into MeWe, or to see posts in a Group without joining the Group. MeWe has Google sign in.
If you do set up a Group there, I’d recommend disabling the associated chat for it though.
YouMe https://www.youme.social/ also looks promising – see this write up https://plus.google.com/+almVancouver/posts/61ybQWKt6DD
YouMe also has Google sign in.
I also asked about controlling trolls and spammers on YouMe.
Q: One thing that most social startups overlook to start off with is how to deal with undesirable users and content.
To start off with, it’s never a problem, because the critical mass / membership isn’t large enough to make it worth a spammer or troll’s time to use.
But if ANY social network becomes popular, you can guarantee that spammers and trolls will start to target it, so it’s necessary for users to be able to effectively deal with it before it becomes unmanageable (by reporting, banning, blocking, etc.)
What strategies does YouMe have for dealing with undesirable users and content? And are they scalable as the network (hopefully) grows?
Best Regards,
Social Network Administration
A: Hi Julie,
Thanks for your email.
The site has an inbuilt spam catcher which should disable the posting party and flag their posts.
Users can also flag posts as being spam or those from trolls.
I have a zero tolerance level for either. Those that do troll or spam will be removed and blocked from coming back.
I can’t give you too much detail for obvious reasons, however rest assured YouMe won’t become like Google+ and Facebook are where it takes ages to have them removed.
Jamez
—I have signed up for YouMe (using my Google account), but haven’t had time to play with it yet. Android and iOS apps have been submitted to the relevant stores (see https://www.youme.social/users/view/1/activity_id:2094 ) – note that unlike MeWe, you can see the link to that (public) post without having to log in.
In general, my vote would be to use something that has the capability to notify users of new posts in the topic / group, good moderation tools, and mobile apps (specifically in my case, an Android app – primarily for the notifications).
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From the possible alternatives discussed, Facebook is the only one that I would prefer not to be chosen. I’m also inclined to a forum because I’m more comfortable and experienced, but I also like to try new things so in the end I’ll go to whatever you choose (even if it is Facebook).
About becoming a moderator, I’m interested.
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I also heard about matrix.org – Home | Matrix.org that is open source and have “bridges” to link it to other accounts.
It’s a relatively young network but it looks active and should fulfill your requirements.
I don’t know if it’s easy to set-up and maintain but it could be an option to consider.
My 0.02 cents
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I’d missed the mod request. Count me in. If Google trust me to moderate their official Help community … 😉
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Please not facebook, I hate it.
I dislike discord, because it is more of a chat software, not a forum.
Google groups is just a glorified mailing list, I think it doesn’t fit the role either.
I like the idea of reddit, as I’m already using it.
A dedicated forum seems like the best solution, with the only drawback of needing accounts. But with e.g. google oauth that becomes pretty simple.
I’d like to continue moderating almost regardless of the final choice.
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Reddit
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Nacho SolMar
Yes, I also thought about Reddit.
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Hate Facebook. Love Reddit.
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Telegram can be considered?
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Facebook
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Anyone knows the prodigits forums?
I used to be a moderator there (still am but not active). I am sure the owner could create a subforum for your launcher. The existing moderators could take care of the topics. The url is prodigits.co.uk if you want to take a look. But I would be fine also with reddit.
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I’d say XDA or Reddit, but use any page with forum like layout (except Facebook, don’t know if you can even search trough posts). And the chat layout is really bad if you want to read trough it (like looking trough few threads but they’re all mixed up).
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I am for old bulletin board (remember that BBS and fido nodes times? ).
Why?
Because of readability and simplicity; because of its in full control of Pierre.. ;
One can make any hierarchy structure on bulletin board.
Little private place for hardcore Pierre & LL fans.
if bulletin board not setuped timely and g+ is offline by then – as recovery option :
reddit or FB to just keep in touch until forum software setuped.
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Too many issues with security on Facebook at the moment and I don’t use Facebook that much. Look at others.
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Whatever we use, it needs an easy way to include pictures. A screenshot is often worth a thousand words.
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I wouldn’t use facebook if I was paid to. I agree with Pierre. None of the options are a perfect fit. Reddit’s privacy policy seems a little questionable to me, but if I had to pick one that might be similar to G+ that’s probably what I would pick because the subreddits would be similar to a community (r/lightninglauncher).
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Reddit for sure. A lot of folks refuse to have a Facebook account for privacy concerns. Nobody seems to object to Reddit since it doesn’t tend to want to know your entire life to create an account.
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Thank you all for your * great* input!
I believe the winner will be either phpBB or Reddit.
As phpBB provides more flexibility and structuration than Reddit, I’ll experiment with phpBB first. If I manage to setup an instance with oauth signin and some mobile app access/notification, then we’ll go for it. I’m on it right now.
In the meantime I tried to backup the current communities (this one and the public one) with mitigated results. I’m using the Google+ Exporter tool from +Friends+Me but I ran into several technical issues. The last one being new rate limitation rules from google that prevent the exporter to run…
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I think that a forum will be the best option too.
I don’t use Reddit but read some posts on it and it feels really messy to me.
I don’t really care to have to create another account on it : I already have a lot of that kind of accounts so one more is not really an issue. 😉
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Pierre Hébert I think the Captcha issue for the export has been resolved now, so you might want to try again.
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Julie Wills still no luck 🙁 I switched network but It’s failling again a few dozen posts later…
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Pierre Hébert I know that discussions are happening with the product manager to see what can be done.
The issue seems to be that as more people try to use it, it’s generating DDOS levels of calls (probably because it has to explicitly open comments to get them all), hence the Captcha.
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Maybe my input comes too late, but I think it would be a good idea to have a Discord server on top of whatever ends up being used. It should take relatively little resources to keep running, give an access point for more casual users, and act as a less intimidating location for quick/simple questions.
Otherwise, I see a lot of Google+ communities switching to MeWe, which seems to be a social network themed around privacy. Can’t speak for it one way or the other, though.
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Adarsh Bhat isn’t telegram more like just an sms thread? A forum of some kind seems like it would be more suitable.
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I also think that a combo forum+chat is a good idea.
One of the good/bad things about Google+ was the ability to mix casual short ‘help’ questions+answers with longer ‘look what I did’ posts.
A forum is good on the longer posts, but can become a bit annoying with small ‘talks’. On a forum, threads with a few words per post can become difficult to read. This is why a complementary service like Discord (or Telegram, but Telegram only allows one chat) can be a nice complement. I’ve seen this combo in other sites too.
Anyway, this should be better discussed after a main service is up.
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The power of Google is that it’s an integrated solution, merging most of the communication tools we are using. It’s easy to dive in, but not go away.
I made good progress on the forum. I now think this is the way to go. The great thing is that we’ll be able to select our rules and extensions, so in the end I believe it can be a real benefit to switch. Maybe a complementary service like Discord could even be attached to it, although it may be more a question of presentation than structure, I don’t know.
I’ll make an announcement soon (one or two days at most).
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Julie Wills, I couldn’t contact you directly. Since you are OK to take moderation role could you send me an email or a message so that I can give you the link to the new community? I’m interested in your feedback before it gets public.
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Pierre Hébert Done (via G+ and Hangouts)
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Instead of Discord, I prefer Slack where we can have sections, easily share links and files, it’s well-integrated in almost all OSes etc.
But a forum is enough Imo. With sections/subsection we can have places for short and long thread, howto and discussion etc.
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FB is last for me and all other social media, BB and other similar offerings come top for me, XDA I think also makes sense, but since it’s a paid program, not sure they allow that
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“I believe the winner will be either phpBB or Reddit.”
Yes, please. And no Facebook!!!
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Agreed. No Facebook.
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Agreed, no Facebook.
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The least that we can say is that Facebook didn’t have a lot of supporters here!
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