This post will start a discussion, so better read carefully (and comments if any)
Public community vs private community
This community is a private one, which means that if you want to see the posts you need to ‘ask’ permission to enter (even thought we (almost) always accept anybody who ask). This is something that some people don’t like to do, even I spend time deciding to ask or not.
I’m writing this with the idea to make a public LL community, (a new one, because Google don’t let you change the privacy after creating it) but of course this will need a process, and it has pros and cons.
[And of course Pierre Hébert’s agreement! ]
The process theoretically is simple: stop posting in this community and post instead in the new one. If someone wants to see the old posts they will need to enter here, but the sooner we do the change, the less this will happen, as more post will be in the new one.
This is the list of pros/cons I think it has, you can comment others too.
Pros:
More visits: as a public community everybody will be able to see the posts, what means that more people will be able to know this (and also they will be available in Google search)
Cons:
Spam/unwanted people: this is the bad part of being a public community. I hardly remember any spam post here, and I guess it’s because if you decide to ask permission to enter, someone will need to accept you and bots don’t normally enter private communities. But I don’t know the level of spam in others so I can’t compare.
Also remember that this way your posts will be publicly available in your profile page. (Which could be good or bad)
Intermediate solutions:
Create the new community and post there some posts to see how it behaves (keeping important ones here)
Keep this one for betas/discussions and use the other for ‘share your screen’, ‘finished scripts’…
I remember at least one post talking about this topic, but nothing came at the end, so I want to start it again…to see what will happen.
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D5 Creation
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+1 for the intermediate solution
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Intermediate. Keep this community for now. But you’ve got a point. New users should be able to get answers quickly. This community might be (like others do, too) for beta testers, the other one for releases.
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Another vote for the intermediate solution.
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Intermediate is a good plan !
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Private for me…. Because, only persons who want really know, learn LLX will be here…
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I can live with all 3 🙂
Like the privacy but it would be also good if more people could read the “message” of LL 🙂
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Intermediate for me too. Let’s show screens, scripts and some tutorials to encourage people to try Llx.
If there’s a way to disable post/comment, so it can keep clean the public g+ and ask people to join the private g+ to post their questions.
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I’m totally against discontinuing this community. I don’t care about a new one.
Personally I like that my posts are not visible in my profile, so I probably won’t post a lot (or nothing, I’ll decide that only if necessary) in a public community.
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I vastly prefer a private community, but I do see value in Stahw Down’s comment about disallowing posts/comments in a public community (if that is even possible globally).
So many of the public communities are so cluttered with noise and spam as to be almost useless, but the availability to Google search is a strong point in favor of some type of limited public community.
I think that getting quick answers in this private community is almost a non-issue. There are moderators in enough time zones to keep wait time for new member approval very short.
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A public community would be good for advertising LL since the posts would show up in people’s streams that don’t have it.
As for spam and noise, that usually depends on the type and feel of the community. I’m good with whichever way you guys choose.
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On one hand, this is clear that the private mode is a requirement for many, on the other hand this privacy is also a problem when people just try to find a simple answer. Having to join the community and wait is just not possible.
As for myself the private community is enough, but I do know that quite a lot of people do not benefit from the great posts here, that’s a shame.
I fear a bit the fragmentation that could occur when two parallel communities are alive (more than the occasional spam). Even if there are clear rules… well, you know how it works, not everybody read rules.
But as I understand/feel:
– deprecating this community is not an option,
– creating a new public community which would be the “entry point”, with a link to this community is a viable option. I am not sure how it would work, but the only way to know is probably to try…
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my vision of the private community of interest is simple:
Only motivated people really take the plunge to register.
No person in this community is denied except 1 or 2 because they spammed or other reasons.
My personal experience of this group is when I discovered this group ,at this time was not managed by Pierre but Bill, because I wanted to learn more … The Lightning group was obviously in private mode.
Pierre at the time, you were on Facebook, and I have you a few motivated to discover this group G+;) All the people I’ve told to come to this group to learn, have takes the step immediately Gerd ….? 🙂
On playstore it is registered the link of community and Wiki ….
So what is the real interest free community? except spam?
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Fabrice Fournier I think that the real interest of free community is to promote LLX, to let people, (with interest for theming their phone), discovered LLX and it’s great features.
How to promote ? Show screen shots, hints, scripts and videos that show how it works. Free community may only show the “final results” and not discussion about problems, help demand …
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Salut Stahw Down 🙂
Sorry then …. If it is to promote LLX is not on G+ to do ….. For where there is still the most people is on Facebook …. . And then yes you will have a real promotion. But honestly … how can you discover a new application?
In forums with people who have it and discuss about.
Disseminating your creations in groups, forums etc …
And then yes you would draw to people.
groups of screens there are many on G+, forums also …. you have to show your creations and then only then create a group …. otherwise I do not see the interest …
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I don’t think a free community has a lot of benefits. It’s my opinion that llx will always be a niche market product. I and all people in this community love it. But we seem to forget that it has a very steep learning curve. Only those stubborn enough to learn to know it inside – out stick to it. It is not a product for the casual user. So yes, let’s promote it in a public community, but why not do this in an already existing one where users of other launchers might get to know it? My vote goes to promotion in an existing themer community and inviting interested people to the private community.
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I think the same thing… Bart Hoste
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You’re right Bart Hoste and Fabrice Fournier G+ is not the best place to promote a product
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