A Few Tips About Vox Groups
The Vox Groups beta was just announced yesterday afternoon, and it's great to see so many of you are already joining and creating new groups! We wanted to share a few quick tips that might help you if you want to:
Find groups to join
Visit the Explore page and click on Groups
to see all the latest groups that Voxers have created. To find a group
you'd like to join, just enter in a few tags or keywords in the search
box.
You can create a new group by clicking on the Groups link in the header. When you're creating a new group, be sure to spend a few moments adding tags to it so that people can easily find it when they're searching.
Now that you've joined a few groups, you'll want to keep up to date on what group members are sharing and saying. Just head to VoxWatch and click on Groups. Click through the tabs at the top to see all the latest posts, photos, audio, videos and books that have been added.
As Mena mentioned in yesterday's release notes, everything that you share with a group must first be added to your own Vox blog. But what if you want to share that hilarious chihuahua video with the Chihuahuas group, but not with your Neighborhood? Just set the privacy level on the post or asset to "you (draft)" and then select the group you'd like to share it with. That will let it be visible to the group, but not on your blog.
We hope those tips are helpful. Have you joined or created any groups you're really excited about?
-- Krissy
Comments
will we eventually be able to have some design templates for the vox groups? i would assume so since the feature is still in beta and whatnot.
Why not create a separate area in our Organize tab *just* for things that we're sharing in any place but our own blog? This would help keep everything clean, and we wont' have to second-guess whether something we see on our blog (while logged in) was properly posted or shared in the right areas.
Extending this issue, I think the draft UI itself (nevermind the sharing aspect) has problems as well. If a post is a draft, it shouldn't appear in-line on our own blog (again, while logged in). That's inefficient, clunky and ultimately distracting. What if I start a draft post and let it sit for a week, while I'm posting all sort of other items and that draft gets kicked back to the 3rd page?
Please consider these issues and redesign your sharing and draft UI.
I actually totally disagree. That "public/everyone" means "everyone who has bothered to create a Vox account" keeps us pretty spam-free. If someone can't even be bothered to create a (free, open) account, now that Vox has been out of Beta for a while... well, they probably don't need to comment.
I would be disappointed to see this happen. Spam would not be a welcome addition to Vox, and I bet there would be a lot more spam (from bots) than legitimate comments, in the long run.
This
helps us all communicate
in a
super-fun way.
It also helps us to
share media etc which I've been wanting to do for
God knows how long with a select bunch of people, more select than just my
over-friendly Friends and Family (not that it's a bad thing, over-friendliness), and
out of all the things Vox has updated in the past, this one is
damn near the best.
]
I totally agree with this. It is so inefficient going back and forth to my vox to post an entry to my group. It clutters up my own main vox as well.
It would be helpful to have JUST a post to group option. I also don't like having to upload all my photos and books etc etc to my main vox just to show them in the groups. I appreciate we have storage limits but can't there be an option with the groups home page to compose, and upload for each member??
Image-code verification should ward off spam bots - and IP logging should make any drama easily pinpointed (ie, no anonymous comments - all can be tracked back to an IP).
Groups were the main advantage I found at Gather. But Gather never felt quite "right" to me, compared to Vox. So I'm THRILLED beyond belief that Vox now has groups!
And I totally agree with verbminx about the Public/Everyone == Vox users.
Those image verification things can be difficult to read - the easier ones have been defeated by bots before. They're generally bad for people who have any visual impairment. Heck, *I* have decent vision and I sometimes can't figure out what a specific stretched and twisted letter is supposed to be.
They're lame, and most people don't like them - they only prefer them to spam.
There is no reason why previous readers from another blogging site can't get Vox accounts and log in. They're not invite-only anymore. CAPCHA is sucky, annoying, and very problematic for some disabled users (see above). IP identification only works absolutely where everyone has a static IP (I, for example, do not). The only magic bullet in this situation is the one that's already in effect: simply only allow commenting abilities to people who have actually bothered to get an account (which no one is forcing them to use for blogging purposes).
Furthermore, you don't join a new site if you want to keep your old audience. It's silly to join a site because you're interested in the new cool thing, and then complain about how it isn't like the old less-cool thing. I do not expect my audience here to be that of other blogs I've had. At any rate, if you read back through Team Vox posts, it's my impression that Vox wasn't built for your "internet audience" (in the impersonal sense) - it was built primarily as a more personal blogging tool intended to support existing relationships. I don't think it's Vox's fault if people are running a string of blogs and can't work out the logistics.
Finally, cross-post to LJ is built into Vox, but Blogger etc users are outta luck.
It honestly seems to me that SA would be well-served by building a few of Vox's media features into Livejournal, because everyone wants to make Vox into LJ - most user requests of this nature seem to be things that are available in LJ. LJ already exists, doing its thing, and is good at stuff like "open comments" - furthermore, if it were made more like Vox, people would scream and cry.
From my POV, if you want public commenting abilities, you use a different system: they were built for it, Vox specifically wasn't.
I think it's actually easy enough to satisfy everyone: Vox can open the anonymous commenting but make an option in users profiles to allow/disallow it, so those who are afraid of spam, can stick to the current behaviour. It can also help to adopt some anti-spam software, like the Akismet Wordpress plugin: http://akismet.com/
I don't entirely disagree with the latter half of your comment (yes, it COULD be done that way, and if it WERE done that would be the best way to do it, but it would still be better not to do it at all)...
However, and I don't mean to be rude, the first half? That's the lamest thing I've ever heard. "People will forget their passwords"? Seriously? Why have blogging sites at all? Are people too untechsavvy to, like, write something down on a notepad that they keep by the computer? Or to have the password sent to them in email, if they comment so infrequently that they can't remember it? Etc.
I think you think people are way stupider than I do. Which is an accomplishment.
Now, if the reasoning were that it's a stress on the system to have people signing up for accounts that they're not really going to use to the fullest extent, that might make more sense. Not much more, though: if people have accounts they're not using to upload large media files, that would seem to be LESS stress on the system than that caused by someone who actually does use the site to its fullest extent.
So really what we're left with is "they would suck up all the good usernames."
My eyes don't actually roll audibly, but still. They are rolling.
Why, for example, do these putative account-fearing relatives actually need to comment on a new baby's picture? What are they going to say, "This is the ugliest baby this family has ever produced?" No, they're going to say, "Aww, the little guy is adorable!" - and thus probably don't even need the ability to comment. Because, I mean... duh. We're going to assume that people who want to post pictures of their kid so publicly are only using Vox because it handles photos and videos really, really well. Otherwise, there are many other blogging sites and apps they could be using to post that stuff publicly - a big part of the point of Vox is the "family" setting (& assorted other simplified privacy levels), which only work for viewers who actually have accounts.
I think you are misled about your perception that my "perception of Vox may be misled" - what condescending claptrap. If you read Team Vox posts from around the beta period, you will see a very clear statement from Mena about why Vox was set up the way it was set up and what kind of site it's trying to be. If they choose to change that, it's their prerogative, but it doesn't necessarily jibe with the earlier mission statements. Which people who are trying to force Vox to be more like LJ or Blogger or whatever should at least be *aware* of. There are plenty of people using this site who LIKE the things that make it unique.
Furthermore, the advertisers here are a large part of what makes Vox a success or failure: the impetus to keep people happy is to keep people coming back to see the advertising, without which the site probably couldn't afford to run. A lot of these decisions must certainly be financial and related to keeping advertisers happy. (Note - they wouldn't be happy if nobody were using the site.)
There are ways in which I would like to see Vox be about 5% more like LJ (blogroll please please please?) - but putting in a Drama Portal, er, public commenting, isn't it.
I've already stated why I think that outside commenting is a really bad idea (btw, in something I wrote the other day, I misspelled CAPTCHA - there is a really good rundown of its accessibility issues at Wikipedia, and I notice that's something that nobody wants to address). I don't think I have that much more to say, and I'm not really seeing any new and interesting ideas from people who disagree with me. So... *plonk*, figuratively. Sorry.
(Anyway, it's really all up to SA, and most of the feature requests aren't actually, I think, in the comments of TeamVox posts... there's also that submission system. Only they know how many requests they're really getting for any given feature. Or, in this case, "feature" - snark snark.)
And yes, they will forget to write the passwords on the notepad, they will lose the notepad, they'll forget what the weird message on the notepad means and throw it away, etc...
I stopped blaming people for tech incompetence, as most of them are nice and intelligent in other fields, and I'm just as stupid as it comes to the areas where I'm not an expert. So if there's an easy way to solve a problem via the technical means, it could work better than educating the users.
Oh and it's not that I personally care that much for the outsiders' comments on Vox... but with the advance of the, err, web 2.0 (sorry for using the stupid buzzword! *blush*) it starts to be annoying to have a separate username/password for each and every site (and having the same one goes against my sysadmin training) Just checked my password storage - 175 entries... most likely I don't use 2/3 of them anymore but still ;) I wish the OpenID would become more widespread!
the way i see vox is the place ANYONE can blog, and the place that's constantly evolving as people's tastes evolve, but they do have a backbone they want to sculp the body around, and i commend SA and Vox for having something to build stuff around.
basically, i'm just trying to say vox is vox with a touch of other sites to feed the hounds of fanboys of other sites. vox is made to be simple, and for the most part it is. just this BETA group thing is still in the works, notice the BETA part of it, so with more positive and usefull feedback, this site can progress.
groups are great. one question... if you've accidently promoted someone to joint host... how can you undo? thanks.
--> That was an example. The point that you missed - was that, why should people be unable to participate in public posts if they wish to? I appreciate that you may feel this is a bad idea. But I disagree. And unfortunately, we're equally entitled to our opinions. Whether those opinions are listened to or not, is another matter entirely.
I think you are misled about your perception that my "perception of Vox may be misled" - what condescending claptrap. If you read Team Vox posts from around the beta period, you will see a very clear statement from Mena about why Vox was set up the way it was set up and what kind of site it's trying to be. If they choose to change that, it's their prerogative, but it doesn't necessarily jibe with the earlier mission statements. Which people who are trying to force Vox to be more like LJ or Blogger or whatever should at least be *aware* of. There are plenty of people using this site who LIKE the things that make it unique
--> I wasn't intentionally being 'condescending', and I'm sorry you feel that way. Whether you included myself in your broad statement of 'people' - I do not want to see Vox turn into LJ or Blogger - but I would like to see it improve and grow - especially ergonomically. After all, isn't the point of Vox that it's simple and easy to use? The mission statements quite clearly suggest this. Whether you agree or not, my personal opinion is that the option to allow open commenting would be a positive step forward. A way of 'tailoring' your blog the way you want it.
Furthermore, the advertisers here are a large part of what makes Vox a success or failure: the impetus to keep people happy is to keep people coming back to see the advertising, without which the site probably couldn't afford to run. A lot of these decisions must certainly be financial and related to keeping advertisers happy. (Note - they wouldn't be happy if nobody were using the site.)
--> Not entirely sure how this was relevant, but I agree with you.. Obviously decisions are financial - who runs a business without increasing profit margins? The opinion of one Vox user will not change the world. The opinion of the majority may influence decisions. There was never any question about that, in my mind..
There are ways in which I would like to see Vox be about 5% more like LJ (blogroll please please please?) - but putting in a Drama Portal, er, public commenting, isn't it
--> It seems as though you're assuming that all open comments will be drama-rants from pre-pubescent teenagers. Surely you can appreciate that for whatever reason, some people may want to have open comments on their blog. And if that's what they want - big deal. I appreciate that you disagree with open commenting, but I'm missing the big debate about it.. One opinion versus another.
I've already stated why I think that outside commenting is a really bad idea (btw, in something I wrote the other day, I misspelled CAPTCHA - there is a really good rundown of its accessibility issues at Wikipedia, and I notice that's something that nobody wants to address). I don't think I have that much more to say, and I'm not really seeing any new and interesting ideas from people who disagree with me. So... *plonk*, figuratively. Sorry
--> CAPTCHA was a suggestion. Another suggestion was IP logging and signing in with an email address. Suggestion being the key word. Agreed - there's nothing interesting/new coming up here..
I guess we'll have to agree to disagree :) I for one, wont be distraught if Vox brings open commenting into action - but then again, I wont be distraught if they don't. It's a feature that I would like to see - but it's not one I'm going to debate to death.