User Love June 12, 2008

This week, I am at the Voices That Matter Web Design Conference here in Nashville.  During the Wednesday luncheon, we were given the option to sit at any table that was labeled with a topic.  The idea being, you get a nice lunch but you get to discuss and exchange ideas about how to make the web better.  I chose to site at the Socializing the Social Web table.  The next table was labeled “Learning to Love Your Users”.  Nobody sat at this table, so I couldn’t resist.  I had to have my picture taken by this sign because I love our users!
A lot of ideas were exchanged over the past few days and some of these ideas will come to SoberCircle at some point in the future.  In the near future, SoberCircle will be on the leading edge of websites and your involvement with us will make you more web savvy users without you having to even work at it.  This is the nature of the web.  People who are more web savvy tend to use sites that are on the leading edge, thus they are cutting edge themselves.  Its exciting to have the opportunity to bring this website to the recovery community.

New technologies are coming that will change how we know of SoberCircle, and it will all be for the better.  As we often say on SoberCircle, more will be revealed…

New SoberCircle logo March 4, 2008

Here are our 4 final logo concepts for the new SoberCircle logo.  You care to share your opinion?  Please.

Yea/Nay system installed at 3:15 PM CT today… March 4, 2008

It has been an interesting day to say the least. This afternoon I installed the rating system (commonly referred to on SoberCircle as the Thumbs). Feedback was mixed. Several people liked the idea. Others were really upset. As you can read from my previous post Regulating open blogs in a social networking community, the intentions are good and pure.    So many people see this type of system as a popularity contest, when in truth the Post Read total we post next to the blogs in the list post a much greater representation to popularity than this “thumbs” system ever would.  We aren’t even displaying the number of positive responses for a blog to prevent this beauty pageant.  Most members felt that there was a high probability they would be excluded from the public eye because of this and they immediately felt threatened.  The truth is, it will take a lot of negative opinions to get bumped from the public eye.

Inevitably, someone will have a post get bumped off the list.  This is the equivalent of forcing a person to sit down and pass the mic after going off on a rant  about something that to the group is irrelevant.  Its the harsh truth about public exchange of communication, every once and again you have to put someone in check for their carelessness or indiscretions.  My responsibility as a community leader is to facilitate free communication and empower the user base while insuring the vast majority of members and visitors get the most out of the website.  I take this responsibility seriously.  So, I had to go back after the system was launched and add a page back that shows all the blogs regardless of whether they get bumped off the main list or not.  What this does is allows the members to have it their way, just like Burger King.

Ah, the life of a social network developer, always listening to your membership, making changes and assessing the effect – both positive and negative.   It’s not a lot of fun to have to answer questions from your members in an open chat after you make a dramatic change to such an important section of the website, but you have to step up and be accountable.  Otherwise, you lose the faith of the people….

Nasty Ass Cold Kicks Programmers Ass February 20, 2008

That would be the headline if I were writing an article about the last week or so of my life.  As I write this I am still hacking up a lung, but I feel a million times better otherwise.  Sorry to not be around and keeping things updated, but of well, thats life.

 I am finally getting a couple of days to work from home, getting 10 times more done than I would in the office.  Why is it that the office, the defined place for us to do work, is often the least productive place for us web people?  Its so annoying.  You go into the office with your mind set on accomplishing a number of things and when you leave, you find that nothing has gotten done.  You become so sidetracked that you wonder why you even bother some days.

 Of well, tomorrow is another day.  And I dont have to deal with the office.  Now only if this cough would go away…

Recovery Video February 11, 2008

I had a great conversation the other day with Doug Cuddihy, the creator of Sobriety.tv.  Doug is a talented filmmaker who has a passion for covering the stories of recovery and bringing this message of hope to the masses.  He has collaborated with the National Recovery Month campaign for years now and is looking to do great things with his website.  In the next few months were going to start incorporating great video content from great recovery related filmmakers like Doug.  Check out some of Doug’s work below and at Sobriety.tv.

Welcome to my new blog! February 6, 2008

Not wanting to jumble up the SoberCircle blog list with my ramblings about things other than good recovery talk, I have decided to start a seperate blog about my daily efforts to make SoberCircle the online home for people in recovery.