SW 1.4: Groups and Group Management Features

Groups and Group Management Features

The ability for Social Wave to succeed long term hinges on the ability for it to promote activities coordinated by group leaders. 6 months ago few people were willing to put in the effort to lead anything and making the groups easy to administrate wasn't a big priority. Thankfully, that's changing. There will also be some user interface improvements to the pages that group members see. This was greatly simplified and improved in the 1.3 release, but there are still some very rough spots that get people confused.

In the 1.4 release, Social Wave will introduce improvements that will make the groups as they exist now to be easier for one or more group leaders to control. There will also be a few new features that will help the leaders feature content that's important to the group.

Proposed Changes:

• Group Admin Control Panel split into multiple pages: The current admin control panel is just one big compressed page that's somewhat daunting at first. The group admin control panel's main page will be simplified to show just the most important details of the group with links to change advanced preferences. Probability: 90%
• Custom Content Page(s): Each group will have one custom content page to highlight important information or to supplement the ìAbout this Groupî section. Probability: 90%
• Image upload tool: Group admins will be able to upload an image as a group logo. Probability: 90%
• Social Wave subdomains for Groups: Groups started by premium members can request a Social Wave subdomain like funevents.socialwave.net. Otherwise subdomains will be reserved for popular groups of our choosing. Probability: 90%
• Custom welcome message: Currently a generic welcome message is sent out to new members to join a group on behalf of the group leader(s). Group leaders will be able to write their own welcome message to replace the generic one if desired. Probability: 90%
• Improved ìsuggest a new groupî functionality: The process for starting a new group is currently too cumbersome and requires system admin intervention to create. To encourage more people to create groups, this process will be streamlined and automated. Owners of new groups will have 30 days to get something started in their group or the group may be deleted. Probability: 90%
• HTML Email mailing list manager: Admins of groups belonging to premium members will have access to a mailing list tool they can use to manage an email announcements mailing list similar to the one we use to send out weekly Social Wave newsletters. Probability: 25%

These are development notes for the upcoming Social Wave 1.4 release planned to go out in April near our 1 year anniversary date. All are welcome to comment and make suggestions.