I get what George and Brigit are saying about the "push" versus "pull" issue
(having information sent to you versus having to go find it).
Unfortunately...it works the other way too.
My frustration with bikies is that I want the news and the ability to
communicate on the issues...but I don't want to have to sift through lots of
muttering and ranting and such. The list is also pretty active, which means
you are constantly getting update emails, even if you only get the digest. It
can be hard to sort through the fluff to get to the meat without feeling
overwhelmed. I know many, many people who have left bikies or never joined
because of the high volume of traffic...and the high volume of negative
navel-gazing banter. The nice thing about forums and blog entries is that, I at
least, find it easier to sort through the topics.The idea of Madvelocity struck
me as nice because it could serve as a filter.
That said, there are ways to make websites like Madvelocity send update notices
to users if that is what people want. For instance, Facebook sends me a notice
every time something changes. I find this annoying...but it sounds like there
is a market out there for that kind of thing for some folks.
I think that Madvelocity could really be a great community resource, but it is
going to need more than one or two people busting their butt, particularly at
the start. I have an interest in content generation...but no interest at all in
the technical behind-the-scenes stuff. My involvement in Dane101 has shown me
that community-networking user-content driven sites can work well. Though it
can't be me, I hope that there are some folks out there who can help Ken (and
Matt) with the technical maintenance and development stuff.
Perhaps it is time to find out what it is that potential users want out of such
a site...and what has kept them from participating more so far. I can make it
my project to develop a survey to circulate here and elsewhere to figure that
out. Ken, if you've already done any of this research, feel free to share it
with me under private cover.
-Dar
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