hi, I tried to follow your thread, hopefully I didn't miss anything.
I would like to see the user page/dashboard page esp. for things that
can only be done at osm.org so that is basicaly statistics and data
analysis/presentation as you pointed out. I'm not sure if another
communication channel (we have PMs, IRC, twitter, ....) would be realy
necessary but on the other hand, why not.
Personally I miss a real broadcast message, so for mapping parties, I
can notify all people within a certain area e.g. for mapping parties.
The idea with different diameters is quit good, I like to extend it,
with further options to choose the right audience: active contributors
in a area, living in a area (by home location), by relation (direct
friends), city/country/state levels, by activity (who is active at least
once a week etc.).
The spam aspect might be eliminated by the system by asking say 3 others
(registered for more than a year, actively contributing the last 2
months, living not to far away). Or this privilege can be given by
moderators/admins.
Personally I track new users with ITO (checking for people I don't know
their user pages), that can be done automatically.. Some were suprised,
but the most enjoyed my offer for help and the recommendation of our
local meetings.
I like to suggest to working on features, that can be done/are currently
done with third party services. The diary blog is nice, but lacks on
easy to use formating abilities (bbcode, ...) but for that we got the
bigger OSM blogs. We don't need a personal pinboard, as the most users
use the wiki user page for that. But maybe it's useful for people to let
them categorize themselves (would be great social data). For example
categories/tags that describe ("I'm a student that likes collecting
housenumbers and adding highly detailed informations. As well I trace
aerial imagery, but just in my state. I do communication within the
project (multiplyer) and to the outside") If this informations would be
machine readable, it would be very good for choosing communication
groups (as what we currently maintain as "local contacts"
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Local_contacts
So my point is, please don't try to create another social network, and
keep the design simple and focused on stats and communication and
provide just what is necessary. ;)
I really enjoy that people working on the RoR port!
bye
Matthias
(user:!i!)
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