Hi Evan, IMHO I think 'groups' or ways of contextualising notices is going to be a key feature of OMB and perhaps even Twitter one day. Just judging by the discussions going on around Twitter there is widespread interest and many different opinions how this can be achieved.
For example take a look at the Twitter Fan Wiki on this subject: http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Groups or this blog posting and comments: http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2007/08/25/groups-for-twitter-or-a-proposal-for-twitter-tag-channels/ Twitter themselves say that this feature is 'On the Radar': http://groups.google.com/group/twitter-development-talk/browse_thread/thread/466b475335a5c2b/882aeaff5c22eb02?lnk=gst&q=groups#882aeaff5c22eb02 WRT to Evan's list, I agree on all points except: 3) 'Group' names should be in a different name-space from 'User' (listenee) names - the two serve different functions 9) How about using 'g <groupname> <message>' building on the syntax of direct messages? The downside would be that direct messages sent to a group would be 'd g <groupname> <message>' which is a bit messy. Regards, Bo Regards, Bo On Sat, 2009-01-17 at 01:39 -0500, Evan Prodromou wrote: > Hi, folks. I'm hoping to roll out a first version of 'group' > functionality for next week's release (just before MBC09). I'd love to > confirm some design decisions with you before I do. > 1. If you are a member of a group, you can direct a notice to a > group, and the group will echo that notice so that everyone > else in the group receives it. (Groups work more or less like > mailing lists in email.) > 2. Groups have nicknames, just like users, with the same > restrictions on chars and length. > 3. Group nicknames are in a different namespace from users. So, > there can be a user 'ubuntu' and a group 'ubuntu' on the same > server. Alternative: groups and users share a single > namespace. This makes addressing more consistent (see below), > but means that we lose all the 'squatted' nicknames on > Identi.ca (we can't have an 'ubuntu' group, since > 'http://identi.ca/ubuntu' already exists), or we have to > forcibly seize squatted nicknames. Neither is very nice. > 4. Groups have profiles, more or less like users. They have > profile data (fullname, homepage, bio, location, avatar/logo), > a profile URL (like http://example.com/group/groupname), and a > permanent URL (http://example.com/group/id/13). > 5. Remote users can subscribe to group feeds, just like they > subscribe to user feeds. The OMB 0.1 protocol can handle this > just fine. Maybe in OMB 0.2 we'll add some extra metadata, > like 'omb_this_is_a_group'. > 6. There will be a list of group memberships on your profile > page. > 7. There will be a list of members on a group profile page. > 8. Every group has one or more administrators who can modify the > group parameters. > 9. We'll use a separate syntax for directing a notice to the > attention of a group. I think that '!groupname hey everyone' > is probably good; I believe it's what Plurk uses. Alternative: > we use '@groupname hey everyone', and the software guesses > whether you're talking to a user or a group (based on your > subscriptions). The general feeling around here is that > guessing is bad. Alternative: if groupnames and usernames are > in the same namespace (see 3 above), then we can use > @groupname for everything and it won't matter. (This works > more like email, where you use the same kind of address for > lists and for individuals.) > 10. Notices directed to groups by non-members will be ignored. > 11. Anyone can join a group (first implementation). We may have a > flag that lets admins' approval be required for later > implementations; we might also include a 'block' feature here. > 12. Notices echoed by the group will look like the group is the > author. If user 'fred' send '!groupname hey everyone', the > notice will be resent with the author='groupname', and have > the text: '♺ @fred hey everyone'. Alternative: the author > looks like fred, and there is some extra metadata that says > the notice is 'via' the group. > 13. Groups do not do anything with direct messages ('d messages', > 'dms'). > 14. Groups will have a list of 'related groups' (defined by the > admin) on their profile page. > Feelings, emotions, opinions, furious denouncements? > > -Evan > > _______________________________________________ > Laconica-dev mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.laconi.ca/mailman/listinfo/laconica-dev _______________________________________________ Laconica-dev mailing list [email protected] http://mail.laconi.ca/mailman/listinfo/laconica-dev
