Discussion

https://futuresocial.beehiiv.com/p/inside-white-house-creator-economy-conference The White House Creator Economy Conference (WHCEC) was the first-ever event hosted by the White House's Office of Digital Strategy that convened a group of digital creators and industry professionals. Imagine creators and government officials discussing everything from mental health to AI and fair pay—all in the White House. One interesting point that came up was how the conference flipped the usual script. Instead of just listening to experts talk, the government was there to hear from creators directly. They wanted to understand our struggles, needs, and how they can support the…

Have you heard of the concept of a "nudge plus"? It's an interesting twist on the idea of a behavioral nudge—those subtle pushes we get towards making certain choices. But a "nudge plus" takes it a step further by not only steering us towards a particular behavior but also encouraging us to reflect on whether this behavior truly aligns with our personal values and goals. For example, In IPS, you can send out an Alert and require a response. A "nudge plus" design would ask the borrower if the alert gave them enough information, guidance, or instructions on the next time the user encountered the same scenario. In IPS, users earn badges, earn Helpful po…

Are independent forums - out of all options on the modern web - are appropriate or even good for users new to community building or who don't have a group yet? I'm starting to think that forums are no longer starter projects, but fairly advanced in the group-building cycle once you have an established (or can tap in to an established) audience. You probably want to start with a blog or a resource site, and then add on forums once you've built up enough followers or users.

This is fascinating: Our research shows that while people fast-forward or skip videos to avoid boredom, this behavior actually increases boredom,” Tam explained to CNN. A fear of missing out or looking for the next best thing is keeping us in unhealthy cycles. “Boredom is closely linked to our attention,” she continued. “We feel bored when there’s a gap between how engaged we are and how engaged we want to be. When people keep switching through videos, they’re not fully engaging with any one video, and are instead searching for something more interesting. https://www.fastcompany.com/91176971/tiktok-youtube-instagram-switching-boredom-worse-psychology-study

Imagine the following scenario: your child breaks her arm (ouch!), and a whole chain of events is set in motion. The parents need to immediately cancel their existing plans. The child must see a doctor. The doctor can do some important tests and prescriptions to remedy her. But there's a lot that the doctor cannot do. The only person who sees the whole job to be done - from beginning to end - is the parent. As community managers, we face similar challenges with our users. Our communities are set up to handle specific touchpoints with our members or customers, but we may not always see—or be able to influence—the entire journey they’re on. Here’s where the i…

How Front Porch Forum works? It’s easy to dismiss social platforms you haven’t heard of, or that function differently from the more well-known apps and sites. Front Porch Forum may be small by Silicon Valley standards, but it is widely used in Vermont: in a state with just 270,000 households, FPF has 235,000 active members. FPF is made up of about 200 forums throughout Vermont and in a couple border communities in New York and Massachusetts, most of them specific to individual small towns. Members sign up by location and can read and post to their local forum, as well as read some nearby ones. New posts and replies are packaged in “issues,” typically publis…

Explore whether can SQL replace Python in data manipulation tasks. Compare performance, features, and use cases of SQL vs Python in this comprehensive guide for data professionals. https://insider-wp.com/can-sql-replace-python-exploring-the-bright-future-of-sql/

AI is becoming more integrated into our lives, from helping with homework to even assisting in writing letters. But when does using AI cross the line from helpful to harmful? Recently, Google released an Olympic-related ad that stirred up quite a bit of controversy. The ad featured a father using AI to write a letter to an Olympic athlete on behalf of his daughter. Critics were quick to argue that the ad sent the wrong message, suggesting that AI should replace something as personal and creative as a child’s heartfelt words. This brings up an important question: Are we letting technology do too much for us, especially when it comes to creative tasks? Shouldn’t childr…

I recently came across a really insightful comment by another user: Billions of dollars are spent on algorithms to grab user attentions. What does this mean for independent communities who don't have such deep pockets? We shouldn't fight for social discussion. We shouldn't fight for attention. We shouldn't fight for eyeballs and low-value participation. What we should fight for is to provide deep, expert value in our niches. We need to pivot to building "success communities" rather than "social communities" - where we gather best-in-class resources around our niche, whether it's user generated content or our own published content.

Quite a comprehensive article about online communities: Online Communities: Growing, Thriving in Digital Age - WORLD INSIDER 2024 (insider-wp.com)

Do you have a cache where you store your content ideas? One of the challenges for new and growing communities is coming up with fresh new content. An idea cache is a single spot where you aggregate all of your brainstorming, so you'll never run out of ideas. Some suggestions: - Create a single spot. This makes it easier to later reference. - Be inspired by others. There are so many smart people and creative ideas already out in the world, you dont have to think of everything on your own. Funnel those other people with newsletters, their sub stacks, and into one location to browse. (It's what I do for community management ideas for Invisioneer!)

If you're a new community (or you're looking to reinvent yourself as nee), one of the hardest things to do is to break past the incumbents. One approach is to become the Challenger Brand. Challenger brands don’t try to differentiate. They try to disrupt. They don’t compare themselves to the competition. They innovate and make their messaging all about their innovations, which, of course, becomes very relevant and differentiating to customers. Figure out the core of what your competitors do, and do it differently. Then center your messaging and value proposition around that difference.

How might this acquisition change Stripe for the better/worse? Stripe acquires payment processing startup Lemon Squeezy | TechCrunch What might we ask IPS or third-party developers do to best take advantage of the new functionality that will be added to Stripe?

Pages in v5 gives us new widget areas and widget designs with powerful new capabilities and options. Are there any pages that you're planning to redo on v5? One thing I've always wanted to do is a custom homepage for each major member type (eg a new member versus a superuser) that brings in resources from around the community, instead of using the stock forum index.

What strategies do you think we can implement to improve how we communicate? Any particular tools or approaches you find effective?

Okay. I just want to take a moment to say that IPS has really upped their video walkthroughs from upbeat electronic music to poetic rhyming to describe new features. So, what's new in their new Page Builder, something that we've been expecting for awhile with v5? New widget designs: grid, featured, wallpaper, rows (table), minimal, minimal grid, and carousel that works with all of the other options. New widget areas: allows stacking or side-by-side widgets. Are you planning on overhauling any pages? Are you looking to build new pages with these tools?

I recently stumbled upon a fascinating article from The Washington Post titled "Pearls Before Breakfast." It’s about this intriguing experiment where Joshua Bell, one of the world's greatest violinists, played incognito in a DC Metro station during rush hour. Days before, he had filled the house at Boston's Symphony Hall, where seats were sold for $100. You’d think a world-class musician performing an intricate Bach piece on a $3.5 million Stradivarius would draw a huge crowd, right? Wrong. Hardly anyone stopped to listen. This experiment got me thinking about the age-old debate: context vs. content. In the world of online communities, we often emphasize the importa…