Goals for 2007

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Total votes: 31

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garysturn
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new FamilySearch Forums

#41

Post by garysturn »

New FamilySearch is scheduled to have help forums to assist people in doing family history research. I am signed up as a Beta tester for the research forums. They have not started the first research fourm beta test yet.

I think the idea of this site is more to discuss the Technology behind the sites and software, discussing improvements and assisting in open source projects.

Maybe there should be a help forum site for all the different software and web sites. It could possibly be another section of this site. A "End User Help Forums" section.
Gary Turner
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bhofmann
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#42

Post by bhofmann »

RussellHltn wrote:Officially, not yet. Tom's promised that it's in the works, but it's not yet.
Ooops. Sorry to let the cat out of the bag.
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garysturn
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#43

Post by garysturn »

I just received an e-mail from the Family History Library's mailing list introducing this site. Here is part of the email: (this is not the Family History Consultant e-mail list that goes to all registered Family History Consultants and Priesthood Leaders all over the world, but it is a start in getting the word out)

Hope you are all doing well. Two websites you might find of interest. Many of you may already know about these sites, but to those that do not enjoy. Keep up the great work. Thanks - FHL Consultant Training

1. FamilySearch Labs showcases new family history technologies that aren't ready for prime time. Your feedback will help us refine new ideas and bring them to market sooner. Have fun playing with these innovations and send your feedback directly to our development teams.
http://www.familysearchlabs.org/

Their Blog: http://familysearchlabs.blogspot.com/2006/12/new-ornament-for-your-family-tree.html

2. What is LDS TECH? With the global reach of the Church, members from around the world are curious about the type of technical work we do. This web site is designed to give you a glimpse into that work and how you can get involved.
http://beta.tech.lds.org/
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bhofmann
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#44

Post by bhofmann »

This is great news!

I went out to the FamilySearch Labs site and they have some cool stuff! That pedigree viewer really works slick.
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mkmurray
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#45

Post by mkmurray »

Tom W.,

How are we doing so far on the new users goal?

I was looking through the membership list last night making sure usernames and avatar/profile pictures were in line with the Community Guidelines. I noticed that many people sign up and never come back. Would your goal be better measured in terms of "active" users (a user that visits X times a week or month)? Maybe once a month would be appropriate?
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bhofmann
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#46

Post by bhofmann »

As time goes on, there is more and more information on this forum. I was thinking it might be a good idea to send a "Come back and see all of the new information" message to inactive forum members.
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WelchTC
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#47

Post by WelchTC »

mkmurray wrote:Tom W.,

How are we doing so far on the new users goal?

I was looking through the membership list last night making sure usernames and avatar/profile pictures were in line with the Community Guidelines. I noticed that many people sign up and never come back. Would your goal be better measured in terms of "active" users (a user that visits X times a week or month)? Maybe once a month would be appropriate?
Currently active users are measured on a monthly basis. In other words, if a user returns to the forums within a month of their last visit, they stay active. The problem is that if they return to the forums and just read (and never log in), we don't know who they are. I suspect that while a lot of people are showing as inactive, many of them do come back more often but just don't have anything they want to say. So they never realize that they are not logged in and then don't get counted.

How are we doing? We fell short of our March goal by about 100 users. We are so far on track with our April goal but we need to make up some ground. Spread the word! ;)

Tom
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mkmurray
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University CS departments

#48

Post by mkmurray »

tomw wrote: Spread the word! ;)
Have you tried sending an email to the CS departments at various universities here in Utah?

I know that BYU has an email list you can subscribe to in order to receive announcements about stuff like this. I sent you some contact information a little while back for the BYU department.
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#49

Post by russellhltn »

I think there's a need to work on content. Now that the site has been operating, the "pent-up demand" is over. There isn't that much new stuff coming from the church side (yet), and there isn't that much coming from the users. So we're stuck with a lot of "wishful thinking" (as in, "if we had unlimited budgets") messages.

Work on the content and the direction, and I think the user count will take care if itself. Until some other things come on-line, the only suggestion I have is to carefully nurture the projects that have gotten started.
As time goes on, there is more and more information on this forum. I was thinking it might be a good idea to send a "Come back and see all of the new information" message to inactive forum members.
The operative word here is information and not just more posts. Content is king.
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WelchTC
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#50

Post by WelchTC »

RussellHltn wrote:I think there's a need to work on content. Now that the site has been operating, the "pent-up demand" is over. There isn't that much new stuff coming from the church side (yet), and there isn't that much coming from the users. So we're stuck with a lot of "wishful thinking" (as in, "if we had unlimited budgets") messages.
I could not agree more. This is why we've started projects like Ask a Question. Also we are working on putting more information out about some of our projects we have developed. What other kind of content would be of interest?

Tom
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