Suggestions group posting on GLOBOsapiens

GLOBO strategies for version 2.0

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andreas Joined: May 02 Points: 8309 Posts: 808 Posted: 2004-02-10 08:58:00    Hello fellow members, I am currently working on an all new version of GLOBOsapiens.net Despite its design and technology there are strategic issues. It would be great if you as a member of our community could help with your opinion to make the new version even better than the current one. In the current version there are several problems which I try to solve in the upcoming. One of them is that new members are mostly not active, another one is that some people just don't understand what they can do on GLOBOsapiens and what it is good for. I see the visitor numbers increase month by month and so are the member numbers. Currently we do have over 4000 members, but where are they? The online box shows unter 10 members online. The funny thing is, that mostly this are the same members for a few weeks than the active members change. So there are definatelly people who like the site, which is why they write such great articles and publish fantastic pictures. I see some of you guys return almost every day. But its like a "member live cycle", a few weeks ahead there will be other members doing the same and the old ones are mostly gone. My question is towards this very problem. How could we achive a higher percentage of members beeing online and interacting with each other. What tools would be nice to have and what would you change on GLOBOsapiens if you would have the chance. I am open on any suggestion and of course for constructive feedback. Not everything is good on GS, and I would mostly like to hear what needs to be rethought. Thank you for any feedback on that. Andy Reply    Reply with quote    Contact andreas   janeyee Joined: Sep 03 Points: 1681 Posts: 35 Posted: 2004-02-10 14:31:00    Hi Andy, I'm looking forward to see the whole new Globo! One suggestion is to have the chat system. When I see members online, especially those in my friend list or some new people, I want to chat with them but now we can only do it through the contact or guestbook, which is not real time. Another thing is, whenever I login, the new postings (reports, pictures, forum postings etc) will be shown but once I click on any of them and come back, the list is gone. I have no idea what are new. There are so many reports and I can't be reading all of them unless I'm interested to find out more about that place. Last but not least, I suggest to setup a proper structure for all country => province/state => city => town etc. The current list is not complete. Cheers, Jane --- http://jtravelshongk-ong.blogspot.com http://jtravelsmacau.blogspot.com Reply    Reply with quote    Contact janeyee   daniserralta Premium account Joined: Aug 02 Points: 11491 Posts: 124 Posted: 2004-02-10 20:00:00    Hi Andy! Yeah! a Chat room could be a great idea. And why not some other utilities for travellers? That could make your website much more useful while travelling ... for example information as "world time lines" or "foreign currency exchange rates" , "money currencies" (with pictures of the coins and notes), "airports information", "maps" (Maps of some countries, cities or areas), "Health" (Info about vaccinations or how to make a good and useful traveler medikal kit), ........... Just an idea. Sorry for my bad english! ;) Dani! --- The journey is the reward. -- Tao saying Reply    Reply with quote    Contact daniserralta   christianj. Premium account Joined: Oct 02 Points: 6482 Posts: 69 Posted: 2004-02-10 20:19:00    Hi Andy, I think the reason for the problem is, that 'normal' user just travel one or two times a year - so they have just a 'limited input' for GS. After all reports are written and the pictures are transfered there is nothing more to do. OK, they should look around and read all the interesting reports of the other members, but in the end that is from a limited interest unless they plan a new trip and need help. So what could help to keep contact? Maybe a chat where the members are able to communicate directly with the other members. In this way there would take place an exchange of experience on a more personal level. I'm curious about the new Globo... Regards, Christian --- Just SMILE - and the world smiles with you!! Reply    Reply with quote    Contact christianj.   spaceout Premium account Joined: Jun 02 Points: 20307 Posts: 56 Posted: 2004-02-10 22:47:00    Bonjour fellow travelers, A travel chat room seems to be a key to direct communication among globo members.. Perhaps with the points accumulated, one could redeem them for something.. that may be a form of incentive for the members. And as I had proposed before, maybe a form of publication of some kind could be a way to put Globo on a more concrete level around the earth. I`m anxious to experience the new globo.. Keep up the great work everyone.. VK --- Festina Lente (Hurry Slowly) Reply    Reply with quote    Contact spaceout   jwmarkham Premium account Joined: Dec 03 Points: 4025 Posts: 4 Posted: 2004-02-11 09:42:00    Andy! First of all, I love GloboSapiens! It's been a lot of fun posting photos and albums, reading other members reports, and exchanging greetings with people from all over the world. So thank you for all the hard work you have done for us! You asked for ideas, so here are some random rantings that might help... I must confess, as I surf the WWW, I always run into sites that I join or at least bookmark. I never return to many of them. Some have lured me back to the site with e-mail newsletters. With this site, only the active members will use the chat service. Some will enjoy that. We need to get people to join the community, be actively involved, and return to the site. I think a monthly newsletter to all members would help. A monthly newsletter could list the new members, new album, report, and guide postings, and monthly award winners, with links, to make it easy for the members to access the site. It should stress "Community" and "Member". Janeyee talks about not being able to easily access the new entries. When I log in, I go to my account page. I would rather go to a homepage first, so I could access new postings, and winning members. I would also like to know why the winners were chosen each month...like a short profile, or a link to their site. It could be the page that I go to when I click on the GloboSapiens logo. I agree with Christian, that many people will only post photos for one or two trips, and most will only use the "free" parts of the site. That's how I started, and it attracts new members. To generate more interest, each member could be encouraged to post an album of their home town. Neda (lioness) from Spain is originally from Belgrade, and has a photo album and an article about Belgrade. Members would be able to participate when they are unable to travel. I think the homepage could be rearranged, to make it more community friendly. The graphic at the top is very nice, but to emphasize the community element, you could put a "member login" link under the words "travel community", and the number of members that are registered. Maybe the ads at the top are required, but it would be nicer to run them down one side of the page. The magnifying glass should be a "Search" link. When I look at the page now, the Gallery photos attract the most attention. It would be nice to make them larger and run them across the top, under the logo. The reports box could have been the width of the column, so the photo could be larger, and the ad boxes placed under that. The photos and graphic elements grab the most attention, and could be used to direct the new member or first time visitor. Just now is the first time that I actually read the "Welcome" message. It is lost on the page. And the member information is at the bottem of the page. That information needs to be used to attract new members...possibly added to the "Welcome" message. Everything about the home page should scream "Community" and "Member", for all of us that enjoy the comraderie of belonging to this community, and to encourage new membership. I actually like the advertising that appears as I go through the site. If I look at pictures of Belgrade, all of the links are to Belgrade sites. That is really very helpful. As for changes in the services, I would like to be able to sort members by country, when I click on "Community". A "Community" homepage could talk about how many members belong, and who the new members are, and how many countries are represented, and what new countries, or cities have joined this month. It could explain the rank and points element of the list. It is very difficult to find someone. It would be nice to be able to just save people's sites to my friends list, so I can go back to them. I wish more people would vote to rate photos. My photos rearrange themselves, as I go through them, when they are all the same rating, so a photo on page 10 could reappear on page 11. It is confusing when I am looking for photos to copy to an album. I don't have any doubt that you will continue to provide an excellent web site for travellers. These are just observations and suggestions, and not intended to be critical. I am looking forward to the new incarnation. Jim Markham [ This Message was edited by: jwmarkham on 2004-02-11 09:50 ] --- Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living. - Miriam Beard Reply    Reply with quote    Contact jwmarkham   andreas Joined: May 02 Points: 8309 Posts: 808 Posted: 2004-02-11 23:37:00    Hello everybody, thank you so much for your suggestions and feedback. This realy helps. I can't answer on all of your questions and great comments. However I am going through all those thoughts and it gives me ideas while working on the new site. As far as I can see now, a chat is what most of the members are after. Well, what can I say... there will be a chat ,-) There will be numbers of current content (xx pictures, xx members) on each site of GLOBO, there will be more pictures on the first page. The most immportant change is that the member pages will be the center of all. Please continue posting your ideas here, I will for sure have an eye on it. Andy Reply    Reply with quote    Contact andreas   inzaghi Joined: Jun 02 Points: 3862 Posts: 87 Posted: 2004-03-05 22:48:00    I think I still have an issue with picture uploading, a problem which we recognised since the start. Although vastly improved, it's still quite a chore uploading images onto Globo. For example, I uploaded 110 images last night and that took quite a while, with the need to input 4 pieces of information for each image. Together with time spent shrinking each of the 110 images, I must have spent more than 4 hours in all and got to bed only at 5:30am. Suggestion: why not allow us to mass upload pictures, then collate them on a single page where info of each picture may be added. To ease matters, there could be a button "same info as above image" or "same location as above image". I know that the latter suggestion already exists in a certain form, but it's still a lot of trouble having to do it image by image, always waiting for the upload page to appear. If one could do all these on single page (maybe limited to not less than 50 images per page, etc), it would be very helpful. --- Lover of just five things - travelling, photography, thick crust pizzas, the xy-chromosomes, the Italians and the Dutch. Well, I can't count, so? Reply    Reply with quote    Contact inzaghi   marianne Premium account Joined: Sep 03 Points: 20248 Posts: 349 Posted: 2004-03-06 10:43:00    Andy, Just a thought: re: active members Countries, regions or cities could have an ambassador. (a Globy) The ambassador gets a homepage on which (s)he promotes this particular country / city / region. There is a special place where questions can be asked and since the ambassador probably lives in the country or knows it very well (s)he can give accurate answers.e.g. about public transport, opening times of museums price level etc. On the page itself the ambassador can write about this country, give up-to-date information e.g. about events or other activities. visa requirements and can give relevant links. And most importantly keeps the page up-to-date. Suppose I was ambassador of the Netherlands I would mention that last week a new museum was opened in Amsterdam which is an annex of the Hermitage in st Petersburg. And at the end of this month when I would draw attention to the Keukenhof, Holland's famous flower ‘(tulips etc) garden. --- “I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” Robert Louis Stevenson Reply    Reply with quote    Contact marianne   janeyee Joined: Sep 03 Points: 1681 Posts: 35 Posted: 2004-03-06 16:32:00    Marianne, This is a SUPERB idea! I have something to add on, this is an idea from another travel web I am a member of. For each country, there could be a group of "Travel Helper". The member him/her self volunteer to be the travel helper if they feel they are able to assist and provide advise/info on that particular country. It can be more than one country and they do not have to be the citizen of that country. Jane --- http://jtravelshongk-ong.blogspot.com http://jtravelsmacau.blogspot.com Reply    Reply with quote    Contact janeyee   Page: 1 2