Aha, oh no and now what moments in your group..

What's new in your group? What tips have you got? 

Please share your Aha! moments, Oh no moments,  Now what? moments.

As we share, we grow

Re: Aha, oh no and now what moments in your group..

Hello,
after the new start when i took over the HST group, no one replied to the contributions I made. The group is rather small so at first I looked to ways to promote the group.. as my friends list is rather small, that was not the solution. I did not find another to to announce the revitalized group to other members in the gaia community. I did not want to send messages to other group places… it is of no intrest to balcanise (= cannabalize)groups who try themselves to keep on living by their intrested members. so in the mean time I'm reading, and will write a blog about different things : the way to bring in feelings in networks, the psychodynamics in groups, .. so by adding new stuff. Of course I still need to promote the group but is there a way to communiciate with all members at once …e.g. by a daily page “new in gaia”
echo alias michel

Re: Aha, oh no and now what moments in your group..

hi michel, what's the HST group?

Cheers,

nicole

Re: Aha, oh no and now what moments in your group..

Helo Nicole, sorry I did not reply to you earlier . I'll sent you a personal mail to explain this more. HST stands for high sensitive (group).
I'll be back with it the next days!
echo/foreigner/michel

Re: Aha, oh no and now what moments in your group..

no problem, Michel!

hugs,

Nicole

Re: Aha, oh no and now what moments in your group..

Hi all, my “Oh no” moment, better described as “oh no, not again” is when a new member joins Surviving Souls group or Multilingual group and despite invitation to post an intro, they do not react. In surviving souls, this is more of a problem, in my eyes, given the nature of the group

Re: Aha, oh no and now what moments in your group..

Hi Michel, even a small Friends list is worth notifying. Ya never know who's going to get interested and bring others. Did you also email all the people who were members of the group when you took it over, via “Email Members” ??

Assume you would announce in the Lounge, no “balkanizing” there, it's the place. And another great place is the Groups/Pods We Love on Gaia room in the Gaia Networking Group. Please contribute your description and anything you want the community to know about the group, there. 

Depending on the focus and purpose of the group, it might also be appropriate to post in the Vision Cafe, and in Gaia Community Vision. These are community-oriented groups, not specific-interest groups.

Excellent that you have joined this Mod Pod. If you browse around here you will find lots of great suggestions. Blogging and mentioning the group is a great approach, and you could also offer links to threads, in your status.

I am going to link this thread to another place in the Mod Pod where we talk about revitalizing groups, and perhaps the discussion could continue there. It's the Cultivating Communities 101 Room, and I decided we could join in the Tips on Getting a Sluggish Group Moving thread. Go here to continue this conversation, OK?

Blessings, OM Bastet

Re: Aha, oh no and now what moments in your group.. -- Intros

Yeah, Mikey, that's a REALLY common “What now?” problem, too. When I am feeling energetic, I email the member after a week or so, and again request that they post an Intro, and give them a link to that Board. 

And you can make sure your welcoming letter when they join offers the link, too, and a strongly worded REQUEST, not suggestion, that they introduce themselves.

Perhaps someone else has ideas. This is an epidemic challenge to mods.

and hey, you're online today, hooray !!

Blessings, OM Bastet

Re: Aha, oh no and now what moments in your group..

if it's any comfort, Mike, very few people who join groups write an intro. OM has some great ideas, they sound like they could really help.

Love,

Nicole

Re: Aha, oh no and now what moments in your group..

Can I ask what people see as the value of an intro?  Most of the groups I join in other forums don't have a section for them.  When I have written one in the past, I've always done so begrudgingly.  I would love to understand why you think they are important enough to send someone a strongly worded REQUEST.


Blessings!
-yvette


Need Advice? Looking for Inspiration? Ask Inspirations from Binah

Re: Aha, oh no and now what moments in your group..

I get Aha moments when I can sit back and see the members interacting with each other without any input from me. It's not often, but when it does, it's beautiful! Reminds me of being a moderator on market research group discussions when all the mod had to do, is facilitate conditions for easy interaction among group members!

Another wonderful aha! is when a member starts a discussion thread and stays engaged.

Then I go into a now what - hmmm; shall I invite them to be a mod, or will it make them feel that posting is a burden? Shall I let them be free - will moderating make them feel bound or delighted?

Don't remember any oh no's write now!

Re: Aha, oh no and now what moments in your group..

Gosh, yvette, that's a good question. I can only speak for myself. Usually posts are on a topic, and I'm asking myself Who is this person, and why are they here in this group, what do they hope to contribute or get here? I don't get the answers from reading their profile or checking their photos and blogs. 

Often, workshops and seminars start with a go-round where people introduce themselves, a bit about who they are which is relevant to why they're there, what they hope to contribute or gain, etc. It helps establish rapport and trust among all the folks; it helps the group faciliator be able to direct the person to relevant content and just generally tailor their interactions with the person so the person gets the most out of the group.

It's a unique look at that person which isn't available from their other community interactions. Of course, a person could do all this in their first post, but mostly that would be off-topic, and usually posts are focused on the topic of the thread.

Gaia is different from other social networks in many ways. For one, we are friendlier, I think, and we value individuals and are genuinely interested in them as people, so we ask for Intros as a way of expressing that welcome and that interest.

Does that help you get a sense of why we request intros here? Of course, in some groups, it's somewhat more important than others, depending on the intimacy of the sharings in the group. I probably would “strongly” word a request for an intro only in a group where trust, rapport, and intimacy were important.

Blessings, OM Bastet

Re: Aha, oh no and now what moments in your group..

Thanks for the response OM, that makes sense.  I agree that there are some groups where knowing people is much more important. 

For some, it is intimidating to post an introduction before you have figured out if you really want to participate in the group.  Sometimes you join based on the title and description and are not really sure if you are going to stay.  If I know that an intro is required, I am much less likely to try a group out unless I know for sure it is something I want to participate in.

All scenarios are necessary.

Blessings!
-yvette


Need Advice? Looking for Inspiration? Ask Inspirations from Binah

Re: Aha, oh no and now what moments in your group..

Yep, all scenarios are necessary. I hadn't thought of the scenario you just described, and in that case I too would resist all attempts to get me to post an Intro before I was ready to think I would stay with the group!! But OTOH I would have been reading in the group awhile before joining, so the only question left would be how they treated ME, and giving an Intro might be part of checking that out…..

Or might not.

Good discussion of the pro's and con's of Intros!!

Blessings, OM Bastet

Re: Aha, oh no and now what moments in your group..

LOL!!! I can imagine the oh no! a member goes through when s/he just wants to lurk and the cultivator asks for an intro - or actually introduces them!!! Wish there was a way they could lurk without joining - I do that on some of the groups if I don't want to  join. In fact, one can even get an RSS feed [or one could] or notifications abt the posts in a group without joining.

That makes it clear - joining is for joining. If you get my drift! [feeling playful]

Re: Aha, oh no and now what moments in your group..

Catching the playfulness:

Yep, it's so niiiiiice that we can lurk anywhere without joining, as long as the pod is public or invitation-only, and not private.  The True Lurkers don't join, heh heh.

:)

OM