How social are social groups here at LQ?
 

Been browsing a little through them and ohh... it was a pretty disappointing experience.

I'd say Linux and free software is all about social interaction and I'd say LQ would be a much happier and therefore a better place if social groups were more active. This thread may be a way to make that happen'. I just feel that we need to talk about it. LinuxQuestions is not, and in my opinion shoud not be only about technical stuff and things.

This thread didn't go into LQ Suggestions & Feedback because I wanted to talk about this as generally as possible, then later maybe, I or we could come up with some suggestions to make this social interaction better here at LQ and then post about it there.

One of the things that comes to my mind is that there could be a link in My LQ menu for social groups that one is a member of and some kind of a notification about newest threads/posts in Discussions. At the moment, thread that I started in the social group that I'm a member of is not even listed in My Threads or Subscribed Threads.

Maybe LQ could have a little menu where newest announcements from the groups would be viewable... That would be nice and a really social feature of LQ then.


But I ask you, what do you think how this interaction could become more alive? Is there something you would like to see in the social group you're/could be a member of?

For example in Debian Social Group last post was made on 20th Dec 2009. That was around time when I posted something there and haven't since because I've been one year away from LQ.

I have few more ideas about all this, but I'll talk about them if others will show some interest about the topic, after all we are community, aren't we?

Honestly, I don't really understand the point of the social groups, and I do think that LQ is just here for "technical stuff and things".

There are already plenty of immensely popular social networking sites online that people can use to discuss less-technical issues pertaining to Linux and FOSS in general, so I don't see that we should be trying to compete with those sites. LQ should do what it does best, solve problems and help the Linux/FOSS community as best as it's users know how.

Not a section I visit, like MS3FGX, I don't see the point. And for me the same is true for the user blog pages.

The problem with the social groups is that peoples' needs are met from LQ's forums and other features. The social groups here add nothing to a user's social experience. Perhaps this is because the feature was implemented as an incomplete idea and was virtually identical to the existing forum structure. The only added thing it adds is the ability to see members interested in the topic and pictures the other members post. This feature could have been better utilized if it was built around localized linux user groups and had a feature like calendars. Another contributing factor (much like facebook groups) is anybody can create a social group with any name, They may loose interest in controlling the group and any administrative action is lost. Perhaps if it was redesigned around a communist ownership structure and provided some kind of goal. But for what reasons I can not foresee. Maybe if the LQ Mods contributed new and engaging content for a Redesigned Group structure, it would revitalize it. Another idea for restructuring would be group hierarchies where a person subscribes to a group and can easilly view topics from its parent and maybe get notifications to a lesser degree from other groups... You could even build this into the page displayed after login so a user sees new things.

Example of group hierarchies
Programming
> C
> C++
> Python
> Etc.

Or even crazier
+Programming
> C
> Python (same group)
+Scripting
> Bash
> Python (same group)

Somebody subscribing to Python would get posts directed at Programming and Scripting as well as Python. Maybe a random topic is displayed from related groups like C.

Lets see... Facebook has the "like", Google has the "+1", Dig has "dig" so LQ needs something... something universal to LQ users... We already have the rep point system, but this would be separate because it's a social thing... Maybe "Look" points since "LQ" could conceivably be pronounced "Look"

As Is, the Social Groups are useless at LQ.

lumak, I thank you for your reply. I'll think about what you said and I'll reply again.

And a quick reply to druuna & MS3FGX about the point;
Well, it really makes me sad that some people don't see the point of social groups.

That doesn't really enlighten us as to why this is an important subject. Can you explain why a person would be better off using LQ Social Groups rather than the main boards or one of the established social networking sites? What advantage would further development of the Social Groups give the LQ community as a whole?

That's what I would want to know, too.

I don't see much point in social groups.

I don't find them relevant to the site. There are other much better places for that sort of thing.

I visit LQ to learn technical stuff and occasionally help others. Every now and then I get sucked into some off-topic thread. I don't see the need for any social groups. For that one can use Facebook/Diaspora/etc.

I agree with Lumac.

Given that a lot of LQ users probably also have Facebook or Twitter or Identi.ca or other accounts, I don't see a lot of room for them here.

Since they are here, I look on them more as interest groups where you can indicate an interest in something, not as places for interaction.

I second that.

At risk of sounding like I'm blaming you in particular, or us users in general, isnt it up mostly up to us to make the social groups work for us, not up to the forum admins/mods to do it for us?

That would make sense, and if its possible to do it with the forum software, I'm all for this idea. ;)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isnt social groups a standard feature of VB forums?

Here they might be nowhere near as useful as social groups on some other forums I've used, but thats the nature of LQ, not really because the idea is incomplete. If this was a wider ranging forum, or (oddly) a more limited one, social groups are more useful IMO.

IMO the advantage of having social groups is that you can have subjects that are not for 'general consumption', will not attract the attention of users with no/limited intrest in the social group focus, or a axe to grind in some way.

Am I the only person left on the web who doesnt have a facebook, twitter, etc. account? :S

Considering the facebook rules, I dont think that social groups are anything like that situation. I really cant say much about twitter, I let birds do that, I try to avoid the whole thing.

Social groups arent that much use here, but if we didnt have friendy mods/admins and a fairly open policy, they could be far more useful. I remember there was a group at the ubuntu forums that was created just to get around the much more restictive rules, and overactive mods/admins(of course that group got shut down).

Pretty much the way I see them....yes, after all that I agree. LOL

No, there's two of us...at least. :)

I have a Facebook, but I hardly ever touch it. :-\

On topic, I kinda agree that the "social groups" haven't exactly been useful. I barely pay attention to them myself. If I want to "socialize" with other LQ members, I usually do so by posting here in /General.

I thank you all for your replies!

May I say that this is kind of a discussion that I really like. Civilized and open.

@cascade9, brianL, count me in, too! :D

May I first reply to our moderatror;
Isn't it a little strange that those words are coming from the moderator? Who I believe should try to make the content of LQ relevant to LQ and Social Groups are the content of LQ.

Social groups here at LQ are specific. They are made of people who in one way or another are conected with Linux. We should not try to compare them with Facebook or similar sites.

I've read what lumak said and I agree with the statements he made and his ideas are very interesting, I still need to think about them and reply.

@cascade9
Absolutely! But it would be nice if they too would contribute in some way. But you have to think about (something that lumak noticed very well) how social groups here are structured and what options there are at this very moment?

And finally to quote what lumak said and some posters have agreed;
We need to think about this.

[EDIT]
@MS3FGX

I will reply to you and druuna about the point, in a separate post.