 |



 |
|
In this issue (click to go): |


It is approaching the dead middle of winter for our members living in the Southern Hemisphere. Right about now, you're thinking: "yah, I could do with a vacation in some sunny, warm tropical paradise." And, the rest of us living in the north, suffering in humidity and mosquitoes, the relentless sun and air conditioners that don't work, we're thinking: "vacation, vacation, (pant-pant), vacation?" Suddenly, in the realm of virtual reality, we're there! Basking in the shade of a gently swaying palm, we sip pina coladas and rum punch concoctions while watching the cool blue waves lap upon pink sandy beaches. On the perfumed wind, scented with jasmine, gardenias, and orchids, a few strains of music drift--steel drums, guitar, and ukulele, playing some traditional melody that speaks of water and sky and romance. (sigh!)
Okay, that was your sixty-second virtual vacation. Reality time. Here we are in mid-July without a glimmer of the merged club/group Yahoo! thing in sight. We were supposed to get it the first quarter of this year. That deadline stretched to the second quarter. Now in the third quarter, some of us begin to suspect that they're finally going to launch on Labor Day--one year from the date when they signed the contracts that started this mess. On the other hand, some of us are secretly hoping it was all a hoax, an April Fool joke played in September 2000. Or, maybe we are praying that Yahoo! is just getting ready to make the announcement: "okay, you guys were so upset by our decision to revamp your clubs, we've decided not to bother." Did I say "reality time?" It is coming--at least, we still think so. But if anyone is still holding his or her breath--stop, breathe, get a grip!
Welcome to Volume Two, Issue One of the CFC Newsletter! You may notice there was no June issue. There wasn't one last year either. So, we closed the book with issue eleven plus the supplement published when we first saw the new groups format and that made twelve. This issue, we begin on the new format you said you wanted when you voted in the poll taken on CFC_Experimental. You said you liked our editorials, our club/member news, and our technical reviews--so, of course, they stay. And we will try to bring you more stuff in each of these sections. And you said, on the message board anyway, that you wanted us to schedule more chat sessions--so the announcement of the chat session schedule stays, at least when we know we are going to have one.
But, we still have plenty of room for you to add material. We'll need tons of help researching and writing up all these additional technical articles. You'll get the byline, of course. Please submit your story ideas two weeks prior to the first of each month for the next issue to AngelPie_Mouse@yahoo.com.
AngelPie_Mouse
CFC Founder


CFC Second Anniversary Retrospective
As we begin our third year in the Yahoo! community system, it is appropriate that we take a look back at our founding principles both to help our newer members understand who we are and how we function and to refresh our own thinking.
On June 27, 1999, ArrylT and AngelPie_Mouse began an experiment in the Yahoo! community system, then known as "clubs" with the creation of Club Founders' Club. The concept was simple. It would be a help club, a club for advice in using and negotiating the Yahoo! community system and dealing with the problems of group dynamics and online interpersonal relations. It would provide an opportunity for founders to discuss problems and solutions, to complain and seek answers for common frustrations, to help each other. To be sure, there were other clubs providing a similar service. What made CFC just a little bit different and, we hoped, a little bit better were three ideas:
1. No question should ever go unanswered.
We had noticed that in many of the clubs already existent, questions were often left unanswered, unaddressed, ignored. Questions that might be frequently asked were particularly vulnerable to being overlooked by the founders of these clubs and their members. Yes, you could read through thousands of back posts. And, if someone bothered to point you to a subject line, a date of post, or a post number among the thousands of off-topic posts that might help too. However, very often, the question might not receive any response at all or, worse, the inquirer was ridiculed. That was just plain not filling the service for which such clubs ought to exist in our estimation.
And, in a second instance of being less than forthcoming, if the founders and members of these clubs didn't know the answer, they didn't tell the inquirer. Indeed, they didn't even seem to make an effort to find an answer. They might just ignore the whole issue. We felt this was rude and discourteous. Simply saying: "I don't know, but I'll try to find out" to be followed by a sincere effort to locate the information was and is always to be preferred. And, yes, it also offers the opportunity for the inquirer to have more input. Should they find the answer themselves, they know they have some place to share the information where it will be appreciated even if it is too late to be of help with the problem that prompted inquiry.
2. All members should be persons of administrative status.
In many of these founder clubs, no effort at all was made to differentiate between casual inquiry and functional need or, to put it more succinctly, between the average user and a club administrator. There are almost no tools and no decision-making requirements necessary for the average user other than join a club, continue with a club, invite a friend to join a club, or leave a club. Too, it should be the responsibility of the founder to guide their individual members with problems such as how to use the various club features: message boards, photo albums, chat, news, links, members lists, and calendars. Any advice we might offer the average user would be serving only to second-guess what their club founder might desire as policy. The more pressing need, as we saw it, was and is to make sure the founders know these features as well as the several tools exclusive to their use as founders. And, finally, it is the founder who must arbitrate disputes between members. Thus, we should be about helping to equip these decision-makers.
This notion became Rule #1. All members must have administrative status in a club or group with the stipulation that those joining to develop the skills necessary to be effective community administrators before creating their own community may do so for a period of ninety (90) days. As proof of administrative status, we asked for the name of at least one club or group in which the member held such status, and we backed up that request by visiting the club and verifying the status. The rule assured that people not serious about doing the best job possible would not remain with us long. It ensured a certain quality of inquiry. It, also, kept our membership down to a respectable number so that we could be more effective and genuinely network to seek solutions.
3. No more than one (1) "Join My Club/Group" message per member.
In many founder clubs, we found the message boards literally choked with new founders or long time founders with new clubs offering up addresses and invitations to join or subscribe. Yes, their members wanted to promote their club or group, to get the word out, to seek out new members, and to grow. Spamming others to do so, however, did not seem to be much of a help, example: "join my... Next Message [click]." As is apparent, constant messages about "my great new community" are more of a turn off than a turn on. They clutter up a message board, making more serious inquiry and response difficult. Indeed, they detract from content and negate the point one is trying to make, especially if the message also included a more serious inquiry such as: "did I put my club in the right category."
Good club administrators don't need to resort to SPAM tactics. They rely on their personality and intelligence to suggest an overall tone and quality of community. We've noticed that a solid club concept and a persistence and consistency of energy input into the community doesn't require any additional member recruitment policies. Members interested will find you. If they don't, the problem isn't in repeating the message "join/subscribe" wherever and as often as possible. So, let's look at the other issues involved.
On the other hand, there may be a good reason for telling others that there is a new club or group and what it is about, at least once. Sometimes, it is to make an inquiry about a glitch, a category choice, a problem with developing a focus, and a founder/owner message. Sometimes, the message is to inform us that your earlier club/group is no more because of hackers or members squabbles that could not be resolved any other way except to start over. And, sometimes, it is just because we gotta crow. Thus, we made this our Rule #2: No more than one (1) "Join My Club/Group" message per member. Telling folks about your club or group is good; telling them too often isn't.
These three ideas, then, form the core of what made and continues to make Club Founders' Club a little different. Although there are many aspects to our club including newsletters, software and technical reviews, club/group featuring, graphics by request, a desire to network and learn from other clubs, webpage assistance, and a top notch webpage of our own (if we do say so ourselves) that have been copied and offered by others as original, as far as we know, we are the only founder club with such rules imposed on ourselves. Other founders clubs have come and gone over these past two years while we watched. We do not congratulate ourselves in their imitation or their demise. However, we continue and we do so with a certain knowledge that our rules require of us a certain vigilance and dedication others may not wish to invest.
In June of 2000, as we were preparing for our first anniversary, we crossed the threshold to one hundred fifty members. It was at this time that Mistybunny joined the CFC administrative team. She brought to our make-up something that might have been lacking or at least somewhat impaired because of our earlier emphasis--a sense of hospitality, of welcome. Our rules may make us seem more business-like, Mistybunny balances that with a sense of fun, a reminder that this is about a hobby and about people. She keeps track of member milestones such as their club anniversaries and their personal successes offline while at the same time bringing to the club her own solid experience as the founder of very successful online community of her own. (Watch for better things coming.)
On August 5, 2000, Yahoo! announced the intention to merge with eGroups to become Yahoo! Groups. The contracts for the merge of the two companies were signed on September 5, 2000. In the beginning, it was a matter of inquiry alone. What did users of the existent Yahoo! community system want? We presume eGroups were asking their users the same questions. We will not go into observations concerning the result of these discussions. It is sufficient that out of the inquiry came the decision to blend the two very different community systems into one that would incorporate the best of both. This blending is going to mean a lot of new features for users--particularly founders and owners/moderators--on both sides to become familiar with and quickly. More than ever, the networking of community administrators becomes imperative. Club Founders' Club needed someone expert with eGroups, not to so much to show us what was, but to help us understand the evolving character of what is to come and to address the frustrations faced by group owners and moderators.
NOWAYWINS joined our administrative team, then, the last week of September of 2000. If we thought we were getting someone only experienced in both clubs and groups, we were selling him short. His real forte is personal computer security--firewalls, anti-virus, e-mail protection. While we've saddled him with a good deal of the responsibility of teaching all of us about the new group format, we can be grateful too that he has a much fuller interest and foundation in PC and Internet use to share with us.
Where do we go from here? That's a question that we have been asking ourselves a lot lately. What do we need? Ideally, we would prefer to have one administrative team member for every fifty members. It is a ratio necessary to handle: keeping up with your club developments; branching out into territories of the Internet such as research and development of new technologies and software; member recruiting; monitoring of other founder clubs for trends and news we might miss, help in the newsletter; and, yes, help with artwork. We're looking for someone to step forward who wants to be a team player and who can bring to our administrative a better balance. But, of course, we want to know what you think. What can we do to be of better service to you?
AngelPie_Mouse
CFC Founder


We have three (3) sessions currently scheduled between now and next newsletter. These are in order:
- Saturday -- July 21, 2001 Chat About This! (Subject Open)
Times: 1 p.m. PDT, 2 p.m. MDT, 3 p.m. CDT, 4 p.m. EDT, 9 p.m. GMT (London), and 6 a.m. Sunday morning (Sydney).
- Thursday -- July 26, 2001 Farewell to Nick! (See story in Club News Page 2.)
Times: 7 p.m. PDT, 8 p.m. MDT, 9 p.m. CDT, 10 p.m. EDT, 3 a.m. GMT (London), and Noon Friday (Sydney).
- Sunday -- August 5, 2001 Friendship Day (US) (Let's hatch plans!)
Times: 6 p.m. PDT, 7 p.m. MDT, 8 p.m. CDT, 9 p.m. EDT, 2 a.m. GMT (London), and 11 a.m. Monday (Sydney).
We hope you will all turn out for these three one hour events and bring your avatars for our Member Registry (see Article:CheetaChat Review by AngelPie_Mouse).

 
It had been nearly two months when we last heard from Warren in the group Yahoo! Clubs. We knew he was stopping by from time to time because the moderation level on the group is set so high that nothing--no correspondence--comes through unless he approves it. So, hearing from each other meant that he was at least checking in to click a few buttons. We cannot say that this has been true since. However, his last words were these:
Message: 23
Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 18:06:11 -0000
From: "Warren - Y! Clubs Producer"
Subject: Some answers to some of your burning questions!
Hi all,
Long time no write! I have been reading all of your posts, and have
continued to moderate the group in the past couple weeks. Just been
knee deep in merger duties and haven't had a good chunk of time to be
able to sit down and answer any questions. However, I noticed that
many of you have been helping out by answering other group members'
questions, and I appreciate that. In any case, I've answered some of
the most asked questions over the past couple weeks below.
Thanks for your patience and participation.
Warren
------
Q. WHEN AND HOW WILL CLUBS USERS BE NOTIFIED ABOUT THE CONVERSION TO
YAHOO! GROUPS?
A. Clubs users will be notified as soon as we firm up the date for
the conversion to Groups. We will link notifications to all
individual Club pages, as well as the main page of Yahoo!Clubs. This
notification will detail all the things people should be aware of in
regards to the conversion process -- new features, new functionality,
and what changes to expect in the conversion.
Q. WILL MY YAHOO! GROUP HAVE A "PHOTOS" SECTION SIMILAR TO MY YAHOO!
CLUB?
A. Yes. Yahoo! Groups will have a photos section which will be an
enhanced version as compared to the current Clubs photo feature. Not
only will you be able to store photos and view them in thumbnail
form, but you will also be able to order prints, send photos as
Yahoo! Greetings and much, much more.
Q. WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO CURRENT FOUNDERS OF CLUBS? WILL THEY CONTINUE
TO HAVE FOUNDER CAPABILITIES ON GROUPS?
A. Absolutely. All current Club founders will continue to have
moderator privileges on Groups.
Q. WILL THERE BE A "MY GROUPS" MODULE ON MY YAHOO!?
A. Yes, as I mentioned once before, we fully plan to add a "My
Groups" module on My Yahoo!, similar to the Clubs module that exists
there now. We plan to have this occur within the next couple months.
Q. MY CLUB IS BEING SPAMMED. WILL THERE BE STRONGER SPAM CONTROLS ON
YAHOO! GROUPS?
A. Yes. Yahoo! Groups allows you to moderate both new messages and
new members. So if you find that your group is being spammed, you
can switch your group to moderated and weed out any offensive posts
or members. Once you've got things under control, just switch the
feature back off, and your group will run just as your club does now.
Q. CAN A CLUB THAT IS UNLISTED BE MADE LISTED AGAIN ONCE THE GROUPS
CONVERSION IS COMPLETED?
A. No. Unlisted clubs will remain unlisted after the merge.
Q. WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO CURRENT CLUB MEMBERS? WILL THEY NEED TO
REJOIN ONCE THE GROUP IS CONVERTED?
A. All of your current Club members will carry over to your Group.
They will not have to rejoin. This will all happen automatically.
Q. WILL MY OLD CLUB URL STILL WORK?
A. Don't worry, all your Yahoo! Clubs web addresses and URLs will
continue to work, all data and event ownership will be maintained.
Q. WILL I NEED TO RE-REGISTER WITH YAHOO! IN ORDER TO USE MY GROUPS?
A. No. There's no need to register again to access your group. The
Yahoo! ID you currently use for Yahoo! Clubs will log you in on both
the Yahoo! Groups homepage, and within your individual group.
Q. WHAT NEW FEATURES WILL I HAVE IN YAHOO! GROUPS AS OPPOSED TO
YAHOO! CLUBS?
A. Group members will be able to:
- Post messages to your group by email --and stay in touch with your
group from anywhere, without having to log into the Web
- Search the message archive in your group by keyword
- Create your own polls
- Create and maintain databases to store information
- Choose from thousands more groups that fit your interests
- Choose from more descriptive search results to help you locate the
right group for your needs
Additionally, Group owners (known as founders on Yahoo! Clubs) will
be able to:
- Moderate messages before they are posted
- Moderate members to decide who is allowed to join your group
- Turn certain features on and off whenever you like
- Offer members custom levels of access to group features
- Customize moderator abilities
- Add HTML to your Group Description (known as the Founder's Message
in Yahoo! Clubs)
In terms of new information, it was not very informative. Indeed, it was pretty much the "party" line that has been discussed all along. It was, however, the last thing we heard from him so we thought we had better share it with you just to let you know we are still watching.

Continued on Page Two


|
Newsletter Page |

|
Main Page |
You are visitor to this page.
The midi file used in introduction to this newsletter is a song
traditionally associated with Hawaii, called My Little Grass Shack.
Sequencer notes refer to it as beinging in the Kauai Style, and it
was created in 1998 (05/24/98) as version 1.0 by kauai@keystroke.net
This page and its graphics were created by

exclusively for The Club Founders' Yahoo! Chat Club.
It is best viewed on a 800x600 screen set for True Color
with or and
is hosted by . Get them NOW!
|