Changes to MAP Forum (next 4-8 weeks)

[Jim Burton]

Over the next 4-8 weeks, you might notice a few changes to MAP Forum, its design and appearance. Chief among these, will be a more visible distinction between the publicly accessible and private parts of our forum. This is with the aim of becoming a more credible alternative to Virped, with more open standards of dialogue.

MAP Forum will remain with the same host, but is becoming independent of MAP-Union.org in order to gain more exposure, and guarantee it's survival, something that depends on having moderators (we do not ask for donations at this point).

The model we will be investigating is committee management, and that will mean appointing committee members from throughout the community, who can act as evangelists for MAP Forum whether or not they are active moderators. There may be further changes that occur after the committee gives it's opinions on how MAP Forum has evolved in the first round of changes, but these will probably be more gradual. A secondary benefit of committee management is ensuring that MAP Forum has somewhere to move, if for some unforeseen reason, it becomes impossible for our present host to support.

[Aspire6]

This is very interesting, will be curious to see how this plays out over the next 4-8 weeks. Looking forward to it!

[Fragment]

I believe the intention is to still keep most areas of the forum public but with a few areas functioning similar to the politics forum now, where registration is required to view or participate.

[Jim Burton]

The only public area that will go private will be peer support. But then, the whole site design and rules will be discussed by committee members, so may be subject to gradual change, as we work out how to provide an alternative to Virped. This includes any present moderators who wish to be part of it, and some new invitees, principally from 2 other orgs. We hope they can promote the forum to a wider audience under its new name, and offer it some security if hosting comes under threat.

The aim is to double levels of participation for the second or third year of operation, and if this happens, we will have achieved the goal of providing an alternative to VP.

[BLueRibbon]

Will the domain change? And if so how can we find it?

It will change, but I assume this address will redirect to the new one.

Don't worry. We are very much hoping that existing users will continue to participate.

[Justincredible]

Oh wow, I'm just reading about this change...

Can anyone explain in layman's terms why things are changing?

And yes, I hope any pertinent announcements are made clear in advance, that way we can find the new website!

[Jim Burton]

It will redirect, and the appearance will change somewhat, along with reorganization. A thread will be opened to consult on forum organisation, governance and content moderation, and there is likely to be a new committee formed.