Consultation on MAP Forum transition and rebranding

[Jim Burton]

MAP Forum is becoming a democratically-run community project with its own domain and brand.

What we already know:

1. 2024-25, MAP Forum has been piggybacking on the Mu website which benefits from a traffic flow geared heavily off pro-c type web 2.0 websites. This was done in order to grow its base, but this is a forum for everyone.

2. We have achieved some growth, averaging 25 posts per day, with strict rules against trolls, spam and flaming. This growth has stabilized recently.

3. Time has come to increase community involvement in the MAP Forum. Fragment (who is away for almost 2 years) had mentioned 8 or 9 people who devote most of their time to fediverse, but support the idea of a credible peer support alternative with more visibility than B4U-ACT and VP. I will be personally inviting them to consult on the changes.

4. This will mean changing the structure of the forum, to preserve the public sections but create a more easily navigable private peer-support experience.

Why consult now?

1. We are soon to undergo a rebrand. With this, will come possible changes to the rules and new admins/mods. We would like your feedback on the rebrand when it happens.

2. We are changing the forum structure within the next two days to be more user-friendly. User feedback on this is crucial.

3. Ultimately, we will have to create a democratic committee whose only purpose is to maintain this project. If you have been invited to participate in this thread, you are invited to become part of this committee. If you are a long-term member of MAP Forum with a generally clean moderation and civility record, you are also invited to become part of this committee. Committee members decide how the forum is run, who hosts and pays for the forum, and who moderates and administrates the site.