Problem/Motivation

There have been many vigorous discussions in the LA Drupal Users Group of late, stemming from the way OG admins are listed on g.d.o. The term "Group organizers" does not fit the function of the people listed. The word "organizer" implies that the people listed are organizing the group's activities, but that is not necessarily the case. For instance, there are many people organizing monthly Drupal events throughout Los Angeles, but that has no relation to managing the g.d.o. group. A far more appropriate term would be "Group moderators". That accurately describes the function of the people in that role, without implying any additional responsibilities they may or may not have to the group at large.

Furthermore, many within our group are interested in getting rid of that block all together. Even with the change in title, having the block could imply a leadership role that does not exist, or which is not held by the listed moderators. If the block were removed, users with questions would be encouraged to post them to the entire group, or to use the contact forms for individual event organizers, either of which would be more appropriate.

The current "Group organizers" block creates both user experience issues for members of the community and organizational issues for managers of the group. While this may be a bigger problem for the Los Angeles group than others, we believe there are many groups on g.d.o. who could benefit from the proposed features.

Proposed resolution

First, make the display of the group admin block optional for each group. Give admins a checkbox they can use to enable or disable the block within their group.

Second, make the title of the group admin block configurable for each group. We want to call ours "Group moderators. Others may want to go back to the old "Group leaders" title. Others may want to call their admins "Grand Diplomats". Who knows? You'll never pick one title that will work for everybody, so instead, let everybody determine their own. I would recommend "Group moderators" as a more sane default than "Group organizers", but I'm not that picky.

Finally, the intro text within the block will also need to be configurable, or removed all together, since it currently restates the title of the block ("Organizers for this group"). Having configurable text would be great, as a first choice, but I'm also fine with getting rid of it. As it currently stands, the text is completely useless. There is little difference between "Group organizers" and "Organizers for this group". One or the other would do.

Comments

highermath’s picture

highermath commented

+1

develcuy’s picture

develcuy commented

For reference:
- #850056: Commit groupsorg.module to cvs.d.o
- Change word "Manager" for something more accurate

bvirtual’s picture

bvirtual commented

+1

Why? I think GDO responds to User Group needs, and this small enhancement is a start in this area. "Small?" What else do I see in the future for this "block?" Read on.

A single 'title?' Years ago this may have been true. A GDO group had one 'founder.'

Today, a large cities' GDO group is just 'a' part of the larger User Group activities/resources that holds two or more monthly meetings, each run by 2 or more individuals. Los Angeles now has five meetings all inside GDO/la. Each meeting is co-founded by two or more members (well, 2 are not), and all have 3-5 "co-organizers" who volunteer to help set up, clean up, run raffles, get everyone signing the sign in sheet, set up the projector, assist the speaker hook their laptop to the projector, order food, set up tables, put out dishes and cutlery, greet people at the door, put up signs for directions, write a detailed "how to get here with maps, parking directions, how to find the front lobby, how to get to the right floor, and which hallway to find the meeting room", and... and ... and...

I feel what is needed for GDO/la is a "list of labels," many responsibilities or roles, with associate contact name, or names. That way, for a potluck you can directly contact the person running the list of stuff to bring, and found out what is still needed, or find out how much membership costs (it's free, but people still ask, before driving 20 miles to the meeting), get directions to the meeting, find out how to open the after hours security door to get inside(whose cell phone number to call), and ... and ... and...

Why have this on GDO? If GDO is going to be a provider or enabler of local User Groups, then GDO feature set must grow in response to the needs of 'leading' User Groups. And GDO feature set does change, does grow, and it's good. It's up to individual User Group members to solicit GDO webmasters indicating new features. Maybe, the User Group should provide patches, and demonstrations, of what they are seeking. Visual aids are terrific for getting exactly what one asked for.

Why GDO should have the list? I believe it makes the User Group look more professional. By having multiple roles, like a large organization typically does, and by displaying those roles, for contact by new members with questions, a large organization, of volunteers, can easily fulfill needed functions by delegation. Having "one" volunteer or a non itemized list of volunteers perform a "routing" to the right member job... is busy work, not suitable for volunteer effort. Fast burn out. Also, the potential for conflict of interest is higher. For example, routing all jobs offered to their buddies.

Potential members like joining "large" groups as resources, networking, and other valuables are readily available. Also, the roles available for volunteering for are better advertised. More volunteers means existing volunteers avoid burn out. It's more pleasant for everyone, especially the senior volunteers, who can focus then on more difficulty resources to acquire, like sponsorship, venues, fund raisers, etc, etc, etc.

Pete

greggles’s picture

greggles
he/him
Primary language English
Location Denver, Colorado, USA
commented
Status: Active » Postponed

I'm in favor of at least some of these ideas. The duplicate text is definitely a mistake and easy enough to fix that we should just do it (I did it).

I'm not in favor of making it possible per-group to remove the block or re-title it. Those people have specific permissions/responsibilities on g.d.o and I think it's important for usability we have a consistent title for them across the site. It is important that those people are visible so people who need help such as new members of a group can find them.

I'm marking this issue postponed in favor of discussing it at http://groups.drupal.org/node/69908 where there a lot more people who have opinions on the topic. Once we have an idea of what to do we can reopen this and someone (though not me) can work on it.

Grayside’s picture

Grayside commented

@christefano asked me to comment here.

Renaming the block seems good. Removing all clarity about how to get in touch with the group off the webpage seems bad. What would be swapped in for a removed block?

jstoller’s picture

jstoller
he/him
commented

Each group should be able to override the default title and contents of the block. There can be guidelines in place that instruct group moderators to provide some method of contact, but exactly how that is done, who is listed and what they are called, should be up to the group to determine for themselves. There are many different types of groups out there, with vastly different scales, scopes and internal structures. This simply is not a one-size-fits-all situation.

Grayside’s picture

Grayside commented

What's the purpose of a block if both the title and contents can be overridden? Shouldn't that just be a choice of multiple blocks?

jstoller’s picture

jstoller
he/him
commented

I think we want to encourage groups to have some sort of group contact block. The best way to do this is to provide a default, so if you do nothing, you get the standard "Group Organizers" block. However, since we know that the current block doesn't work for everybody, we allow overrides.

christefano’s picture

christefano commented

The Latin America group is undergoing some interesting leadership changes and the "manager" vs. "organizer" vs. "moderator" question has come up there, too:

   http://groups.drupal.org/node/206023#comment-684898

I've commented in that thread pointing to this issue.