Help us choose our forum categories...

[Third Sector Lab]

Those of you who followed the recent Third Sector thread on here will know I'm in the process of putting together a forum for the voluntary, charity and social enterprise sector. None of it would be possible were it not for the technical know how of Tom from Clear Blue Designs, the branding skills of David at Nothing Does, the support of Alison over at The Frockery and the financial contribution of Paul at Sure Languages.

We're working on the forum categories and here's what we have so far:

Members Only

Introduce Yourself

Governance, Accounts and Legal

IT and Internet

Funding and Fundraising

PR and Marketing

Training

Events

Services Required/Help Wanted

Useful Links

Off Topic

Help and Feedback

This is by no means a final list so any feedback is really useful.

What sub-forums can we ditch, what vital ones have we missed out and what ones need tweaked?

 

[Scottish Business Owner]

Hi Ross,

One thing i learned very quickly when I started SBF was not to have too many initial forums, you can add others as you go along but it's important the place looks busy initially. I think theres one or two too many above.

Useful Links doesn't make sense to me. You can put a link in any thread quite easily and it's actually more useful being in the thread than in a seperate forum. Events & Training also seem to go together. The last thing you want is a forum where nobody posts.

As the forums get bigger you'll get a feel for how you can pad things out and extend the topics etc. I hope this is of some use and having seen the site I have to say well done to TomB who has done a great job Also I wish you every success with it

 

[Third Sector Lab]

I think you're right , we'll condense a few of the categories, drop 'links' and only introduce regional/topic based sub-forums once the user base is there.

Hopefully we'll see a good crossover of members between SBF and Third Sector Forums.

 

[stugster]

Nope, I must contest! There will be absolutely no movement between forums! Anyone found going onto Third Sector Forums will be instantly banned and permanently removed from SBF!

(I'm joking!)

I think 's advice about keeping it simple at the outset is very important. Not only does it make things complicated for new users, it will look unused if there are lots of threads not being posted on.

Good luck with the project!! Let me know when the forum's live and I'll sign up

 

[Third Sector Lab]

You're right, the forums will develop as they grow. No need to rush into it all at once.

Tom has done an excellent job with them and we're nearly there!

 

[nothing does]

I'm going to third 's views. If the forum looks empty it might turn people off from returning, keep it simple and let it grow organically.

 

[nothing does]

On a separate note, this illustrates how SBF is successfully bringing people together to work together and share expertise etc.

 

[Idea15]

Fabby! My big question is, how are you going to turn this into the UK version of Techsoup? Because goodness knows the UK needs one.

Lots of ideas here - www.missionbased.com - my "guru" for years now.

 

[Third Sector Lab]

Heather...the forums will probably end up having a big lean towards the use of ICT in non-profits. Especially given that users will be semi-IT-literate if they're coming onto the forums in the first place.

You're right, there's sooooo many opportunities for the Third Sector to truly harness the power of the web and hopefully the forums will highlight someone of these.

Any thoughts on the categories Heather?

'An Oasis' on UKBF makes some points about the current choices, what does everyone on here think?

 

[stugster]

Linking to other forums is also forbidden and will have you instantly hung drawn and quartered!

(again, my pathetic attempt at some humour!)

 

[Third Sector Lab]

Stop, my sides are splitting

So what do you guys think of the points made by 'An Oasis' on UKBF?

 

[Idea15]

Thoughts on categories - look on the page on Peter Brinkerhoff's site where he lists past monthly newsletter topics.

Look into CiviCRM too. Also I'll talk to my friend back in DC who works in the nonprofit tech sector - if it exists, she knows about it.

 

[Scottish Business Owner]

Hi Ross,

I think Oasis makes some very valid points. Partnering with other forums etc may be a very good idea. Some of the categories are very generic and I do think centering it around the Third Sector is a much better idea.

You need to give this idea some thought but I think all of the comments made are all valid. Getting it off the ground is tough but keeping it going is probably even harder. Get good moderators becuase you cant do it all yourself

 

[anned]

Ross
I think these are generally good categories but would agree with comments made by others. Specificaly, I would make it very clear from the outset what can be posted in the categories funding and fundraising and help wanted. I think you should keep these to general discussions or they will be filled with specific requests -"please sponsor or where do I find funds for?" I'd be happy to provide a short guide on where to look for funds/how to attract sponsors to cover the general nature of these queries.

Anne

 

[Third Sector Lab]

I think you're right Anne and I'll definitely be in touch soon for your further input.

I'm going to take on board all the comments and hopefully get the categories firmed up by the end of this week.

 

[Third Sector Lab]

It's been a little while since I asked you all for your views on the Third Sector Forums categories but here's the forum categories updated to take into account feedback from UKBF, SBF and some people in the Third Sector whose brains I've been picking!

With the exception of social enterprise I've deliberately left our sector specific categories (social care, children, homelessness, regeneration etc) until the forum user base grows to cope with so many categories. I've also missed out regional sub-forums until we get a healthy enough user base. Let me know what you think...

Main Forums

General Third Sector Forum

Funding and Fundraising

Governance, Accounts and Legal

IT and Internet

PR, Marketing and Communications

Campaigning, Policy and Research

Social Enterprise

General Forums

Introduce Yourself

Off Topic

Events and Training

Help and Feedback

 

[Scottish Business Owner]

Hi Ross,

You tend to find that most forums need very similar subjects and it's no different here. I can see justification for all the categories. I'm not a fan of a general category and this is why I dont have one on SBF. Lazy people who cant be bothered to find the correct forum will just post there. I know it was a bit of a discussion point when we first started but i've never really felt the need to introduce one. I'm sure other will maybe see it different

When are you planning on releasing the forums on the general public?

 

[Third Sector Lab]

Thanks for the input, Tom and I are having a think about the launch date. It should be weeks rather than months. SBFers will be the first to know!

 

[Third Sector Lab]

Double post, my mistake!

 

[Third Sector Lab]

Our upcoming beta launch is now listed on the Enterprise Week site.