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Recently we had a thread and Google Hangout on how to improve BTF moving forward. I really appreciate the input from the attendees, you guys are awesome. These discussions have led us to three main goals:
Increase user engagement (particularly younger members)
Overhaul the user experience (especially the UI of the forum)
Collate and collect valuable Bhangra info for future dancers (Wiki, interviews, etc)
To accomplish this, we have a long list of projects and ideas. Some are straightforward and necessary updates while others are experiments to get more, younger members of the bhangra community involved.
This is a great opportunity, if you're a lurker (unregistered) on the site, or if you never post to BTF because you're afraid of backlash or your team's reputation -- to get involved in a positive way. I'll also point out that it's a great initiative that shows community involvement and initiative that will reflect better on your resume than passing out jello at the hospital.
So what do we need to get this initiative going?
We need a) content volunteers, b) technical volunteers, and c) younger moderators.
Content volunteers will be focused on projects that add value to the BTF experience outside just threads and posts:
1. Question of the Week - This project is about engaging younger dancers in a way they might feel comfortable. There are a lot of questions every dancer has when starting out, and sometimes people are too embarrassed to ask it openly or have their own resources to do so. We think it might be nice to set up an anonymous submission form for questions, and have a volunteer pick a question or two a week and post an answer as well as open the thread for more input. This doesn't have to be an ustaad, just someone who is interested. We think it's a great way to get information out there to new dancers and also generate more discussion.
2. Wiki administration - The BTF wiki has been pretty barren, but the whole point of a wiki is that the community can contribute and help make it grow. It's clearly not working out that way for whatever reason. We still think a wiki is valuable though; forums are great for two-way communication between members, but a wiki is perfect for publishing great content as a one-way street to readers. Because the wiki doesn't have anything, no one visits. Since no one visits, there's no one to update it. So we need volunteers to help beef the wiki up and get it started. There are new dancers every Fall, and they can use the guidance.
3. Mixing ladder - Member Navi Dhaliwal has already approached us asking to help bring back the BTF Mixing ladder started by Harman Toor. Harman's vision was a great example of a member having and idea and acting on it to enrich the BTF experience. We want to foster that, and so we'll be helping Navi restart the Mixing ladder for this summer. Keep posted, there will be some small tweaks to help make the process smoother, but mostly it'll still just be focused on mixing and bringing exposure to young mixers.
4. CTL - The CTL is going to have a big technical overhaul, but it's partially wrapped up in the larger technical overhaul of the forum's platform. What we need in the meantime, is to grow the database of information. We have competitions celebrating 20 years of existence, and it would be great to give those teams from 10 and 15 years ago at least one place on the internet where their accomplishments still are recognized. Like the wiki, the CTL is actually crowd-sourced, and anyone can edit. We need volunteers who will commit and help add information about teams, comps, and placings so that the CTL is more complete. This is a really minimal-investment way to help out.
5. Member ideas - We've listed a few projects and a few volunteer positions that will help involve people and make BTF a better resource. But ultimately we'd love to work on things that members bring up. So if you have an idea, or you want to do something we really encourage you to contact us. We have some resources and a lot of experience and can help you depending on the project.
We need technical volunteers for:
1. Overhaul of the platform. BTF uses SimpleMachinesForum, which is very slow to update and outdated at this point. Moving the forum without disrupting all the existing functionality is a priority, and that's slowed us down. We're probably just a few months away from switching, and we'd like to do it before the next season ramps in the late fall. We need members to help scope out potential platforms, prioritize what customizations would benefit the BTF community, and of course help us actually move the forum. This is the single most important thing to accomplish in the next couple months, and we could really use help. Proficency in any web programming language or programming language is helpful.
2. CTL - The CTL may be completely revamped based on what platform we choose to move to. Till then, we can still tweak and update a few things to make the current experience better. first would be the UI of course, but we can also add more features such as a specific competitions pages, links to mixes/videos from the comp, links to mixes/videos of teams, etc etc. There's a lot to do and this is a great opportunity for a young member in the CS/engineering field to get some experience in Database(SQL), Web(PHP,CSS,HTML), and scripting(python,Javascript). The best way to show employers you can build something is to have built something.
3. Widgets - We got a lot of ideas from members about some widget functionality such as a BTF radio, a streaming player for file uploads, soundcloud integration. We need volunteers to help us prioritize and implement. For example, we now have soundcloud embed capability tested, so now we just have to automate it. In the open forum meeting, we discussed idea like having a thanks button be mandatory before downloads are visible. There are a lot of ideas and a group focused on assessing and implementing these would make sure they get done faster.
Finally, we need younger moderators: Of the moderator group, Swi is the youngest at 24. The average age on the forum (and the circuit) is much younger than that. We need younger moderators who are more engaged and closer to the circuit as dancers.
Our hope is to bring in new moderator's to oversee some of these projects and make the forum more active in general. We still want volunteers and general members to be providing a lot of the new content, but the new moderator's would also have responsibility to make sure the projects are happening. The forum just doesn't need content moderation the way it did 3-4 years ago, so we can shift the moderator role to include these projects.
Our plan for the next month is to start involving interested members and get projects going.
Please contact us and let us know if there's a project mentioned you'd like to help with, or a new project you want to do
1. Question of the Week
2. Wiki
3. Mixing Ladder (Navi Dhaliwal already is here, but we could probably use one more)
4. CTL entries
5. New idea
We are having an application process for moderator. Age is a factor, but not a limiting one. We want younger moderators, but we also need to balance with older/active ones as well, so everyone is invited to apply or nominate. We'll have a separate thread with all the info for that. Remember, the moderator's are not just going to be banhammering, they are going to be focused on making this site more engaging for everyone!
Lastly, we will be resurrecting BTF Ventrilo. I'll work with the host this week to get it running.
Thanks to everyone for your input. We appreciate it, and the forum's motto is still "by the teams, for the teams". Big shout out to Swi who has been a consistent contributor and source of ideas and action. Keep the ideas (and volunteering!) coming
HOW TO GET INVOLVED
Reply to this post with what role you'd like to volunteer for, or PM me.
Increase user engagement (particularly younger members)
Overhaul the user experience (especially the UI of the forum)
Collate and collect valuable Bhangra info for future dancers (Wiki, interviews, etc)
To accomplish this, we have a long list of projects and ideas. Some are straightforward and necessary updates while others are experiments to get more, younger members of the bhangra community involved.
This is a great opportunity, if you're a lurker (unregistered) on the site, or if you never post to BTF because you're afraid of backlash or your team's reputation -- to get involved in a positive way. I'll also point out that it's a great initiative that shows community involvement and initiative that will reflect better on your resume than passing out jello at the hospital.
So what do we need to get this initiative going?
We need a) content volunteers, b) technical volunteers, and c) younger moderators.
Content volunteers will be focused on projects that add value to the BTF experience outside just threads and posts:
1. Question of the Week - This project is about engaging younger dancers in a way they might feel comfortable. There are a lot of questions every dancer has when starting out, and sometimes people are too embarrassed to ask it openly or have their own resources to do so. We think it might be nice to set up an anonymous submission form for questions, and have a volunteer pick a question or two a week and post an answer as well as open the thread for more input. This doesn't have to be an ustaad, just someone who is interested. We think it's a great way to get information out there to new dancers and also generate more discussion.
2. Wiki administration - The BTF wiki has been pretty barren, but the whole point of a wiki is that the community can contribute and help make it grow. It's clearly not working out that way for whatever reason. We still think a wiki is valuable though; forums are great for two-way communication between members, but a wiki is perfect for publishing great content as a one-way street to readers. Because the wiki doesn't have anything, no one visits. Since no one visits, there's no one to update it. So we need volunteers to help beef the wiki up and get it started. There are new dancers every Fall, and they can use the guidance.
3. Mixing ladder - Member Navi Dhaliwal has already approached us asking to help bring back the BTF Mixing ladder started by Harman Toor. Harman's vision was a great example of a member having and idea and acting on it to enrich the BTF experience. We want to foster that, and so we'll be helping Navi restart the Mixing ladder for this summer. Keep posted, there will be some small tweaks to help make the process smoother, but mostly it'll still just be focused on mixing and bringing exposure to young mixers.
4. CTL - The CTL is going to have a big technical overhaul, but it's partially wrapped up in the larger technical overhaul of the forum's platform. What we need in the meantime, is to grow the database of information. We have competitions celebrating 20 years of existence, and it would be great to give those teams from 10 and 15 years ago at least one place on the internet where their accomplishments still are recognized. Like the wiki, the CTL is actually crowd-sourced, and anyone can edit. We need volunteers who will commit and help add information about teams, comps, and placings so that the CTL is more complete. This is a really minimal-investment way to help out.
5. Member ideas - We've listed a few projects and a few volunteer positions that will help involve people and make BTF a better resource. But ultimately we'd love to work on things that members bring up. So if you have an idea, or you want to do something we really encourage you to contact us. We have some resources and a lot of experience and can help you depending on the project.
We need technical volunteers for:
1. Overhaul of the platform. BTF uses SimpleMachinesForum, which is very slow to update and outdated at this point. Moving the forum without disrupting all the existing functionality is a priority, and that's slowed us down. We're probably just a few months away from switching, and we'd like to do it before the next season ramps in the late fall. We need members to help scope out potential platforms, prioritize what customizations would benefit the BTF community, and of course help us actually move the forum. This is the single most important thing to accomplish in the next couple months, and we could really use help. Proficency in any web programming language or programming language is helpful.
2. CTL - The CTL may be completely revamped based on what platform we choose to move to. Till then, we can still tweak and update a few things to make the current experience better. first would be the UI of course, but we can also add more features such as a specific competitions pages, links to mixes/videos from the comp, links to mixes/videos of teams, etc etc. There's a lot to do and this is a great opportunity for a young member in the CS/engineering field to get some experience in Database(SQL), Web(PHP,CSS,HTML), and scripting(python,Javascript). The best way to show employers you can build something is to have built something.
3. Widgets - We got a lot of ideas from members about some widget functionality such as a BTF radio, a streaming player for file uploads, soundcloud integration. We need volunteers to help us prioritize and implement. For example, we now have soundcloud embed capability tested, so now we just have to automate it. In the open forum meeting, we discussed idea like having a thanks button be mandatory before downloads are visible. There are a lot of ideas and a group focused on assessing and implementing these would make sure they get done faster.
Finally, we need younger moderators: Of the moderator group, Swi is the youngest at 24. The average age on the forum (and the circuit) is much younger than that. We need younger moderators who are more engaged and closer to the circuit as dancers.
Our hope is to bring in new moderator's to oversee some of these projects and make the forum more active in general. We still want volunteers and general members to be providing a lot of the new content, but the new moderator's would also have responsibility to make sure the projects are happening. The forum just doesn't need content moderation the way it did 3-4 years ago, so we can shift the moderator role to include these projects.
Our plan for the next month is to start involving interested members and get projects going.
Please contact us and let us know if there's a project mentioned you'd like to help with, or a new project you want to do
1. Question of the Week
2. Wiki
3. Mixing Ladder (Navi Dhaliwal already is here, but we could probably use one more)
4. CTL entries
5. New idea
We are having an application process for moderator. Age is a factor, but not a limiting one. We want younger moderators, but we also need to balance with older/active ones as well, so everyone is invited to apply or nominate. We'll have a separate thread with all the info for that. Remember, the moderator's are not just going to be banhammering, they are going to be focused on making this site more engaging for everyone!
Lastly, we will be resurrecting BTF Ventrilo. I'll work with the host this week to get it running.
Thanks to everyone for your input. We appreciate it, and the forum's motto is still "by the teams, for the teams". Big shout out to Swi who has been a consistent contributor and source of ideas and action. Keep the ideas (and volunteering!) coming
HOW TO GET INVOLVED
Reply to this post with what role you'd like to volunteer for, or PM me.
