What makes a great Neighborhood website?

[fsu813]

Expectations need to be that of thier successfull peers, no?

A forum is far above & beyond what others do.

[Springfielder]

So since their peers don't, they shouldn't? As it's been pointed out, it was a great resource to not only the neighborhood, but to new comers and potential new neighbors. However, as it was also stated, it's a missed opportunity....and although there may have been some issues that raised passionate responses, (especially for those moderating) it was still more valuable than a mere website.

[JagFan07]

What makes a great Neighborhood website?

1) The most important thing is content. That is what makes this site so great.

2) More great content.

3) An easy way to navigate all this great content.

TPC is about right on the price. You could try to roll your own site using opensource CMS and forums (this site uses SMF for the forum), but even then I think you will find that if you get any kind of traffic the maintenance and administration could get very time consuming. Also, take into consideration bandwidth and hosting cost.

[AlexS]

I doubt there will be a SPAR forum once the site it is updated. Perhaps i'm wrong, but I don't see why SPAR would want to maintain a forum. None of the other sites I linked do so. That was a luxury. It seems like SPAR is encouraging people to use www.myspringfield.com now, as it was previosuly linked on thier site.

Just another controversy. SPAR shuts down the forum without notice and advertises it as technical glitch (SQL code insert). Later it gets announced that it will be revamped. Then myspringfield comes into existence. SPAR main site links to it and nobody knows why or who initiated it. After some time the link is gone, again no explanation. This is the kind of stuff which gives SPAR a bad press.

[fsu813]

only for those looking to assign bad press.

the word "entitlement" was used many a time in residents commenting on possible new businesses in the area.

I think the word is appropriate concerning the comment above though

[strider]

Actually, AlexS's post illustrated a lack of honesty and integrity on the part of SPAR Council rather than a feeling of "entitlement" for a forum board.

[cindi]

only for those looking to assign bad press.

the word "entitlement" was used many a time in residents commenting on possible new businesses in the area.

I think the word is appropriate concerning the comment above though

not sure how you got that spar not being able to keep their story straight about the website/forum has anything to do with entitlement - more of a simple case of yet again, spar unable to pick a story and stick with it.

[fsu813]

i can see why neighborhood organizations generally have a policy of not responding to every criticism.....some people favor disproportionately blowing things up into a crisis, a controversy, and the worst thing ever.

i wonder how other neighborhoods in a similar stage deal with fragmentation?

Going back to the original topic, an excellent website can be a tool in stemming such erosion. By getting out in front of issues early on they can be framed and rid of speculation. Anyone in PR will say the same thing....better to be early than late. Thus the *communication* monster rears it's ugly head again. In active & vigilant communities timely and prompt communication is a must.

[strider]

Movies are a great illustrator of how technological changes effect everyday life.  Watch three movies about say police detectives solving a murder.  One from 1985, one from 1995 and finally one from 2005.  They will go from pay phones and occasional beepers to computers and occasional cell phones to cell phones and the occasional i-phone.

What does this have to do with this discussion?  The need for a web presence is pretty new.  The need for a forum board is even newer. It not only has changed how people get information, but how people look at the providers of that information.  In 1985, a local organization could put out their paper newsletter once a month and say anything they wished to be believed and it would be.  In 1995, some began to expect a few things on-line, but for the most part, that paper newsletter was still OK and believed.  By 2005, you had better start having an active website and that information you put out in your printed newsletter had better match what your readers could find on their own with Google.

And unfortunately for the local organization, just like in modern police work, the printed word still has a place and is still required. So is face to face communication.  Technology has not decreased much of that, but added to it. 

So, while many of the other local community websites may not have a forum, a forum like this one is becoming a requirement if the local organization wants to truly be a leader within the modern community. The information on the website had better be up to date and true or someone will correct it and call out the local organization on it.  With several forums offering the same information, if a local organization does not have their own to confirm they are "in the loop", they will continually lose credibility and eventually loose their place in the scheme of things.

[grimss]

As the person who manages RAP's website, I thank you for the props!

As to what it takes to put up a website like RAP's (which is, by no means, perfect--lots of room for improvement), RAP's board voted to spend about $2500, maybe 18 months back, to bring the (woeful) previous website out of the Dark Ages.  The design was done for free by one of the board members (a graphic artist), but the guy actually writing the code was paid. The site utilizes Textpattern, a web-based management system that is fairly easy but also somewhat limited.  The toughest part of putting this kind of website together is gathering the content--a really big job. Then the challenge is to keep it updated and fresh--something that requires either a single inspired person who's willing to post new stuff regularly, or (preferably) a committee who brainstorms interesting new ideas. That job doesn't need to be a paid one--at least it's not for RAP!  MetroJAX, quite clearly, puts an enormous amount of effort into posting interesting content, for little or no payment, but it's their dedication to constantly feeding the beast that keeps us all coming back .

The forum function that SPAR has is something a lot of RAPers have wanted to emulate because it's a terrific communication tool that also lets us take the pulse of the neighborhood. However, forums also require constant supervision so that the nasty posts are weeded out, so it's not something RAP has been willing to implement yet.

[Debbie Thompson]

Going back for a moment to Alex's post about SPAR Council adding a link to MySpringfield.org and then taking it down.  MySpringfield.org is independent of SPAR. If you click on the forum link on SPARCouncil.org and that link takes you to MySpringfield.org, then it appears MySpringfield.org is the SPAR Council Forum...which is isn't.  I didn't ask them, but maybe someone at SPAR thought of that and figured they shouldn't link to another website, giving the appearance it was theirs.  

Not that anyone asked for it, but here's my two cents on the SPAR Forum, our use of it, and my thoughts on "entitlement."  I think a forum on a privately owned website is a privilege, not an inalienable right. If you wish to bash SPAR's brains out, SPAR isn't required to allow you to do so on their publicly-read website.

[cindi]

bash SPAR's brains out

nice.

[Springfielder]

With all due respect, there's no denying that there's problems with spar and just because people discuss it, doesn't mean that they're bashing them. I know that some have been pretty harsh, but the facts do speak for themselves, in that there are problems and not everyone is happy with how things are handled.

So no, spar doesn't have to bring back the forum, in fact, IMO, they probably won't. They threatened many times to take it down and they have. People have since moved onto other forums and facebook. So as nice as it was to have, we're dealing with no longer having it.

[braeburn]

Now now Stephen, stop making sense