"wall" feed on group page

Yea it would be fun to experiment with this... all design at this stage so anyone could have a play.

@alannakrause d'you want to mock it up?

Man, that is a way better dream than the one I had about our payment system the other night...

@matthewbartlett sure I'll have a go mocking it up... how do I do that?

I guess I go to thinking about what all the key elements are to a group making really good decisions together, and I think the common ground that comes from connecting about shared interests generally (even if it's not about a specific decision) is actually really important. I don't think it's the most urgent thing, but long term, I think providing a "wall" space for groups to strengthen the bonds based on the shared values and interests that are bringing them together as a group is crucial - like how we used Yammer for the first year at Loomio. We don't have to build a yammer replacement, but I think a well functioning wall feature could go a long way.

@alannakrause agreed. Wall functionality is important for group cohesion and informal communication. It will come... just gotta get a few of these other development priorities out of the way first.

@alannakrause I think this is a really important point. Often you need to come together to talk about things before you know what decisions need to be made. Having a neutral space to do this is really important.

For smaller groups I think the wall functionality will work well, however I think for some larger groups there may need to be some adaption of the discussion functionality as there will be many conversations going on at one time

My excitement about Loomio is driven by the possibilities it affords people the opportunity to come together and then take collective action on issues which concern them. In some communities I envisage many sub-groups coming together and going in different directions as people find each other through sharing their interests/concerns with the broader community.

@alannakrause I was thinking Balsamiq, or Google Drawing if you can't be bothered with the learning curve of the former — you could paste in a screenshot from Loomio and put some boxes, lines & text on top

OK to be honest I don't have time to work on this now, but I will next month. As @jonlemmon mentioned there are other urgent dev priorities so let's just keep it on the back burner for now.

I think integrating the Wall as a feature is a great idea!

When the FLOSS Coop group tried to abandon our email list and use only Loomio (and our own RedMine instance), I quickly noticed we lacked a central 'stream of consciousness', and there was nowhere to post quick updates or thoughts that didn't need a whole discussion page. We ended up using the email list again, but I remember thinking at the time that if every Loomio group had an ongoing chatty thread like the Wall we wouldn't have needed to.

a rough attempt at a mockup using GIMP

the mock-up looks good @strypey. These are going to be a simple chat or a discussion that somewhere will be saved.

Thanks for that mockup, @strypey !

Thanks :) I'm not sold on 'chat stream' as a name, maybe just 'comments'? I was trying to think of something that distinguishes it from 'discussion', while still clearly explaining its function.

Wow, I was just imaging this too. A less formal place to chat in loomio is overdue. Thanks Strypey

Sounds like a great function, but more fragmentation to explain and confuse fresh users.

I am keen to work on this idea more. @matthewbartlett do we have mockups of how the group page will look once we switch to discussion-centric and redesign the dash? I think we should design for that stage and incorporate a feature like this. I imagined it similar to how Strypy mocked it up here but I think we need to workshop it a bit and find a way to test our assumptions. Also interested in how this will interface with the "ideas" feature - I'm wary of creating too many "levels" of communications.

@alannakrause this was my first stab at that

I feel like with Inbox becoming more central, won't that change? Maybe we should holistically have a look at the group page overall, including the wall feed idea, and have another stab. I'm keen to help... should I just go for it or is it better to collaborate?

I reckon just have a go at it.

OK! I had a go at a mockup, which turned into a reconceptualization of the group page itself. I am not a designer and this was my first time using Balsamiq, but here it is.

Group Page Concept with Stream

Key points:

• the stream functions a lot like a yammer or facebook feed - there are rich content previews of links (articles, images, video, etc) as well as the ability to just post text. There is one level of comment reply threading, similar to yammer/facbook, and the ability to like and @mention.

• One key difference to yammer/facebook is the option to turn any item from the stream into a discussion, if it has the potential to resolve as a decision. My idea is any group member could do this, and at that point it would disappear from the stream and appear in the discussion column, brining any content with it (such as comment replies). The initial pot would be the context and subsequent replies would turn into discussion comments.

• Other group activity would show up in the stream, such as new users joining, new subgroups, etc.

• I have moved decisions over into their own column. My concept is that general content would evolve into discussions would evolve into proposals/decisions, flowing from left to right. Ideally that means general content would just stream by, while important discussions would be selected out and potentially become decisions.

What do you reckon? @matthewbartlett @richarddbartlett @strypey @jonlemmon @robertguthrie

This really rules. Thanks Alanna

I realize it's a lot of info on one page! But in talking @johnirving about how this could work with mobile, I realized it could actually be somewhat like the facebook android app, where you only see one of those columns at once, and swipe side to side between them (like how in the facebook app chat appears if you swipe the right side, etc). It's like tabbed screens kinda.

So good, great job @alannakrause! The first column could probably be collapsed or demoted to the far right I reckon.

Another thought: the stream content should jump back to the top if there is new activity on it (replies, etc). So if you're just coming in, you'll see what people in the group are focusing on at the top, and you can scroll down to see what sort of stuff this group talks about.

Any progress on this feature idea, or has is it still simmering on the backburner?

@strypey - it's still a little way away - but less far than before. Are you using the newer (under development) interface at www.loomio.org/angular?

Yes @robertguthrie I had a quick go with Angular, and gave some feedback to @richarddbartlett . Will have another look after I get around to upgrading to the latest version of Trisquel (the GNU+Linux distro I use).