Hi everyone,
Lately, we have received a number of inquiries about how to start a new interest collection (industry group, group of customers, etc) on this site. There are a number of complexities to the decision to launch a collection, which can be thought of as a type of “micro-community”. These are largely the same things that community managers think through when considering whether to start a new "macro-community" (or even language community) as well.
- The collection should have a sufficient number of people willing to spearhead the creation of it and nursemaid it through its infancy.
- New collections should be based on actual need, not loudest voices (“perceived need”), which can represent a distorted view of reality.
- Collections should serve a unique and clear purpose.
- We are limited by the need to display collections in a clean and appropriate way.
Seemingly, number 1 and number 2 are at odds with each other - we say that decisions shouldn’t be driven by the loudest voices, but also say that there should be people willing to take the lead. And they’re both correct.
Different communities handle this different ways. We’re still trying to figure out the best system to design that meets all of these requirements, and I want to ask our Community Advisory Board to weigh in on this important question as well.
So, for now, I’m putting into place an interim process for documenting the desire for new interest communities. (Marketplace vendors, we’re aware of your interest in collections for your apps, and we’re figuring out how to scale that up as well.)
- First, send an email to Monique (mvandenberg@atlassian.com) and let her know of your desire.
- Second, make a post to this thread and tell the rest of the community. Then, read the rest of the thread and engage with the other ideas you see.
- For any extremely compelling or emergent needs, we will make the decision to create or not, until the Advisory Board has had the opportunity to weigh in.
Thank you!
pb
