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November 2009 
Seeds and (future!) Simplicity
Posted on Dec 5th, 2007
by 
Gaia Team
Gaia Team
Me again. :)
Two bits of news.
First, the details of the Seed System (as it currently exists) have been updated once more.
Hopefully the logic behind the feature (as well as the way it functions) is clearer. Again, I feel completely responsible for that awkward and ominous first description, and the original didn't reflect the changes that Jake's made since. So if you have a minute--and the interest--by all means pop over and read.
(There's also a beautiful discussion that just started here. Based on that, I'll find out tonight how many seeds in total have been scattered about the community, and how they're being used, and will post a little PS in this entry; I'm curious too about how many 'thank yous' we've given.)
Secondly, remember that post from way back when about our need for a new art director?
Well, we've found him.
Pop on over and say hi to Jackson: he's an amazing guy, a quintessential Zaadzster, and (in a lovely little bit of synchronicity) he applied for the position a year-to-the-day after joining the site. He's also posted an excellent little entry about what he's psyched about helping us with (i can't help but grin just reading it). We've been operating without any sort of designer for far, far too long now, and I can't tell you how psyched I am about making this whole site a bit easier to use.
We'll have some more news soon about what lies ahead for Zaadz (especially when it comes to Gaia), as the New Year is coming up and it's been a long, long time since we've presented much of an overview about the future. And feel free, in the meantime, to share your own hopes and dreams and visions--and let us know how we can support that. (Do you want more ways to connect to others? More nuanced tools? Or the ability to focus and streamline? Do you have ideas for how we, as a community, might better share and contribute and organize the abundance of wisdom found here?)
And in case I haven't said it enough, thank you, too, for your own willingness to talk and contribute and make your own voices heard through these changes. I can get prone to sappiness, I know, but it's only because this whole site means so freakin' much to me. You're amazing.
Don't ever forget it. :)
Posted by: Siona
PS. Numbers are in!
So far (or as of last night) , the community as a whole has doled out a total of 29236 seeds. Of those, 29099 seeds were used to either give thanks or to bestow positive feedback, and 137 were used to flag content. (Nearly 30,000 little blessings? I get a big grin on my face just thinking of the intention each of those represents. Thank you. Thank you thank you thank you.)
Two bits of news.
First, the details of the Seed System (as it currently exists) have been updated once more.
Hopefully the logic behind the feature (as well as the way it functions) is clearer. Again, I feel completely responsible for that awkward and ominous first description, and the original didn't reflect the changes that Jake's made since. So if you have a minute--and the interest--by all means pop over and read.
(There's also a beautiful discussion that just started here. Based on that, I'll find out tonight how many seeds in total have been scattered about the community, and how they're being used, and will post a little PS in this entry; I'm curious too about how many 'thank yous' we've given.)
Secondly, remember that post from way back when about our need for a new art director?
Well, we've found him.
Pop on over and say hi to Jackson: he's an amazing guy, a quintessential Zaadzster, and (in a lovely little bit of synchronicity) he applied for the position a year-to-the-day after joining the site. He's also posted an excellent little entry about what he's psyched about helping us with (i can't help but grin just reading it). We've been operating without any sort of designer for far, far too long now, and I can't tell you how psyched I am about making this whole site a bit easier to use.
We'll have some more news soon about what lies ahead for Zaadz (especially when it comes to Gaia), as the New Year is coming up and it's been a long, long time since we've presented much of an overview about the future. And feel free, in the meantime, to share your own hopes and dreams and visions--and let us know how we can support that. (Do you want more ways to connect to others? More nuanced tools? Or the ability to focus and streamline? Do you have ideas for how we, as a community, might better share and contribute and organize the abundance of wisdom found here?)
And in case I haven't said it enough, thank you, too, for your own willingness to talk and contribute and make your own voices heard through these changes. I can get prone to sappiness, I know, but it's only because this whole site means so freakin' much to me. You're amazing.
Don't ever forget it. :)
Posted by: Siona
PS. Numbers are in!
So far (or as of last night) , the community as a whole has doled out a total of 29236 seeds. Of those, 29099 seeds were used to either give thanks or to bestow positive feedback, and 137 were used to flag content. (Nearly 30,000 little blessings? I get a big grin on my face just thinking of the intention each of those represents. Thank you. Thank you thank you thank you.)
Access: Public
:)
How does info actually end up on Gaia.com? Could you describe the process (or give a link if I'm too blind to find it myself)? Both hands onto change. And guys, you need some mod to operate a “main” topic in the technical/thinktank forum, where there'll be just a short list/summary of all suggestions made, regularily updated, with short comment from an admin to each. So that 1) less repeats and 2) easy to track progress, and 3,4,5,6.. too obvious to say…
Keep the good stuff coming!
Zet White, a version of your latter suggestion is already under the Ideas menu item in each member's menu bar. It could be more informative, for sure. If you look at the Ideas section though you will see the list of pending and suggested ideas is FAR FAR from “short.” But I don't know whether there is a systematic collection/haravesting of these from various places around the site.
Hey, Siona, thanks for the updates and everything. Re our wishes, before anything new, I vote for “more nuanced CURRENT tools.” There are current tools which are still very primitive, like when I email a reply to someone in our ongoing email conversation, my Sent mail section item does NOT contain the whole thread or conversation; only the Inbox items contain all past emails in the conversation. How primitive and awkward and time-consuming is THAT!!!!
Also we really would benefit from being able to tag an email without it being opened already. That has been suggested at least twice. And I have still to plow through all my blog entries to find some, because my tags list for my blog section DOES NOT CONTAIN ALL THE TAGS I have made for my blog entries. I have suggested that already. How frustrating!! And there are other examples of such simple obvious needs, in the Thinktank list, and Ideas lists.
How to make wisdom more accessible. Oooh, I resonate with THAT. There are threads on the site that are worthy of being published books, IMO. I have a lot of (positive) energy around this value which right now I can only stumble across, these treasurestores of community collective wisdom. How about a Thread Hall of Fame, and we can nominate any thread through another button or link choice in addition to I like it and Flag for Review, and if a thread gets nominations by a certain number of DIFFERENT individuals, it goes into a special Hall of Fame section, which DUPLICATES the original place, and posts to either place get posted to the other, so both can continue to be active? This Hall of Fame would draw from ALL pods.
And speaking of nuanced tools, some of us are still waiting not too patiently for the seeds system to include pod discussion posts and —rats I forget the other obvious place the system doesn't operate yet. Do appreciate it in blog entries and the other place it already is, i forget where. I am “saving” some seeds for when the system is more widely implemented!!
Could the date of ~C4's Update—current—which you link to as THE current Update—be changed from Nov. 8 to the current date? I got confused by that.
Abundant blessings, and “EXTREME” gratitude!!!!! OM Bastet
Ooo! I like the Hall of Fame idea! ….and its really not necessary to save those seeds, if you're working the site, they keep adding up. Blessings, Peace Eagle
“and its really not necessary to save those seeds, if you're working the site, they keep adding up. ”
exactly! the best way to use the seeds is to forget about (accumulating) it and only remember it when you want to share or give it away to others :)
and if you consciously choose to accumulate seeds, the ideal intention is to accumulate it so that you can give it to others. how positive is that?! :)
1Vector3 said: “Could the date of ~C4's Update—current—which you link to as THE current Update—be changed from Nov. 8 to the current date? I got confused by that.”
i just requested to add this feature on pod posts. i.e. display the last update date on an entry. we'll have them soon enough :)
~C
Thank you very much, Siona, C4, Jake, everyone else, for all the heart and care you've put into this.
David
Yaah, I am WELL aware I accumulate seeds, and have no need to “hoard” them. I accumulate a LOT because I AM very active, have given a LOT LOT, and the thing is, I expect to loose a ton of them all at once when pod posts and other items become eligible for them, so I am just prudently making sure I have enough for then. Spring sowing time, gotta have enough, that's all. Eagerly awaiting!!!!!
Janey Appleseed, aka OM Bastet
Big ditto to David: Thanks everyone.
A couple of things: I agree with Zak - there are so many great ideas on the ThinkTank - and I feel such Think Tank ideas could be sorted into a closed thread within the pod (ideally with a note from a moderator) (Om - for some reason I never go to a member's ideas menu - and I'm not sure how much consideration is given to these ideas by the team.)
I agree with all of Om's suggestions for more nuanced current tools - everything listed I would like too, and one more: the ability, as a pod moderator, to quickly go to a member and the accompanying details in the administration section of the pod, I have 400 members and I sometimes have to click through several pages to get to someone. I'll add this to the appropriate Think Tank board.
Big yes to Om again: waiting not too patiently for the seeds system to include pod discussion posts. I too have a huge pile of seeds I am trying to give away appropriately, but most of my activity is on threads.. I so want to be able to seed these!
Last suggestion /point, one I'm sure cannot be implemented:
Given the huge amount of discussion regarding the seed system, personally I would have liked to be able to see an archive of all the updates on the seed system FAQ's especially the first one. This is in the name of transparency, and would also support anyone new to the discussion to see how it all unfolded.
and again, thanks to all the team so much for listening.
Sandra
I just wanted to hit Sandra's last point, because the very same thing occured to me after the fact; I'd mindlessly went in and edited the original document instead of unlocking the thread and adding an update. You're absolutely right, though; it would have been much more responsible if I'd archived the old versions somewhere instead.
I'll see whether Matthew or ~C4 can do ahead and round up the ThinkTank suggestions into a closed thread, too. We need an ideas section for the seeds. :)
The new description is very good! Thank you!
As for the Thinktank and “Ideas”, what I meant was, there are a lot of Ideas that seem to be scattered around the place and, ehm… lost. Oh, by the way, can the “Trust System” section be renamed to “Seeds System” as suggested in the thinktank please?..
And keep us inspired! :)
Thanks for the stats, Siona! I'd be curious to know, though, how many of those flags for review were valid concerns (i.e. in response to actual policy violations or near violations) and how many were just shadow boxing or other overreactions.
'Cause it seems to me that 137 possible policy violations in such a short period of time is actually pretty high. Has the Zaadz team even had time to check them all out?
Cheers,
~G
Oh, maaaan, this place is dangerous. I went and had me an idea sparked by Siona's term “collective wisdom” and my own strong resonance with that, and then Peace Eagle comes along and likes it, and then the idea decides to be born, and I get to be the Mom. Yikes!!!!!
Pleeeeez, Team, and everyone go check it out and tell me what tweaks would be advisable, or whether you would advise even scrapping the idea.
new pod: Collective Wisdom: The Hall of Fame for Zaadz Threads, http://pods.zaadz.com/collective_wisdom
Blessings, OM Bastet
hey, how are you guys doing im new to this website but i like it already i hope to make new friends here
Hey, Jazzy J, welcome to this awesome community. Not too many folks are hanging out right here on this blog entry, so if you haven't introduced yourself other places yet, by all means do. The Lounge is a good place to begin, but explore lots of places. Check out the New to Gaia? Board in the Lounge, and you will soon be right at home here.
Blessings, OM Bastet
Sorry, wrong URL for the hyperlink. Here is the correct one.