One of the features that we are considering strongly in DS is to give patrons the ability to submit their comments on our site. There are various ways to do this and we are thinking about many options. One way of doing this is to allow patrons to comment on every story that we run. In essence they could add their two cents on any piece of content that we offer. The mechanism would be similar to the commenting mechanism on this blog. At the bottom of each article there would be some link that forwards patrons to a page where they can enter their own text (related to the article or not.) The execution of this requires some more thought (or maybe it doesn't and we are over thinking it who knows?).
The challenge is to provide patrons free form access to comment on what they want to comment on. We do not want to tell people what to write about we simply want them to write. When patrons comment to individual stories that we feature on our web site we indirectly direct their posts. Hmm, I am going to take it on faith that my last sentence makes some kind of sense to you readers even though I said "indirectly direct."
We are also interested to see what patrons comment on without any prodding. At this point we are thinking about an additional mechanism where patrons and any staff for that matter, can seed their own discussions via an open discussion board.
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4 comments:
I get your "indirecly direct" sentence. Basically we would sort of direct them because we could start or "seed" the conversation on a theme or topic that is timely, centered around a program or something, but the patrons would take the conversation where they want to go.
My hope is from this interaction we will learn more about our patrons, their thoughts, passions, worries etc. and see how ALD can help them.
To all of the blog readers - here's my question (and way informal poll) - do you regularly go to websites to post comments? if so, what is it about the site that engages you? what would it take for you to start becoming an active commenter?
to cynthia's question - the web sites that I frequent that permit user comments are:
1. metacritic.com (allowing the public to rate the movie/CD/book with comments - an interesting complement to the professional reviews & scores)
2. amazon.com (public feedback is certainly a benefit of this site - and how different that feedback can be!)
3. onlinesweepstakes.com (my "hobby" - allows valuable feedback from other members relating to individual contest information such as answers to contest quizzes, feedback relating to spam/phone solicitations for contests - also has an area for off subject conversations - some of the members post thousands of times).
4. internet movie database (imdb.com) - the message board encourages user input & conversation - and this is the one site where things seem to get out of control... often way off subject and with many posts that are deleted.
A question I have is how far off the path do you allow the conversation to go? Is there a point where you waste people's time by having conversations or comments that are completely off subject? Does it matter?
It would frustrate me.
I'm quite an active comment reader, and certain blogs/forums, an active poster. The number one thing for me is, how active is the subject. Sometimes if you are the only one posting a comment, and wondering if anyone is actually reading your comment, it's a little discouraging.(Having someone giving positive feedback to comments/posters is always encouraging). Also there can tend to be disagreements on controversial subjects, and I know sometimes people can have very strong feelings, and also be just mean. So...it depends on the subject and how it is moderated!
Hearing people's ideas though is always a great thing, and I really love interaction, especially with peers and locals. I think it's a great idea, again! :)
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