Should We Keep the Private Groups?

[Eric Tipton]

Evening!

Brent Dacus and I are working on some serious house-cleaning here at the AC. Long story-short, we are looking for anything that is unnecessarily taking up server space. One of those thing might be the private groups that were set up here several years ago.

At the time, Facebook did not exist and the groups did quite well. With the advent of social media, it is my observation that the groups may have run their course. You may not even know that we have groups here at the AC. You can find them here (must be logged in):

http://www.authentic-campaigner.com/forum/group.php

As we always try to do, we would like to hear your feedback. Should the groups stay or Go? Take the poll and feel free to offer your opinion.

[MarkTK36thIL]

Re: Should We Keep the Private Groups?

Get rid of them I say. Too many groups to be a member of and still try to stay informed about.

[Arch Campbell]

Re: Should We Keep the Private Groups?

Honestly, I totally forgot that I belonged to one of these! And that they existed, for that matter...

[Ambrose Bierce]

Re: Should We Keep the Private Groups?

I would say that there are a lot of good informational items that are worth preserving if the groups themselves go away (which I support).

The Material Culture group, as an example, has many labels and images people are always searching for to improve their impressions, make cartridge bundles, and mark items shipped in boxes from home, contents of reproduction bottles and actual foodstuffs.

If there is a way to keep the good parts of the research that is posted in some of these sub folders such as a "Research and Forms" folder, though the name could be anything is certainly better than that suggestion, the good parts of having those groups could endure.

So, I agree with putting them out to pasture, but let's not toss everything out without examination of the positives they yielded.

[Tyler Underwood]

Re: Should We Keep the Private Groups?

The age of Facebook is upon us where everyone and their brother can create a page for just about anything. It has unfortunately taken over a lot of things and the use of the groups on the AC has fallen big time. When I went through and looked at the amount of usage these pages had didn't quite seem enough to justify keeping them. At the time (about a month ago) the most recent page activity was about 5 months. The last activity on the rest, was a year or more.

[mike44thva]

Re: Should We Keep the Private Groups?

I would say that there are a lot of good informational items that are worth preserving if the groups themselves go away (which I support).

The Material Culture group, as an example, has many labels and images people are always searching for to improve their impressions, make cartridge bundles, and mark items shipped in boxes from home, contents of reproduction bottles and actual foodstuffs.

If there is a way to keep the good parts of the research that is posted in some of these sub folders such as a "Research and Forms" folder, though the name could be anything is certainly better than that suggestion, the good parts of having those groups could endure.

So, I agree with putting them out to pasture, but let's not toss everything out without examination of the positives they yielded.

I couldn't have said this better.

[LibertyHallVols]

Re: Should We Keep the Private Groups?

Agreed. Usage of the groups is way down and rarely generated much that was positive. The stuff that was worthwhile was worth sharing with the membership at-large.

Maybe the items in the material culture help group could be made into its own gallery?

[Brent Dacus]

Re: Should We Keep the Private Groups?

I would suggest Eric and I wont know all the tid bits or golden nuggets of information in every group. So here are my suggestions.

1.) If you own the group and you don't want anything in it. Send me a message and I will get rid of it.
2.) If you own the group and want to save stuff for everyone to see. Make an appropriate post and put the info there.
3.) If you own the group and want to save stuff for yourself download it, print it or move somewhere.

also open to suggestions...

[Johnny Lloyd]

Re: Should We Keep the Private Groups?

I created the Material Culture help group on here and it has been VERY successful. I refer people to it all the time.

The only reason why I use the private groups is because they are a PERFECT place to put period labels, ephemera and material culture items that hobbyists on here can use at home for their own events. Public domain stuff... I say keep them for that or keep them in a cut-down format somehow. Like the gallery-idea Wick had...

[Brent Dacus]

Re: Should We Keep the Private Groups?

Wick and Johnny
When you all say Gallery do you mean like for Photos only?

I created the Material Culture help group on here and it has been VERY successful. I refer people to it all the time.

The only reason why I use the private groups is because they are a PERFECT place to put period labels, ephemera and material culture items that hobbyists on here can use at home for their own events. Public domain stuff... I say keep them for that or keep them in a cut-down format somehow. Like the gallery-idea Wick had...

[Johnny Lloyd]

Re: Should We Keep the Private Groups?

Yes. Something free and accessible for all.

[LibertyHallVols]

Re: Should We Keep the Private Groups?

Wick and Johnny
When you all say Gallery do you mean like for Photos only?

Johnny,
Are most of the items in there photos?

[Johnny Lloyd]

Re: Should We Keep the Private Groups?

Picture files... No .PDFs to my knowledge.

[Spinster]

Re: Should We Keep the Private Groups?

There's some discussions, not always well attached to those photos, on appropriate use of them