microBBTFs: I Have Keys and I am not Afraid to Give Them Out

I am plodding along with the update. One of my main goals is simplifying our overall setup to make it easier for people to find what they are interested in *and* to make it easier for members to submit content. With that in mind I am streamlining the structure of topic specific areas. This includes changes to the way content areas are created and managed.

What’s this change all about?
In the past, I’ve created new blogs within Expression Engine’s Control Panel and then created new template groups to display those blogs. It was a time-consuming process and, often times, not worth the effort as people would post a few entries and would either stop posting completely or would post only sporadically. Eventually I stopped looking to add new voices to the site because it just wasn’t worth the time I was spending. With the redesign, I won’t have that issue. First, submission of content will no longer be restricted to people with “keys”. With the redesign, every member will be able to submit news items (which currently goes into the Newsblog) and commentaries (which currently goes into our blogs like Sox Therapy, Hall of Merit, Transaction Oracle). Second, I’m modifying the structure of content by consolidating the news and blogs sections of the site by topic into micro Baseball Think Factories (or microBBTFs).

What are microBBTFs?
What exactly are microBBTFs? microBBTFs are smaller Baseball Think Factory communities focused on individual topics. They are my way of integrating the news, blogs, and communities aspects of the site. I will accomplish this by combining our new categorization system with our current blog set-up.

For example, what is now Sox Therapy will be integrated into what is now the Red Sox NewsBeat (under the red_sox tag). The newly designed microBBTF will contain all the content submitted to the site marked as “red_sox”. The current editors of Sox Therapy will become the moderators of the Red Sox microBBTF (or Red Sox Think Factory or Sox Therapy).

At this point, I am asking for volunteers.

What are the benefits of becoming a microBBTF moderator?
Being a moderator makes you smarter, cooler, and more attractive than regular Primates. Of course the true benefits might not be readily apparent at first but, trust us, eventually you will realize just how superior you’ve become in the eyes of your former peers.

As if that isn’t enough, you also get the opportunity to shape the community that revolves around your chosen topic. Moderators are the defacto leaders of their topic community. They decide which posts show up to their area of the site. They decide what is acceptable behavior within their community.

The primary moderator of a microBBTF also gets to customize and configure his community to his liking. He gets to choose whether to keep the default appearance of his microBBTF or to change the main logo, colors, and background image of his community. He gets to modify the description and rules of his community that get displayed in the community sidebar and can decide what other content gets added to the sidebar. He can also approve other moderators of the group.

All moderators of a microBBTF have their posts automatically added to the “Featured” view of their community’s front page (the default view that everyone sees when a visitor hits their microBBTF). Their posts also get highlighted within the microBBTF topic and automatically get added to to the sitewide moderation queue. This benefit ensures that community leaders get noticed within their selected topic. 
Moderators can further shape their community by managing the content submitted to their microBBTF topic by their fellow Primates. If, upon submission, the creator of an entry marks their microBBTF topic as the primary topic of the post, the moderators of the microBBTF get permission to moderate all comments within that entry, further shaping their community. Moderators can also add or remove content to/from their topic that was inappropriately marked.

Lastly, moderators get the opportunity to impact the overall direction of the site by participating in moderator-only discussion areas. They get to have a say in what new features get added and get to help craft the overall moderation rules of the site.

How do I volunteer?
If you are interested in helping out, respond to this thread *including the topic you are interested in managing*? If you want to make sure you don’t get missed, follow up with an email to me through the site. Preference will be given to members who have established reputations on the site. Multiple volunteers for specific topics will be encouraged to work together. 

Thanks in advance for helping make our community even better,

Jim

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