Monday, March 5, 2012

New Feature: myVidster Group Pages!

Greetings Vidsters!  It has been over a month since my last blog post and during that time I have been collecting your suggestions and feedback.  Most of your feedback revolve around the theme bring users together.  Users requested chat rooms, a discussion board and I have received emails of users seeking other users of similar interests.

While setting up chat rooms or a discussion board would be easy to do, I did not feel that it would integrate well with myVidster.  This lead me to a group page solution.  Users can create a group page on any subject they are interested in and use that page to attract and build a community.  Here is break down of the features.

Group Pages, one page to rule them all!

Wall (Group homepage)
Members can post to the wall and if they desire provide link(s) to myVidster video bookmarks to share to the group.  When you provide the link(s), the thumbnail, title and description from the video bookmark will be added to the wall post. Replying to a wall post is also supported.

Shared Videos
Members can share a video channel to the group.  This is a easy way for members to automatically share videos to other members.  It is also recommended that you share a channel that contains videos that are directly related to the group.

Integration
When adding a feature it needs to be integrated if you expect users to use it!  Notifications are sent out to the members when a new wall post is created.  You can auto post a video bookmark to the group's wall by using the video bookmark's share button.  myVidster's search engine  now supports group search.  Select groups in the search drop down to perform a group search.

Missing Features
Currently the only administration task the group owner can do is delete member's wall posts.  Future updates will include giving group owner the ability to manage members and add moderators.  Users will also be given the option to add the group's shared videos to their video subscriptions.

For the curious I have created a test group page, feel free to join it.  I do encourage active users to create their own group page.  Well that is it for now, as always keep providing the feedback.