Following is a long question and a big ask. If it is too much, I'd be pleased for suggestions of where I can get the help I want.
I need to "re-boot" my Joomla/CB website to be more effective. My objective is not just getting lots of members creatively organizing, but to organize members into specifically defined groups with an intention to work together to carry out project tasks. Group Jive and/or CB Activities appear to be useful tools but seem a lot more ad hoc than I need. I'm not highly skilled in Joomla or in CB and probably never will have it all figured out. So when I'm asking for a strategy, I'm asking for a direction for what tools might meet my needs and what I need to learn to use those tools effectively. What I'm asking for might be more than I can expect from the Joomlapolis forum, but all I can do is to put it out there and see what I can get.
There are two general aspects to my membership needs: Prescribed Groups and Voluntary Participation. I will describe both:
PRESCRIBED GROUPS: This is a genealogical website so the organization is based on specifically defined family groups. Without getting into the weeds of genealogy, all descendants of a given ancestor are in the same family group. Presently, there are more than 80 such groups and potentially there may be hundreds. However, the objective is to find where these family groups are related and then connect them.
When a new member joins, we ask information sufficient to determine membership in an existing group OR, if there is no existing group, to create a new one. Groups are created by research, not only by the membership, so a group may have dozens of members or one member or no members. HOWEVER, the success of the project means that, with research and time, these groups will be connected.
There is also a grouping of groups. Connecting groups would mean that a specific common ancestor is discovered. However, by using DNA, there are genetically related families where we don't know (and may never know) the common ancestor. While there might be dozens or hundreds of groups, there are only a dozen or so genetic types, or, we might say, groups of groups. These groups of groups are identified with colors which can be useful for display/
The intention is not to restrict access but to make it clear to everyone where they "fit". People should be encouraged to seek ways that groups can be connected. This can't be simply because people WANT to be connected but research shows they ARE connected.
Presently, I have more than 100 member profiles and the groups they are in is established, but it is very tedious and manual by using fields and then searches based on these fields.
VOLUNTARY PARTICIPATION: Another aspect of membership can be described as a scope of interest. In other words how involved do they want to be? People with a higher level of interest may have more time or skills to offer to the project. The level of interest may change over time and it would be useful for people to be able to voluntarily change their status. For those with less interest, less is asked and less maintenance is required. Presently there are members who range from high interest (genealogy nerds) to no interest (they just happened upon the project at some point). So the question is, 1) how do I help present members identify their level of interest? 2) going forward, how do new members choose a registration path? and 3) how do people change over time? This isn't a matter of money where a subscription system would be in order. We have a donation system. This is about motivating contribution of time, information, and collaboration with others.
Public: There is a public face to the website, but I have no interest in anonymous participation. In other words, if you have questions or comments to post on articles or forums, you must identify yourself. This would be a guest membership. Some minimal information would be required, but guests would not be privy to more detailed information about other members. Guest members should see an incentive to become Registered members.
DNA Member: There is presently a class of membership that represents a real person but is only identified by an ID number from the DNA study. This is administratively created and used as a DNA marker for the various groups. This profile would be connected with the appropriate group as discussed above. If the person represented by this number wants to register, he would provide the personal information and become a registered member.
Registered Member: This is where an applicant would divulge enough family information to be assigned to a group. Registered members may be able to view the scope of all the groups and other members.
I haven't an exact name for this class of members, but this would be for workers, colleagues, volunteers who contribute time and information to the project, perform roles. Some people would have an interest or scope of interest that is 1) only their own group but able to see and query other groups, 2) a collection of related groups attempting to find connections for their groups 3) project-wide roles. To some extent, this may involve standard Joomla roles of Author, Editor, Publisher, etc. There may be but this isn't a matter of limiting access or permissions so much as finding people with common interests in the project and encouraging people to get to know each other and work together.
Presently, all except the DNA members are Registered members. Maybe many of them simply aren't interested and would rather drop out. Presently, participation and collaboration are non-existent because there isn't a system in place to encourage it. I want to ask everyone what they want and would be happy to archive or inactivate memberships. At the same time, I want to be able to offer incentive and direction for meaningful participation. I have the registration link hidden for now to purposely limit new registrations. I know that with very little effort I could get a huge influx of membership interest but I can't handle it without an organizational system and identifying people willing to help.
krileon
