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parallellogic — Affiliation Widget
Published: 2010-01-03 10:45:51 +0000 UTC; Views: 6529; Favourites: 23; Downloads: 59
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Description
Ok, official word is that an Affiliation Widget is now in the design phase for the groups system. The staff are looking for as much feedback and ideas as then can get, so please feel free to comment here (sending it to #devBUG just means we have to re-link to it in a comment thread and then individually look at each post, whereas all the comments can be read at once by posting here)I have a request: there have been tons of suggestions about affiliates. and affiliates is something that everyone has a different opinion of what it even is, depending on their experience. could you guys distill all of those suggestions. [link] 1/3/09
Comments on this:
One idea that was proposed (=Paradise-of-Darkness [link] 1/3/09) was for folders for affiliates. I tried to model this like the gallery/fav submission system where users could choose which folder their group would appear in on their affiliate's page; so like you can select which folder your submission will go into, you will have the choice in which folder your group appears in.
The affiliates widget could appear in the "About Us" section and optionally the Profile Page, that's how I was imagining this panning out.
I also tried to model the main affiliation initiation section like a reverse join - so rather than a user going up to the group and clicking the 'join' button, the group is going to another group and clicking the 'affiliate' button.
I also agree with *Tetsuk0 that there should be a second way to affiliate (rather than visiting the other group's page as I've shown above) but instead have a page in the admin section that functions nearly identically to the invite system: you can go to this affiliate page by selecting the text link and then just fill in the other group's name and press send.
AND 1 button on your own group's page (only visible to admin people) similar to "invite a member" button, that says something like "INVITE an AFFILIATED GROUP". [link] 1/3/09
Another Visual Suggestion for an Affiliates Widget: [link]
Journal by $Moonbeam13 : [link]
Questions, Comments and Suggestions Appreciated
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Comments: 72
would you mind telling me were i can find a recource that would tell me how to remove affiliates from my group 
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Go to the Affiliates Widget in your group, choose Edit Widget >> Edit Affiliates >> the drop down arrow in the top right of each affiliate will have a "Remove Affiliate" option
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the idea is really good!
--
If u hate me jus
If u lik me jus mak me ur
Names ~bakshbr
Founder of 
[link]
Check it out if u wanna get watched
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Apparently one of my friends did an affiliation with one the groups I'm in as a Co-Founder. How is it a possible he can do it without this method? Just Wondering because I'm new to these group things.
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The Affiliates system is probably best explained here: [link]
~Just Wondering because I'm new to these group things.
A Complete Introduction to Groups may help clear some of your confusion
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This is really good! We defiantly need some kind of affiliate system.
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I think that would turn Affiliates into something to get more pageviews.
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Yes, the purpose of affiliates to attract more users to visit your group's page.
It is already partially a over-used system; automating it will likely increase that effect, much like deviations listed in 50 groups - this is more about making it easier for moderators to handle new affiliates and giving an organized pretense for user access. This is why I strongly support folders in the affiliates area - if groups are going to be pushing for a much more active use of affiliates using the official groups system rather than the old club-method of listing clubs/groups in a journal, then there will be a lot more groups listed in which case being able to sort them into respective categories would make them more accessible to users looking for a specific genre of groups rather than just looking at a random list of groups if there was only one "Featured" category in the Affiliates.
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nice
but didn't understood, why there is need those folders?..
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Folders mirror the functionality of collections in the Gallery/Favs. They are also a way of organizing the groups that are listed in the favs into relevant sections. Consider how much more useful groups sorted by category are rather than listed all in one bug chunk: [link]
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Very neat! If we can name the folders ourselves, and have as many as we want, then this is basically how I want it to work.
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I love this idea! Great job on designing it Parallellogic!
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Excellent idea! It would be a lot more helpful than being unsure where to post affiliates.
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oo wow, one of the groups that I'm in mention to me that you all working on an affiliate widget.
I like to say that would be very handy for us group|club founders. I myself run 10 groups (I used to own 11 clubs before adopting one out. and I might adopt 1 or 2 more) and yes I've been telling other clubs|groups owners to note the group about affiliations instant of commenting. I notice some groups added a custom widget for the affiliates. I've just been adding all my affiliates to my affiliate journal. It would be nice to see some system for groups owners that can send request in for affiliations.
I look forward with this feature and can't wait to try it out! As always =parallellogic keep up the awesome work with the group's system!
=lilly-peacecraft
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~that you all working on an affiliate widget.
The development staff are making one, I just compiled this to have a central, publically viewable place to share ideas on it.
~I look forward with this feature and can't wait to try it out!
~As always =parallellogic keep up the awesome work with the group's system!
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Looks great to me! My only question is: Will each individual group be able to create folders of their choosing for prospective affiliates to add themselves to? Those categories seem too basic. Other than that, I like it.
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Yes, idelly this widget would operate much like the favs, so each group would be able to add their own folders and rename them as they desire. I was just using some basic examples here, I didn't intend for these to be the default folder(s).
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Like the idea of this a lot. Would make it easy to promote our affiliates, especially for regular groups who have already used up their custom widget box.
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Iterators suggestion gallery
Your deviation is whispering to me that it wants to be in our gallery.
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Cool, I've submitted it there
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I think affiliates should have a "tab" or something similar where all their updates contests and stuff can be kept. That way they don't go unnoticed in a journal.
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That sounds more like a whole new system for "Events" than just a little addition to the widget. I've heard some faint ideas being reported to #devBUG concerning something more than just devMEETs, but haven't really considered a complete system for it, though I do think that would help out a lot for publicity... I think it would be more than a tab - it would probably be its own widget - like the twitter feed, only for group contests and the like
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I like that idea too but was thinking more along the lines of being able to add content to the affiliate box/tab/whatever....But I think I like your version better
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I think the fourth one down is the most fitting option.
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I figured you'd be confused. This dev looks like one long list of possible widgets. At the top of each widget, you have "Request to Affiliate With This Group." Look for the fourth time you see that, and you'll know which widget I'm referring to.
I didn't add enough information to my comment, btw. As I told $Moonbeam13 , "...I'm not sure about the "Folder Your Group Will Appear In" part, since some groups may not have a folder that would fit. For instance, the #CrowClub is the group I run for artists who love James O'Barr's character The Crow. We use all kinds of media to create this kind of fan art. If we wanted to affiliate with #Crow-Conglomerate , we'd have to pick "Other." Not exactly enticing. It might be a better idea to drop that option, or add a "please choose for us" option to the dropdown box. This can encourage groups to create a special folder for their affiliates, one that includes all the media they use, and increase camaraderie."
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~This dev looks like one long list of possible widgets.
It's the same widget shown at different stages during the proposed application process. I didn't have time to make an interactive animation, so I just posted each frame.
~we'd have to pick "Other." Not exactly enticing.
I believe the Affiliates idea has a lot in common with the Favs. If you have an "Other" category in the favs, it is equally unenticing, but it fills the need to list the groups that don't fit in the other categories.
~or add a "please choose for us" option to the dropdown box
I included an option to choose from the available folders in the above visual suggestion -- if you didn't pick one, it would default to the featured folder [much like membership requests default to members rather than contributors when both join options are enabled] or not allow affiliation at all [like users are not allowed to join if all membership types are disabled]). I'm not particularly fond of allowing users to create their own folder however, not all groups will want to affiliate with all other groups, so there will inevitably be groups that request folders be created in other groups that stated they will not have them. For example, #MasterPhotoshop has stated they will not list groups that are unrelated to Photoshop - so allowing users to repeatedly ask them to create an "Unrelated" affiliate folder will only prove futile. Similarly, :devtehlist:, although not a group, lists many affiliates and we get a lot of requests to be listed in the "Anime" section, even though we do not have such a section (we delegate to another account specifically handling anime). If ~TheList was converted to a group and did not have an Anime folder, we would not get requests to be listed in the Anime section - however if the option was granted to request folders, we would get many requests for the Anime folder despite the fact we won't have one. If being listed in the "Other" folder is ineffective, then wouldn't everyone want to be listed in their own folder?
Allowing folder creation by unrelated groups also creates a problem of additional management since compound actions would then need to be taken into account - users would need to apply for affiliate folder creation and only once approved would then need to affiliate their appropriate group. Again, I draw the parallel to the favs - users are not able to request folders (although they can do so through the GroupDesk to manually contact the admins), so I do not believe this function would be appropriate for the affiliates widget.
~since some groups may not have a folder that would fit
I would propose that you note the admins of the group requesting the proper folder be formed. If they agree, they will create the folder; if not they will decline your request - since this is most likely a rare instance, I wouldn't list it as something that needs an official function - I would presume this would only happen a few times before there are too many folders to effectively help users find relevant groups, so I do not feel an official function to add folders would be warrented.
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Aha, so I liked the fourth stage then; I get it now, thanks for clarifying. Forgive me please, I don't think I was quite clear with my suggestion, given your response. I wasn't suggesting that being in an "Other" folder is ineffective, merely not as attractive as having a more specific folder. I see what you mean in relation to favs, and I wasn't aware that it would default to Featured. I wasn't suggesting that unrelated groups create folders. I was suggesting that if you add "please choose for us," the admin who agrees to affiliate can either put them in the folder they think is best (and that may very well be "Other") or create a new folder if they like. In other words, if the person requesting to be affiliated doesn't see a folder where their group would fit, they respectfully request that the admin of the group with which they want to affiliate pick for them. Does that make more sense?
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~Does that make more sense?
Yeah, it does, thanks for clarifying. I still think that current systems would handle that problem already. If admins see that a lot of groups are applying to the Featured affiliate folder, then they will instinctively create that folder. I don't think reminding admins that they don't have a specific folder for each incoming group is going to add much to the system. Akin to the favs, if the admins notice a lot of submissions from one genre, then they can create a new folder and then go through the old Featured favs and move them over to the new folder - there isn't a '
Idk, it's a relevant suggestion. I don't think it will be necessary since it doesn't mirror dA's current design (like following the layout of the favs), it will probably be used less than other systems (so would warrent less development time & features) and thus could be managed with a few notes sent to the admins of the group rather than trying to work out a new user-friendly intuitive design. It also adds another layer of complexity to the system since admins would then be getting correspondence items asking to be placed in unspecified folders which would then needed to be acted on in each case, so affiliation requests could no longer be auto-approved. You also have to figure on the admins simply deciding they won't bother with applications that don't specify a folder - the ease-of-use factor - in which case you simply get a lot of denials rather than new folders. All that could be bypassed if users were required to specify which folder to place their group into, with the option of noting the group admins asking for a new folder if necessary on the rare occasion that a correct one is not present.
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