Since several months now, we have revised our approach for functionality improvement. The new approach decentralises all identification and discussion of functionality improvements to the [redesign] Dgroups, which is open for anyone to join. Currently, the group counts 34 active and engaged members, including Damir Simunic for WA-Research, representatives of the Dgroups Board, Dgroup admins and creators, and other users championing Dgroups in their own organizations.
From the over 226 discussions in the [redesign] community, here is an updated list of top issues and requests, in no particular order:
- Search should be improved
- “Make public” function seems not always to be working
- Incorrect building of strings in email that results in Messages in a thread not always being filed together on the web archive
- Allow multiple email addresses for each Dgroups user account
- More granular approval policies (toggle option for admin messages to not be moderated)
- Better statistics needed (users, downloads)
- More/less detailed user profile needed?
- Metadata for groups (in progress)
In parallel with (and in part as result of) the discussions around present and future platform development, you may have noticed in the past months a range of improvements, some big and some small:
- Option to upload your own banner
- Option to choose colour theme (also impacts suggested banner images)
- Option to send an custom welcome email to new invitee when they join a community
- Password reset text added in Spanish
- Calendar date sorting changed to newest first
- Within member list, option to allow members to see each other’s email address
- Basic stats download at /admin/stats/downloads.csv (available to group admins only)
If you are working with Dgroups and are interested in discussing how to improve Dgroups functionality, please let us know and join us in the [redesign] discussion group: it is important to hear what issues are key for you, and what is working well for you. Often [redesign] members are an excellent resource for ideas and solutions, as is the platform host.
And if we missed any recent improvement, let us know in the comments section below!
by Kristin Kolshus and Pier Andrea Pirani