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Why we stopped making Einsteins I think the most depressing fact about humanity is that during the 2000s most of the world was handed essentially free access to the entirety of knowledge and that didn’t trigger a golden age. I think the most depressing fact about humanity is that during the 2000s most of the world was handed essentially free access to the entirety of knowledge and that didn’t trigger a golden age.Ponder that! Spengler began writing Decline of the West in 1914. Tolstoy was only four years dead when Spengler started his book; Marx was only 30 years deceased. But Spengler could state, with the full expectation that his audience would not question him, that these men belonged in global pantheon of humanity’s greatest figures.
Ponder that! Spengler began writing Decline of the West in 1914. Tolstoy was only four years dead when Spengler started his book; Marx was only 30 years deceased. But Spengler could state, with the full expectation that his audience would not question him, that these men belonged in global pantheon of humanity’s greatest figures. But Spengler was hardly alone in this sort of judgement. Ten years later John Erskine would teach his course on the great works of the Western tradition—which was the granddaddy of the Columbia Common Core, the St. John’s curriculum, and the Great Books of the Western World series—and it included all of the names mentioned above as well. To this Erskine would add the names William James, Sigmund Freud, Thomas Hardy, and Charles Darwin. . .About Knowledge Bases
What is a knowledge base? A knowledge base (also called a tribal knowledge base) is a collection of articles that captures and organizes helpful community information. Knowledge bases are great community resources for several reasons: You can search for knowledge base articles or use special navigation links that let you browse through the community's knowledge bases. After you find an article, you can add your comments and maybe even edit the article (if you have the right permission). If the article's publisher incorporates your comment into a later version of the article, you'll get credit as a contributor. Articles can contain some of the same rich media as other posts, including images and attachments. Each article contains lists of contributors and related links. Contributors could be community members whose posts or comments are used in the article, authors who put the article together, or editors who reviewed or refined it. Related links take you to posts that were used in the article or other posts that the authors thought you might find helpful or interesting, including forum messages, blog articles, and ideas. How do I nominate content for a knowledge base? If you find great community material (helpful questions and answers or just plain useful information), you can nominate it as a knowledge base article. The people responsible for your community's knowledge base evaluate your nomination, and if it's accepted, knowledge base authors can use it as the basis for a knowledge base article. To nominate content: Go to the topic you want to nominate. Click Topic Options > Nominate to Knowledge Base. How can I contribute to a knowledge base? You can contribute to knowledge bases by: Writing good answers to questions posted in the community. Accepting good solutions to your questions (this automatically nominates the post to the knowledge base). Nominating good posts you find in the community. Reviewing or editing articles (if you have the right permission) Commenting on published articles. Every time you contribute to an article (by adding more information, providing clarification, or just helping to keep published articles up to date), you receive credit for your contributions. How do I edit a knowledge base article? To edit a knowledge base article: Click Edit on the article page. Note: You only see the Edit button if you have permission to edit the article. Click in the section you want to edit and make your changes. You can edit text, add text, or drag content from the clipping area on the right side of the Editor. To search for additional material, enter a search term and click Search. To find tagged material, click the Tags tab and click a related tag. Format text, spell check the content, and add contributors or related links as needed. Add a revision note that explains your changes. Click a save option: Save, Save & Request Review, or Save & Request Publication.Evolving your community
Over time you may need to expand your community structure and evolve your community. It's best to let data guide and inform these decisions when reviewing your community structure for expansion. Consider making new areas only if you think they'll be able to support about 5-10 new posts per day, add something critical to your community that cannot live with other content, or breaks out of existing discussions. Thinking of expanding, then consider the following best practices: For building off existing boards or areas: Does the board have more 30 posts per day? Is the volume not driven by trending topics or themes, but rather is the engagement sustained over a period of time? Is it easy to divide this content up into two different boards? Would the creation of this area NOT dilute existing discussions? If yes, you should be able to safely create a new area and seed it by moving existing content. For a brand new area, consider: 5 - 10 posts per day is a helpful rule of thumb to guide your decision making when creating a new area. This rule determines that in any given time, your community should receive no less than 5 - 10 posts per forum board, per day. Forums achieving this minimum are successful in showing signs of life and volume, and therefore more likely to grow. If your new area is unlikely to ever hit this threshold, consider shelving it until there is additional interest for it.Creating your community structure
Structure is the organization of information in your community. It’s how related content is grouped together for intuitive access. Community navigation is determined by the community admin configured structure and should be focused on how the end user would journey through the community to reach the content they seek. The primary purpose of an effective landing page is to engage the end user, to read and digest content, participate in discussion, share and learn with their peers. Well converting landing pages share 3 characteristics, signs of life, volume and clear navigation paths. 5 - 10 posts per day is a helpful rule of thumb to guide your decision making when defining your community structure. This rule determines that in any given time, your community should receive no less than 5 - 10 posts per forum board, per day. Forums achieving this minimum are successful in showing signs of life and volume, and therefore more likely to grow. How does this help you get the right size structure? Let's look at an example: Potential addressed audience size 300,000 of which, 10% will visit in a 30 day period 300,00 x 10% = 30,000 visitors 10% of those visitors will post 30,000 visitors x 10% = 3,000 3,000/ 30 days = average 100 posts per day Therefore, aim for no more than 10 public forum boards. Common mistakes When building your community structure and designing your home page there are some commons mistakes you should avoid... Overwhelming with new or editorial content The home and landing pages should enable the user to find what they’re looking for with ease. Overwhelming them new or editorial content often fails to support the user need. Remember for 90% of your visitors everything on the community is new. Hiding the community navigation structure The community structure forms the navigation, and when well defined aids the user journey through the community and content. Hiding or minimising the board hierarchy, creates challenges for users to journey through community and content. Hide or minimise search The majority of your visitors to community will search before posting, keeping search easy to access throughout the user journey is key. When search is difficult to find users will often become frustrated. Trying to build in anticipation of the future Keeping a balance between navigation structure and volume of content is key to ensure a sense of activity, in turn supporting future growth. Building a large structure in anticipation of future needs will dilute the impression of activity in community, and deter participation. Create a navigation structure able to expand and grow as your community does.Roles & Permissions Refresher
When launching a community, you will have access to documentation around roles, may take several training courses involving them, and will likely be walked through how to create and manage roles by a Community Strategist. Here is a quick refresher on some important elements when managing roles: Follow the Principle of Least Privilege Every user should only be able to access only the information and content necessary for their legitimate needs on the community. Always create roles at the Community (highest) level To keep things simple: roles are easier to manage, track, and grant at the community level. In addition, Khoros analytics tools only track user roles at the community level. Here, we've created "Test Role 1" at the community level. Remember, you can create a role with the exact same name (spaces included!) at the lower level of a community and grant the appropriate permissions there. Here we've created Test Role 1 to apply to this TKB that you're reading (notice how the top bar changed from purple to pink, along with the location in the community structure?) Any permissions given to Test Role 1 here at this TKB will still be granted by Test Role 1 at the community (purple) level. This is especially handy for giving a group of users (say, employees) access to dozens of areas while only giving them one role. Tips for Managing Roles Keep it simple; only add when needed. Create as few exceptions to the default community permissions as you possibly can. Making a section of the Community "private" When making a new board, TKB, category, etc, you may want to make it private to all users except those who have a specific role. To do this, in your Admin panel. Use the "choose" button above to navigate to the particular area in the community you want to make private. From there, go to Users -> Permissions -> Defaults. From there, change the following permissions from "Default" to "Deny" Read Posts See Discussion Style Boards (this may appear as See Forums, See Blogs, See TKBs, etc) See Categories (if you are denying access to a Category) With those 2-3 permissions set to Deny, only users with a specific role will be able to see them. If you need a group of users to see this area, create a role and in that role, grant those 2-3 permissions. You don't need to change the rest of the permissions because unless they have access to the area, they will not be able to take other actions. Managing Complicated Role/Permission Setups You may end up in a situation where someone has been granted access to an area where they shouldn't, or should have access to an area where they don't. Grant permissions given through Roles will always override other permissions! Remember: every user should only be able to access only the information and content necessary for their legitimate needs on the community. So try to give Grant permissions through Roles at the lowest possible point in the structure, rather than the highest. General rules of thumb: Permissions Granted through a Role will always overrule other permission settings in a specific area, so grant these as deep in your community structure as you're comfortable with (generally at a specific board or category level). Permissions Denied through a Role will always overrule default and permissions. Non-Default/Inherited Permissions will always overrule default, inherited permissions. Default, Inherited Permissions will always be overruled if an exception is created.