Help Us Help You!

I have been handling most of the support emails lately. They have always been handled in a rather ad hoc manner. As of today, we are pleased to announce that allvoices is now using UserVoice to handle support emails. Here’s how it works…

When you have a problem with the site, go to http://allvoices.uservoice.com/
There you will see the other reported items and add yours. You can vote on items that others have suggested. You can add comments to them as well. If you don’t want to create an account, you can report items anonymously. (However, if you submit something anonymously, we won’t be able to get back to you when they are fixed.) Add your idea, question, comment, or problem in the search box, then search to see if it has already been reported.

Check out what items have already been reported before you add a new one

If you don’t find anything like what you are reporting, click the create new idea button and create a new post.

Describe your item

The more information you give us, the better we can address things. Be sure to provide a title, a good solid description (steps to reproduce it always help too), and vote it up. To see your voting options, click the drop down after the description.

Below the drop down list is the suggest it! button. Click it to save your suggestion so that the world can see it and add to it.

Once you have added the item, I will go in and check to see if it is reproducible. As I have updates about the issue, I will add them to the page.

That’s all it takes to send us your opinions. If you check the existing items, you will see that there are already a few there waiting for your opinions. One of those suggestions is to allow support items to be added to http://allvoices.uservoice.com/  straight from the site. Implementation of that idea is already in the works.

There are a couple of other things reported on the site that are also already in work. The Flash 10 related problems reported yesterday in the blog are well on their way to being fixed. And those pretty X’s overlaying the front page map? The wonderful development team here at allvoices may have that one fixed too. If so, you’ll see a note from me here  tomorrow.

Things I would love to see reported on allvoices

Hitting writer’s block about what to report? I know how that goes. Living in Phoenix and working from my home, I often feel that I am disconnected from the news of the day. To overcome that, I follow a lot of people on different social media sites to learn what people are talking about, caring about, and reporting across my corner of the net.

I thought that it might help some of you out there to know about some of the lesser known corners of allvoices. These are places that don’t get as much reporting, so you have a greater chance of getting eyes and visibility on your content.

Entertainment

We get quite a few reports on the big stories from the entertainment world. But did you know that no one seems to have submitted a single user report on Emmy fashions? We have a few general pieces that the system grabbed, but we don’t seem to have much on the fashions worn – the hits and misses, the shoes, the jewels.

Another example is reality TV. I haven’t found anything user contributed on the site about Survivor, reality TV, Amazing Race, Biggest Loser or Project Runway (to name a few of my favorites). I know that there are people in the world who are interested in these shows. And I don’t just mean the US versions of them. But no one yet reports on these on allvoices. Pick up the reality stream and you will get views.

Sports

I am a huge women’s basketball fan. The only WNBA contributed story on the site appears to be the one I posted during the Olympics. No news on the playoffs. No news on the award winners. (My favorite, the Phoenix Mercury are out of all of that, so I am not the one to post it.) Do you follow the new Australian league? Report on it! Nothing has been contributed there either.

What about baseball? Believe it or not, there is little there either. There is a story on the end of Yankee Stadium… But little else. Follow football or soccer? Tell us about it! We do seem to get some international news on the soccer world, but not nearly what I would like us to have.

Another area you can report on and have a pretty much monopoly on the eyes are your local school sports events. Tell us about the events at your college, your high school, your kids’ schools. You will get picked up by not just the current attendees and parents, but also by the alumnae and the staff.

Sports news is easy to report too. Find out what happened with the stars of your favorite team and provide your opinion on how they are doing. Tell the world why your team is great or why they aren’t so great this year. Give us something good to read and we will.

Science and Technology

We do get quite a bit of science news. The tech stuff seems to come in waves. If you have the latest gadget, let the world know why they need it (or why they should stay far away). Tell us what you think the next breakthrough will be. Tell us why people should care about the scientific and technological breakthroughs you find important.

Are the kids in your school doing something great for science projects? Tell the world. You would be amazed at how big your local audience really is! Tell the world about a research project or study you know something about. Reach out – people will find you.

Conflict and Tragedy

We get lots of big event stories. What really catches people are your pictures and videos a from the ground. Don’t believe me? Check out the Islamabad pictures from earlier this month. They really have power and punch. And they got views!

Business

Business news is a bit harder normally. Right now, with the world economy where it is, anything you can share that helps people see how you are getting through or how you are helping others – that’s good content and will get viewers.

Is your company taking a new approach to health care costs? Tell us about it. Others can learn from you. And the better it is, the more people will see it.

Politics

National and international politics are easy to see and find things to write about. BUT just as important is the local news. Find out if you can report on the city government meetings. Find out what is happening locally around the debates. Start a discussion about what your area needs and what it does well. Politics will always bring people to your work.

The unreported stuff

Finally, report on the stuff that matters to you. Are you attending a conference? Report about it live and let people know. Tell us about the conversations and the people who are there. Talk to the attendees and learn more about why they are there and what they can contribute.

Are you a volunteer with a national organization? Tell us what that organization is doing right and what it is doing wrong. Tell us how you feel about changes being made. Tell us about changes you feel should be made.

In closing…

I want to read what you write. If I am not already a fan of you, let me know. If you fan me, I will fan you. If you write something you think should be given more visibility, let me know. I’ll do what I can.

What does this have to do with my job as community guru? Everything! If I don’t know what people are reporting on the site, I can’t get people to the site to check things out. The more you tell me, the more I can tell the world.

If there are other things you would like to see reported, but don’t feel you can report on, comment away – I’ll see if I can find someone to write on it! Also, if you have a story on something mentioned here, but I don’t know about it – tell me in the comments. I’ll be glad to check it out!

The real goal of allvoices.com

While at the offices last week, I had the pleasure of meeting most of the staff in person. During the course of getting to know each, I kept running into a sentiment that defines the real goal of allvoices.com. I think Amra Tareen put it best:

The real goal of allvoices is to make sure that no one gets abused and no one gets taken advantage of.

The more visibility there is into the way things work in the world, the less likely it is that anyone can be abused. Shedding light on a subject helps bring issues to light – it can’t help but do so. But there is more to it than that.

If you know that you can report what is going on and you know that the Internet will see what you report, that gives you the power and the strength to stand up to the bullies of the world – the big ones like repressive governments and the little ones like kids on the playground. If everyone knows what it is really going on, it is hard to continue to abuse someone or something.

If we all take a stand and report when something goes wrong, then those doing wrong are brought into the light. If you feel something is wrong and report it, even if I don’t agree with you – I know now about it. We can talk about it. We can come to terms with how we feel about it.

I come from the computer world. I have always hated the “mushroom treatment.” If I am doing well, tell me. If I am doing poorly, tell me. Give me direction and give me light. Then, I can do my job and you can do yours. In the real world, combating the mushroom treatment means showing the world what things look like from your viewpoint.

And that is the goal of allvoices: Sharing your viewpoint so that no one gets abused and no one gets taken advantage of.