Is GTD Connect useful if you are not active on the forums?

Thinking back to some of the posts I have seen on the cost versus value of GTDconnect I got to wondering:

Is GTDConnect useful if you are not active on the forums?
 
Sure!

The content is so rich...worth the price by itself, in my opinion. The forums, IF you are active, provide access to a much higher level of thinking than the public forums.

All around, a great value.
 
You will never know...

12hourhalfday;71286 said:
Is GTDConnect useful if you are not active on the forums?

You will never know because people who are not active on the forums will not answer your question. :-)

I find great value in podcasts available through iTunes.
 
I agree. These forums seem to cover a broader range of concepts / ideas. I love reading them.
 
12hourhalfday;71286 said:
Is GTDConnect useful if you are not active on the forums?

Useful, yes. But for me the advantage of the forums is that I get to talk to real people about how to incorporate the ideas learned from other sources on Connect.
 
I'd say yes for sure. I have had contact with Connect members who consider themselves quite active, even though they mainly use the other resources besides the forum. And there are also active forum members, who consider themselves active simply because they read the forum posts, even though they don't post often.
 
I received a lot of value from it.

Great question, Brian - thanks for posing it. Lately, I have been curious about how many folks we have participating in Connect in "stealth" mode. :)

I was a Connect geek for over a year before I ever made the leap and hopped into the forums. I tended to hang out with the articles and podcasts a lot, particularly when I was in need of support with situational, tactical stuff or the Horizons of Focus. I was hopping in to run searches or browse the tag list. I always gleaned great stuff from my experiences, even though I was visiting less frequently than I do now.

 
Stealth also

laurac;71383 said:
Great question, Brian - thanks for posing it. Lately, I have been curious about how many folks we have participating in Connect in "stealth" mode. :)

I was a Connect geek for over a year before I ever made the leap and hopped into the forums. I tended to hang out with the articles and podcasts a lot, particularly when I was in need of support with situational, tactical stuff or the Horizons of Focus. I was hopping in to run searches or browse the tag list. I always gleaned great stuff from my experiences, even though I was visiting less frequently than I do now.


I was "stealth" for awhile too. But here's something that I experienced that I now pay particular attention to: I think offered an opinion that nobody agreed with...and I kind of felt slammed. So I try to go out of my way to make sure no new person ever feels like I did. I think it would be nice if we say "welcome to the forum" when we notice a new poster. Nothing Davidco can do about that...it's all up to US!
 
Or is it forum functionality that takes it to the next level?

I'm curious to hear if GTD Connect members think they would get more out of the forums if there was more functionality within the forum? For example, you cannot place a picture directly into a post (it has to come from a 3rd party URL) and attachments are limited in type and size (256kb). I think it would be great to be able to pass along more comprehensize documents (that 1MB PDF checklist someone raved about) or embed your own GTD how-to video from Vimeo.

What do you think?
 
Sure, but

jason.verly;71550 said:
I'm curious to hear if GTD Connect members think they would get more out of the forums if there was more functionality within the forum? For example, you cannot place a picture directly into a post (it has to come from a 3rd party URL) and attachments are limited in type and size (256kb). I think it would be great to be able to pass along more comprehensize documents (that 1MB PDF checklist someone raved about) or embed your own GTD how-to video from Vimeo.

What do you think?

With all the posting I do, I obviously think it's great just like it is. The additions you describe would be fine too...as long as it doesn't drive up the cost. I fear it might because of the equipment necessary to host all that. But I'm no expert.
 
Hopping on and off, still getting value

Hi y'all,

Thanks for the interesting discussion. I tend to a be an on-again, off-again forum poster. Sometimes I am very active, reading often, replying or posting regularly. Then I go through times when I have many demands and I don't get over here much. Either way, I get value.

When I'm on the forum, I get value from your perspectives and I have the privilege of sharing my thoughts which, if I'm lucky, someone gets some benefit from. When I'm not on the forum, I continue to get content which is useful (more often than not). I certainly get more value when I show up.

As an aside, a while back Barb specifically asked me to be more active on the forum and I'm trying to follow through on my commitment to her. :)

Best wishes,
Tara
 
And I asked Tara to be more active why?

Tara;71571 said:
Hi y'all,

Thanks for the interesting discussion. I tend to a be an on-again, off-again forum poster. Sometimes I am very active, reading often, replying or posting regularly. Then I go through times when I have many demands and I don't get over here much. Either way, I get value.

When I'm on the forum, I get value from your perspectives and I have the privilege of sharing my thoughts which, if I'm lucky, someone gets some benefit from. When I'm not on the forum, I continue to get content which is useful (more often than not). I certainly get more value when I show up.

As an aside, a while back Barb specifically asked me to be more active on the forum and I'm trying to follow through on my commitment to her. :)

Best wishes,
Tara

Tara is a very bright woman and brings a very unique perspective to our little group here. THAT'S why I nudged her to be more active.
 
TesTeq;71581 said:

This would be a two step process, attach the picture to the post and then re-use the URL for the attachment as the insert. For a novice user, getting the picture to be insert may not be as intuitive. My concern is just because a person has opted to be a GTD Connect member does not necessarily mean they are computer power user.

On the flip side, people who are more creative or power users seem to be limited in what information they can share in the forums as they stand today. I had a quick demo on doing something in Omnifocus that was shared on Google Video (now YouTube). In other forums I've been able to embed the video in the post, like on blog or website, but I'm not able to do that on GTD forum.
 
I still do not understand.

jason.verly;71594 said:
This would be a two step process, attach the picture to the post and then re-use the URL for the attachment as the insert. For a novice user, getting the picture to be insert may not be as intuitive.

You just go to "Additional Options", press "Manage Attachments" button and choose a file from your computer to upload. It's three-step process but I don't think it's difficult.
 
Updates on file attachments

Hi Members!

Jason asked:
For example, you cannot place a picture directly into a post (it has to come from a 3rd party URL) and attachments are limited in type and size (256kb). I think it would be great to be able to pass along more comprehensize documents (that 1MB PDF checklist someone raved about) or embed your own GTD how-to video from Vimeo.

I just edited this so that all attachments are set at 1MB size limit. So attach away! Thanks for letting us know you wanted that extended.

As for including videos to Forum posts, the easiest way would be to attach a URL of the video hosted on Vimeo, YouTube, etc. The Forum software we use does not allow video code to be embedded into the post. So sorry about that.

As for including pictures, TesTeq gave some good pointers there (look for the Manage Attachments button below the posting form.) The Forum software is designed to attach the picture to the bottom of the post, not within the post.

I am working on some videos that would give members (new and current) a Tour of Connect features. I'm thinking of doing a whole video just on the Forums, and some of the useful things to know about posting. It's a great place to hang, so we'd love this to be useful and easy for you all.

Kelly
 
kelstarrising;71615 said:
The Forum software we use does not allow video code to be embedded into the post. So sorry about that.

I have heard a lot about the limitations of the forum software on GTDconnect. Does anyone know of any packages that would accomplish more?
 
Hi Brian,

I appreciate you looking at that, but it would be an expensive overhaul for us to change the Forum software. While it doesn't do everything it could, it's quite robust in being able to manage thousands of threads, user accounts and information. It's not likely we will change it out at this point.

Cheers,
Kelly
 
What is missing?

12hourhalfday;71655 said:
I have heard a lot about the limitations of the forum software on GTDconnect. Does anyone know of any packages that would accomplish more?

What is missing in your opinion? I can post text, pictures and links. I cannot imagine any additional functionality that is needed here.
 
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