The gaff - time for a rethink?

[#1]

@crazy__avocado wrote:

@allan1954wrote:

@alanjuryyou knew what you were doing, after all, you typed it thought this would have got more support looks like the members are not bothered wish I hadn't now.

I think you are over reacting and trying to portray yourself as a martyr defending a noble cause. This is an appropriate discussion to have because the gaff is not a representative publication.

@crazy__avocado yes lol if you say so.

[#2]

Hi @alanjury

I am one of the contributors towards the gaff. I do the labs highlight (alongside another member). I just wanted to pop in to kind of explain what happens when the labs highlights is put together , drafted and then published.

Okay firstly there is a thread within the discussion group - https://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Labs-Discussion/2018-The-Gaff-Content-The-Lab-Highlights/gpm-p/213...

Anyone is invited to take part, the other member that is involved with pulling an element of the labs highlight together takes on board the feedback of the labs discussion group. (Saying this I would encourage anyone else that wanted too)

Okay so when I took over labs highlight I had the ability to create my own content and collate it. @Will789 was very open to the idea of doing, there is no staff edits that are done in between collating to publishing (this is great i think because yes the labs highlight has elements of staff information, but we do not go as far as copy and pasting.

For example, labs review process statics that gets released in lab group. The labs highlights grabs that information and adds our own touch.

So cutting it short, within the labs highlight (me leading that section) if you want to join in let me know by PMing me or will789.

The contribute has been home place for the gaff and is suited to what the contribute is there for. To hold our projects (such as the gaff)

[#3]

@alanjury

Hello I not sure you are correct on kudos ,

kudos I thought was only counted if they came from high ranking members ,

the gaff should be a sticky thread I don’t want to be searching for it jumping up and down the forum

i don’t see any harm in it taking sections from other parts of forum it’s a good way to inform member who don’t look in announcments to keep them upto date 

Things are not perfect and mistakes are made but I am happy with it 

could i I do it better , No 

[#4]

@as7861 could i ask how many years has the gaff been in contribute or was it somewhere else before the contribute section, please.

[#5]

Perhaps the Gaff needs to be taken completely away from the Community?

Maybe when the new forum platform arrives (Vanilla) there'll be away to provide access to the Gaff without the need to post an announcement on an individual board.

A permanent link to the latest version on a sidebar or elsewhere perhaps?

Surely that would be more useful if the Gaff is intended to reach as wide an audience as possible. 

Wouldn't that be better than hiding it away on one of the least visited boards in the Community?

I should also add that, at one time; years ago, I found the Gaff quite useful but now don't bother. I just don't find it at all interesting.

[#6]

@natty_noo wrote:

I think some members might be afraid to voice their opinion on this for fear of getting jumped on by the gg mafia

Personally, if the gaff is relevant to certain sections of the community then surely all it needs is to be read? Meaning it just needs a locked thread, that would also stop the kudos giving (except to the op, of course)

This also goes for certain threads in Announcements, some of them are rife with backslapping kudos giving, for such gems as, "thanks for the update", wow, that little beauty can get get your kudos into double figures!

I'm not sure whether my original post ^ has been read properly/taken out of context by some people, but i'd like to make it clear that my post was actually supporting the op of this thread. From content to kudos, he's got it right.

[#7]

Hi @davidevans0000 and all. 

As I remember correctly it was in contribute even before it was called the gaff.  I wanted to give an informed reply with help of some research

So where did it start? Let's go back in memory lane. The first week of 2013 was the start of the gaff (well a form of the gaff) 

Well, it started with a Trial by Staffer - https://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Contribute/What-s-happening-Contribute-02-01-2013/m-p/7266482 

So when did it change to the gaff? Name Change! - https://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Contribute/The-Gaff-Jan-Week-1/m-p/7289950/highlight/true#M203835 

giffgaff asking for members to be involved in the creation of the gaff - https://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Contribute/The-Gaff-Jan-Week-1/m-p/7295390/highlight/true#M204058

The next week guess what? @stephenmiller was the first member to start the legacy of member operated "the gaff" - https://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Contribute/The-gaff-11-Jan-2013/m-p/7369208/highlight/false

The 2nd member created involved more members - https://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Contribute/The-gaff-18-January-2013/m-p/7441928/highlight/false#M2...@diwatty, @jburnham96

Change of leadership @jburnham96 took over - https://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Contribute/The-gaff-6th-December-2013/m-p/10944847/highlight/false...

Edit- Then a change of leadership to @mitchell98 (Thanks will)

Every since the gaff has been in contribute and in my view has been developed and has succeeded. 

Now we have a wonderful team led by @willp789 and it is fully member powered! (by us)  ** Tears drop**

@all

In regards to the payback. I found a very informative post by @t_will about payback and kudo- 

https://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Contribute/Please-update-the-payback-system/m-p/22001894/highlight...

So as we know kudo only affects a very small part of the payback.  

[#8]

Thanks @as7861 for the comprehensive history of The gaff, which started in Contribute more than 5 years ago, blimey! And let's not forget the fantastic @mitchell98 who looked after The gaff before me and gave it a fresh redesign.

@williamwalker wrote:

To be perfectly honest I haven't read it for ages.

I was subscribe to it and used to get a notification about it being available even got a email, however I do not receive that anymore.

If giffgaff want to have a news letter, it would be a good idea to inform the members that have subscribed to it, and not rremove their subscription without informing them.

I would regard this as the most basic step if you want to make something successful.

@williamwalker I'll address this point. Some time ago, Lithium pushed an update to the PM frontend which completely broke my method of sending out the reminder PMs. I've spoken to Alex about the Lithium update, but sadly there is nothing he can do about it. Before the update, I used a spreadsheet to format all the usernames into a single string, seperated by commas. I then simply pasted the string into the "to" box and it worked a treat. Since the update, the PM frontend no longer allows this, and my only option would be to literally type out hundreds of usernames. Believe it or not, I started doing this, but after about 20 usernames, the page started glitching and it became impossible. Goodbye bulk PMs

I've worked quite hard with giffgaff to try and find a solution to this problem, because the PMs were a very effective method of broadcasting a notification to those who had subscribed. At the moment, the only "solution" I have to offer is a repeating calendar event (6PM on Fridays) which you can add to your Google Calendar or other calendars via the downloadable iCal file. You can download the iCal file by clicking the link underneath the banner in every edition of the gaff.

To be clear, I am not satisfied with this solution, and I'm upset that I wasn't able to send out a final "sorry but this is the last PM" message to everyone who subscribed. Long term, we have bigger plans for The gaff which may involve big changes to the format, and I'll be pushing for a better notification system.

[#9]

no need for a reply thanks found out the info. 

[#10]

@blackfive460 Wrote

I should also add that, at one time; years ago, I found the Gaff quite useful but now don't bother. I just don't find it at all interesting.

Ditto I’m afraid :/ I appreciate it is put together by ‘volunteers’ and I’m interested to hear they are looking to revamp the format so maybe it’ll become a more attractive read to me. 

I think it’s important moving forward that there are checks in place ... it seems recent events have highlighted that  the team have complete free reign so can publish anything they want, accurate or inaccurate, original or heavily influenced by other sources.  The fact that the thread is posted on Friday evening then not interacted with by the editing team has huge potential to damage the Giffgaff company image where something is published which maybe shouldn’t be.  As it is a team there is no reason if one person is busy, another cannot check in with the thread which would mean any issues highlighted by readers could be picked up and dealt with... after many comments, a new thread to get attention, reports etc nothing was done last week until a pm was sent to an educator 22 hours later ... I’m not blaming any individual for this, it is a fault in processes which now need reviewed and changed 

incodentaly at least one previous editor has been completely missed off the credits list !