caterbuzz
OMG Member
- Joined
- May 25, 2011
- Messages
- 16
Hi there experts - I am a culinary expert but by no means a forum expert although I have been active on catering forums for many many years (over 15) and have seen the progression from simple crude message boards to today's wizardry. Currently I run and moderate a forum on facebook - essentially a private fb group for caterers by caterers. It's social media at its best with shared discussions and photos (we currently have over 1800 photos posted by caterers from around the globe).
but let's face it, Facebook is not designed to be an effective forum. It was a great place to start but now it's time to grow up and grow into a "grownup" forum where you can *gasp* search, organize and moniter posts, among other things. Below is an outline of what we are looking to do. Being that I am a culinary fashionista and not a forum fashionista - I am offering to trade advice and real help (eg catering services) for your advice and help in guiding me to the right solution for our growing group. TIA for all responses - remember you were all newbies at one time too. and we all have to eat and my food is DELICIOUS... and yes, I will travel to you if necessary. Think of how cool it would be to have a NYC culinary fashionista come and cater your next event!
Forum community that would be housed under
www.caterbuzz.com
caterbuzz is the global social media hub for catering and event professionals
the forum categories
**get the buzz hub: open view forum with general interest posts – simple log in, moderated posts until they reach the private level
the inner hive forum: private member view forum area – next level (after 10 posts) questionnaire with more information required to get into this area)
the beekeepers forum: private forum area for moderators only
the photo honeycomb hub – a private member only forum for uploading photos – with the ability to run a logged in members only comment thread below each photo. Photos should have the ability to be tagged with
i. key word(s) (categories – eg hors d’oeuvres, equipment, guests, décor, short plates, entrée, dessert, trend,
ii. members who may be in the photo or who you want to alert to the photo
iii. automatic tag of the member who posted the photo
**vendor buzz: a place for vendors to post or members to post vendor links – open view for now (same basic sign in as to join the buzz)
for sale or trade – (same basic sign in as to join the buzz)
**the caterbuzz store - link to www.caterbuzzstore.com
**link to the caterbuzz blog –wwww.caterbuzz.blogspot.com
**The areas that would be viewable without logging in
The log in for the initial posting ability should be fairly simple and straightforward with a short questionnaire that needs to be approved by a moderator.
The next level of posting + viewing ability would require more information be filled out in the members profile and would be available after 10 posts or at the queen bee moderator’s discretion.
The final level(s) would be the moderator(s) who would have the ability to move and delete posts and queenbee who would have the ability to override membership, ban “drone” members, and see IP addresses and all information posted with full priviledges.
Membership Levels
One star = 10 posts * new- bee
After they attain newbie status they get to join the private section
Two stars = 50 posts ** worker bee
Three stars = 100 posts *** honey bee
Four stars = 200 posts buzzie **** general
Moderator ***** buzzie moderator
Forum leader queenbee
The military has it, resorts have it and now caterbuzz has it too - attain your four and five star status by working your way up the hive !!
Simple membership request
Name:
screen name + login name:
can be your real name or a pseudoname of choice
email address:
visible only to forum administrator will not be shown publically
and used to send notifications
will not be sold or shared outside of caterbuzz without your permission
date of birth ( to check they are older than 21 and for birthday notification - not visible to members)
number of years as event professional: must be higher than 1 (have drop down box of 1-60)
company website:
catering + event experience: (not mandatory at this level)
your position (possibley have a drop down box with categories including other which they can fill in)
company name
business phone number (not mandatory at this level)
company location
country + state
city/town, state, postal code (not mandatory at this level)
other features
once members are approved and start posting
on each post, see how many posts members have made to date and the member’s status
ability to search by member for all their posts
ability to search for posts and photos by keywords and/or post contents …listing most current first
most recently answered posts float back up to top.
When members log in the unread posts are bolded or highlighted in a different color
Notification of posting to a thread member started or posted to (??include ability for member to shut this off)
Ability to subscribe to post
Private messaging ability with notification to members own email to log back into caterbuzz site (is it possible for the moderator to be notified of private message activity not actual message but activity???)
pollen “karma” points for posts and photos
ability to upload photos in batches.
Ability to message all members by queenbee only
Some sort of connectivity to facebook – eg could the initial open forum be an open facebook group and post there (realizing that conflicts with some of the outlined criteria but just thinking about possibilities)
is it possible for a teaser search …kind of like the NYTimes
they see the results list but not the content unless they are logged in as a member? Either within the website or via google? Just asking
haven’t figured out how the photo gallery should be organized yet.
At this point because we are a facebook group there is only ONE giant photo album and of course it has each posters name and whatever tags they made as well as the title if they filled one out. Then there is a comments section below just like any other facebook photo.
We definitely want all those abilities within the photo gallery*
Such as name of poster and their status
Ability to title photo
Ability to have comment thread under each photo
Ability to tag other members
Ability to tag into a category – perhaps like IPHOTO where the member can choose existing tag catergories or make one up
Is there an issue about linking photos vs. uploading photos. I thnk we would prefer to have photos uploaded so we have control over the content. There probably needs to be a user agreement as well and a terms of posting (will be working on that but if you have anywhere to point me to would appreciate it)
Once the photos are in the gallery what are the choices in terms of “security” - can they be watermarked, or downloaded just by dragging or downloaded with a button or not downloadable at all. Suggestions – pros and cons.
These are the points I can remember – some of the level of detailing is more than you might need at this point to discuss and propose but it’s helping me to formulate what the criteria is.
Am sure we have forgotten some thing we wrote in the great deleted outline, but I also went further here too. We welcome your suggestions and thoughts and would love to know how to proceed in a very timely manner!!
but let's face it, Facebook is not designed to be an effective forum. It was a great place to start but now it's time to grow up and grow into a "grownup" forum where you can *gasp* search, organize and moniter posts, among other things. Below is an outline of what we are looking to do. Being that I am a culinary fashionista and not a forum fashionista - I am offering to trade advice and real help (eg catering services) for your advice and help in guiding me to the right solution for our growing group. TIA for all responses - remember you were all newbies at one time too. and we all have to eat and my food is DELICIOUS... and yes, I will travel to you if necessary. Think of how cool it would be to have a NYC culinary fashionista come and cater your next event!
Forum community that would be housed under
www.caterbuzz.com
caterbuzz is the global social media hub for catering and event professionals
the forum categories
**get the buzz hub: open view forum with general interest posts – simple log in, moderated posts until they reach the private level
the inner hive forum: private member view forum area – next level (after 10 posts) questionnaire with more information required to get into this area)
the beekeepers forum: private forum area for moderators only
the photo honeycomb hub – a private member only forum for uploading photos – with the ability to run a logged in members only comment thread below each photo. Photos should have the ability to be tagged with
i. key word(s) (categories – eg hors d’oeuvres, equipment, guests, décor, short plates, entrée, dessert, trend,
ii. members who may be in the photo or who you want to alert to the photo
iii. automatic tag of the member who posted the photo
**vendor buzz: a place for vendors to post or members to post vendor links – open view for now (same basic sign in as to join the buzz)
for sale or trade – (same basic sign in as to join the buzz)
**the caterbuzz store - link to www.caterbuzzstore.com
**link to the caterbuzz blog –wwww.caterbuzz.blogspot.com
**The areas that would be viewable without logging in
The log in for the initial posting ability should be fairly simple and straightforward with a short questionnaire that needs to be approved by a moderator.
The next level of posting + viewing ability would require more information be filled out in the members profile and would be available after 10 posts or at the queen bee moderator’s discretion.
The final level(s) would be the moderator(s) who would have the ability to move and delete posts and queenbee who would have the ability to override membership, ban “drone” members, and see IP addresses and all information posted with full priviledges.
Membership Levels
One star = 10 posts * new- bee
After they attain newbie status they get to join the private section
Two stars = 50 posts ** worker bee
Three stars = 100 posts *** honey bee
Four stars = 200 posts buzzie **** general
Moderator ***** buzzie moderator
Forum leader queenbee
The military has it, resorts have it and now caterbuzz has it too - attain your four and five star status by working your way up the hive !!
Simple membership request
Name:
screen name + login name:
can be your real name or a pseudoname of choice
email address:
visible only to forum administrator will not be shown publically
and used to send notifications
will not be sold or shared outside of caterbuzz without your permission
date of birth ( to check they are older than 21 and for birthday notification - not visible to members)
number of years as event professional: must be higher than 1 (have drop down box of 1-60)
company website:
catering + event experience: (not mandatory at this level)
your position (possibley have a drop down box with categories including other which they can fill in)
company name
business phone number (not mandatory at this level)
company location
country + state
city/town, state, postal code (not mandatory at this level)
other features
once members are approved and start posting
on each post, see how many posts members have made to date and the member’s status
ability to search by member for all their posts
ability to search for posts and photos by keywords and/or post contents …listing most current first
most recently answered posts float back up to top.
When members log in the unread posts are bolded or highlighted in a different color
Notification of posting to a thread member started or posted to (??include ability for member to shut this off)
Ability to subscribe to post
Private messaging ability with notification to members own email to log back into caterbuzz site (is it possible for the moderator to be notified of private message activity not actual message but activity???)
pollen “karma” points for posts and photos
ability to upload photos in batches.
Ability to message all members by queenbee only
Some sort of connectivity to facebook – eg could the initial open forum be an open facebook group and post there (realizing that conflicts with some of the outlined criteria but just thinking about possibilities)
is it possible for a teaser search …kind of like the NYTimes
they see the results list but not the content unless they are logged in as a member? Either within the website or via google? Just asking
haven’t figured out how the photo gallery should be organized yet.
At this point because we are a facebook group there is only ONE giant photo album and of course it has each posters name and whatever tags they made as well as the title if they filled one out. Then there is a comments section below just like any other facebook photo.
We definitely want all those abilities within the photo gallery*
Such as name of poster and their status
Ability to title photo
Ability to have comment thread under each photo
Ability to tag other members
Ability to tag into a category – perhaps like IPHOTO where the member can choose existing tag catergories or make one up
Is there an issue about linking photos vs. uploading photos. I thnk we would prefer to have photos uploaded so we have control over the content. There probably needs to be a user agreement as well and a terms of posting (will be working on that but if you have anywhere to point me to would appreciate it)
Once the photos are in the gallery what are the choices in terms of “security” - can they be watermarked, or downloaded just by dragging or downloaded with a button or not downloadable at all. Suggestions – pros and cons.
These are the points I can remember – some of the level of detailing is more than you might need at this point to discuss and propose but it’s helping me to formulate what the criteria is.
Am sure we have forgotten some thing we wrote in the great deleted outline, but I also went further here too. We welcome your suggestions and thoughts and would love to know how to proceed in a very timely manner!!
