Tech Group Report 2012-01-31

DRAFT - still being edited

FREEGLE TECH REPORT

This is a report for the activities on the Tech group [1] for January 2012. It covers messages 6629 to 6999

USABILITY

Discussions are in progress about the achieving the best usability of our Website, Facebook and Freegle Direct, particularly in relation to the sequence and number of actions needed to join a group.

MOBILE APP DEVELOPMENT

Tech has identified that a mobile app would be the next logical step in making Freegle as accessible as possible.

i. Julie (Bolton) is the contact point for interested people to design an app; groups are encouraged to ask if they have any willing volunteers who could help.

ii. Chris has investigated ibuildapp as a possible tool to use, but it is not suitable for the complexities of the app we will need.

A Freegle-Mobile working group has been set up to coordinate the app development.

PROMOTING FREEGLE DIRECT TO GROUPS

More needs to be done to promote Freegle Direct to our own groups. Discussion is ongoing on how best to do this.

SUBSTITUTION STRINGS

A substitution string for a group short name was discussed

HOW MUCH WE SAVE FROM LANDFILL

Edward is developing a facility for the republisher to estimate weights of goods that have been listed as Taken or Received. This will give more meaningful figures than we have at present for publicity purposes.

SUPPORT MAILBOX

Julie asked for volunteers to man the support@ mailbox for techy queries and problems.

MESSAGE MAKER

A suggestion that Message Maker warns when someone enters the same subject line and email address within a short period of time is being considered.

FACEBOOK and FREEGLE DIRECT

Edward has a permanent surgery dealing with republishing issues, ably assisted by Jean. During January the following issues were dealt with.

8a. Edward improved the app by introducing:

• Improved function on the plug in to tie in the republisher app and synchronise the memberships so old ones get removed and don't receive emails.
• Displaying the real email address of FB and FD members
• New statistics showing a groups estimated weights saved from landfill.

8b. Mods requested the following changes which Edward made:

• A subject link on Automated messages
• Better wording on reminder email
• Better formatting on chase up email
• Multiple copies of the same email (changes to the message to prevent multiple clicking)
• Subject line on automated messages

8c. Questions were asked and answered on:

• Turning digests off for the group
• Regularity of republisher pernission emails
• Missing statistics
• Joining groups by liking the page
• 'Undesirables' on Facebook & Direct
• Length of time messages are displayed
• Mapping location anomalies
• Delay in posts appearing
• Facebook unsubcribes
• Messages appearing on Facebook but not on Yahoo
• Delay in Admin posts

8d. There were also a few issues which Edward worked tirelessly to sort out:

• Faulty links
• Spiders in the server
• Incorrect links in posts

8e. Items raised and still to be done:

• Like button in Facebook /Freegle emails
• Synchronising posts with Yahoo so those removed by moderators come off Republisher
• Messages with no subject which have been corrected, missing them on resubmission
• Republisher splitting location names

GOOGLE ANALYTICS

Chris reviews statistics produced by Google to see where and how much traffic there is that relates to Freegle, and posts an analysis on Central each month.

WIKI CHECK

Freegle’s entry in WIkipedia is checked and updated weekly by Jon.

TASK LIST

The task list on Tech is out of date and not used.

If anyone is interested in volunteering for any techy type jobs (or any others!) please contact Julie on volunteer@ilovefreegle.org and she will be able to let you know what is available and what it involves.

Back to Tech Group Report 2011-02-28

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