Review of the Conversations feature

[Betree]

We released the conversations feature almost 3 years ago. It doesn't seem to be widely used, and @opencollective/design was discussing the eventuality of merging that feature with "Updates" at some point.

It would be great to check:

• the numbers: how many people are using this? Is the usage increasing?
• the use cases: who's using it, why?
• whether existing users are aware that this exists
• the user experience, to see if we're satisfied with the current version

With all that information, we should be able to decide on a long-term vision for this project.

[Memo-Es]

IMO conversations can be easily merged to updates by adding an ON/OFF switch to allow comments to each update. Having the same interface for both is weird, and merging them helps us align with our platform simplification goal.

[Memo-Es]

Related: #4179

[Betree]

@Memo-Es An important difference between conversations and updates is that anyone can start a conversation while an update is necessarily published by a collective admin. I agree the two features have many overlaps though; the only part that differs is the interface to post a new entry.

[Memo-Es]

@Betree, can we gather some data about how Collectives are using conversations? i.e., which Collectives have more conversations, and how many? Maybe comparing that with the same data on updates use.

[Betree]

can we gather some data about how Collectives are using conversations?

@Memo-Es Yep collecting some metrics about conversations usage is the purpose of this issue. I don't have much time to invest in it right now, just wanted to document the issue in case someone has more time to invest. Otherwise, I'll take a look later.

[Memo-Es]

That's fine @Betree, let me know if you need support on my side

[ntnsndr]

Thanks for the thoughtfulness here! I think some kind of conversational space is important, especially for enabling groups to make joint decisions about their resources. For instance, I am trying to use Open Collective to run both the funding and decision-making of a small office coffee-buying club:)

I can see a certain elegance with combining Conversations and Updates, though @Betree is right about what could be lost in terms of non-admin posting. What I'd suggest is something like this:

• Collapse the two into Conversations
• Enable Admins to check "send to all" for any posts if they want Update functionality
• Enable all users to create threads
• Enable users to opt-in to notifications on posts, or comments, or whatever
• Enable fine-grained granting of participation rights to certain "tiers" of contributors

Happy to discuss this more! I think this is a really important question, because it is about ensuring that resource decisions can be tied to community deliberation.