Maybe we should use a Facebook-like mutual follow agreement for connections. And then anyone can follow a group. But this does produce friction, which may be good or bad. Good because it makes you think more about who you connect with. Bad for people that want others to see their information. But they could create a group for easily sharing information.
We could limit how many connections. 150 like Path or YouVersion. If we left following open-ended, this would help curve the follow-me-I'll-follow-you-back technique. Groups could be not included in that number to make it feel less restrictive.
If we use open-ended following, we could limit to 300-500 people you can follow. It's enough to not feel entirely limiting, but not too much to create overload or give place to trolls. It doesn't have to be emphasized like how Path did or YouVersion does. When you reach your following limit, it can suggest people to unfollow based on how little you have interacted with them.
When you limit the number of connections a user is allowed to make, it can lead to them make no connections at all.
Responding to a friend request on Facebook doesn't require much thought. There's no real consequence if you accept an invitation. But on Path, you have to constantly weigh if a person is close enough to you to take one of your coveted 150 slots. If the answer is no, you reject them. You certainly don't reach out to them with a friend request. —http://www.businessinsider.com/paths-problem-too-few-friends-2013-10
What if you could only join communities instead of making individual connections? But once inside a group, it is like your regular social networks (at least in the Faithlife groups it is). Plus communities are way more confusing than social media.
Add some community features, even if it is a social network. Like community highlights/topical Bible.
We could hide numbers of followers. Maybe show the users how many people are following them, but not show the same to others. Some may argue that they don't think someone is very good if they have less than 100 followers. But what if that person has really good things to say but hasn't been discovered yet? And many followers does not necessarily equal quality content. Many a teenager on Instagram had thousands of followers with only one blurry photo posted. And how many people follow just for trolling purposes?
Other things in life don't show public numbers, but we still use them. A blog does not have a counter that states how many people subscribe to the RSS feed. If the content is high in quality and meaningful it will be linked to, shared, and show up high in search results.
Most groups/communities are confusing and complicated. They are not user-friendly.
In a social network, people are held together by pre-established interpersonal relationships, such as kinship, friendship, classmates, colleagues, business partners, etc. The connections are built one at a time (i.e. you connect directly with another user). The primary reason that people join a social networking site is to maintain old relationships and establish new ones to expand their network.
Communities are held together by common interest. It may be a hobby, something the community members are passionate about, a common goal, a common project, or merely the preference for a similar lifestyle, geographical location, or profession. Clearly people join the community because they care about this common interest that glues the community members together. Some stay because they felt the urge to contribute to the cause; others come because they can benefit from being part of the community.—https://community.lithium.com/t5/Science-of-Social-blog/Community-vs-Social-Network/ba-p/5283
Our infographic ‘social media & community’ was created with our partners Shilbrook Associates. It maps out the distinctions between wanting attention (social media) and wanting to engage (owned community).—http://www.4-roads.com/Social/Blog/social-media-and-community-rules-of-thumb
Unfortunately, true community in our modern world is hard to find for soldiers and civilians alike. Instead, we increasingly live out our lives as members of networks. This transition from community to network life is truly at the heart of the increasing feelings of loneliness, anxiety, and anomie that many people experience in the modern age. We’ve never been so “connected” — and yet so isolated at the same time.—[Art of Manliness](http://www.artofmanliness.com/2014/07/01/communities-vs-networks-to-which-do-you-belong/)
- You can either follow a group or join it
- Each user gets a private, personal group
- A group can be 1. open (anyone can join) 2. closed (only join by invitation from someone in the group) or 3. approval only (any user can ask to join a group, but someone inside must accept them).
- Groups can be hidden or visible.
- People should feel that they have a part of the group. Everyone is given equal opportunity to share.
- There has to be at least two people in a group for it to be visible.
- The size should be limited to some number. The smaller a group is, the harder it is for someone to be lost. The easier it is to listen and know everyone in the group.
- Can a note be only in one group, or can it be in multiple?
- Easy rules and explanations of things in the group.
Example uses of a group: A church, A Sunday school class, a small group from a large church, a family, a Bible school or seminary class, an interest such as illustrated faith or Bible journaling, or a ministry writing team.
What about copyrights and groups?
People spend hours on Facebook, but don't really spend time on the things they see.
Limit how much people see at one time. Use algorithms to show what is relevant in the margin. Too much causes people to just skim through it.
Add a way for editors to pin quality content in the margin even if the person does not follow the content creator. Sort of like the featured page on the App Store, but for each Bible chapter.
That person is Bluma Wulfovna Zeigarnik, a Gestalt psychologist and psychiatrist who made significant contributions to the establishment of the discipline of experimental psychology. In 1927 she discovered that incomplete or interrupted tasks are remembered better than completed tasks – this phenomena is now known as the Zeigarnik Effect. It’s based on the idea that the initiation of a task creates a task-specific tension, which can only be relieved upon task completion. Bluma’s studies showed that when people are interrupted halfway through a task, they are twice as likely to remember that task, as opposed to other tasks which they complete uninterrupted.
One of the most popular methods of increasing user engagement on the web today is through various forms of social proof. For socially conscious users, the incentive to keep their “score” high can be a powerful motivator to stay engaged with an app because it triggers their desire for external validation. Virtually every type of social network keeps a “score” of some kind, be it likes, follows, comments, etc. This is a highly effective way of harnessing the Zeigarnik Effect because most users are not satisfied with their “score” – there is always the desire to get more likes, follows, etc. Users desiring to increase their score will post more engaging content more often, and in doing so become involved in a positive feedback loop of engagement.—[Dan Birman](http://www.dtelepathy.com/blog/design/ux-how-drive-deep-user-engagement)
Badges and progress bars for gamification. We can automatically create a badge by overlaying text over the course image.
Should we feed the innate, human desires of pride and selfishness? Most social networks get people to come back by alluring them to be more "liked" or to grow a following.
Notifications of what people are posting in a group will help people to keep engaging. Let people easily opt out of notifications for a group.
We could use reminder notifications like YouVersion to remind people to do work on their studies.
In-line with the work of psychologists dating back to Gestalt psychologist Kurt Lewin, to modern-day researchers like BJ Fogg, the app uses the principle that by making an intended behavior easier to do, people do it more often.—[Nir Eyal](http://www.nirandfar.com/2013/07/the-app-of-god-getting-100-million-downloads-is-more-psychology-than-miracles.html)
Mission: Bible exchange connects Christians together through study of the Bible.
Vision: Our vision is to create a social-network where Christians can share their knowledge of the Bible with others.
How are we different?
We are not just a Bible reading app like NueBible, YouVersion, or Bible Gateway.
We are not mainly focused on studying materials by big-named, published authors like Logos or OliveTree.
We don't need to do everything ourselves. We should find partners and integrations that can add value with little upkeep on our part.
- Home page
- Create an account
- Sign in
- Navigation
- Support chat
- User settings
- Search bar
- Search results
- Bible
- Verse picker
- Margin (social from groups)
- Create a note
- Study information and settings
- Study list
- Study step
- Course builder
- Dashboard
- Suggested groups
- Social feed (activity)
- User profile
- Group feed
- Group info and settings