I'm testing two new features to HostelManagement.com: Friends, and User Groups.
"Friends" is a social networking feature that allows you to add someone as a "friend" by going to their profile and clicking "befriend" (similar to Facebook or MySpace). There are over 1000 members here, so it might be a useful way to build contacts with other hostels and remember who you have contacted.
To use "Social Groups", click on the "Community" menu in the horizontal navigation and choose "Social Groups" -- or just click here. Anyone can create a new group and invite people. For now I would like to keep the groups mostly hostel-related, but if you would like an off-topic group, just let me know.
I created a group to test the new feature:
Example uses for the Social Groups feature would be for a booking engine to create a group around their booking engine, or a group of hostels in a city to create a discussion area for talking about how to promote their city.
Anyone can create a new Social Group...
These new features are in testing mode at the moment. They are optional to use and don't affect the rest of the forum.
If you have feedback on the new features, please post here.
15 years
One thing that I forgot to mention is that you can create private groups and invite other users to join. Only members of private groups can view your group's content. (Only forum admins can view all groups -- I'm the only admin at the moment.)
For example, if someone wants to create a discussion group for Tokyo hostel managers to communicate with each other in private about how to promote Tokyo to backpackers, they can use the Social Groups feature.
15 years
There are two more groups now (4 in total) -- one for people who are going to the EHM in Catania and one for hostels who use Facebook to chat about Facebook marketing tips.
15 years
Update on the social groups feature:
I added a new group for hostel blogging. It's for sharing tips about building website traffic through blogging.
Lurkers can't view the content in some of these groups -- users have to join some of the groups to view the content. :)
You can also subscribe to groups to get email notifications when someone posts in a group you like:
First go the main groups page. Look on the right side for a list of groups:
Once you are a member of a group, you can subscribe by going to the group's page and clicking on the bottom right:
Choose how frequently you would like to recieve emails:
You can also view all groups and their posting stats by going to this URL:
http://www.hostelmanagement.com/groups
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