Memo from the Webmaster

Hi folks,

The Experts Corner and the Experts Group have now been active for almost a month and I thought it would be a good idea to introduce our members and recap some of the major actions and concerns that we have been working on.  For the most part, the group has proven to be very successful and I feel that we have the potential for a great future.  We have excellent quality members who have demonstrated a strong desire for profession-alism and the desire to help other Yahoo! GeoCities users.

Initially, the group consisted of just docwho3 and myself and I want to personally thank docwho3 for his support, encouragement, and great ideas.  Without his help, I am sure the Experts Corner would not have gotten off to as successful a start.  We later added boclan who brings a lot of experience to our group and for a while we had mystymoon3 but he has since decided not to be a Yahoo expert. His expertise was web TV so I am sorry to see him leave.  More recently we have added grandma_cl.  She has a lot of experience with web sites and HTML and I am sure will be a great asset to us.  We also added bandaidlmp.who offers great experience with web sites and Paint Shop Pro; and jhwhitaker who offers experience with html and FrontPage 98.

Since we started, we have redesigned the initial help files which started out just being a single document on my personal site to being a full-fledged indexed help file on the "Experts Corner" web site.  More recently, I added frames to enhance lookup and review of subject matter. We are continuing to expand and very recently added a section where we link to each member's personal help pages (if they desire).  This is an exciting new addition which will make it easier for members to be involved and produce pages based upon their particular areas of expertise.  docwho3 is the first to ask to have his help pages linked in.

We have also been discussing promoting the professionalism of our group through such activities as certification, member acceptance standards, and hopefully Yahoo sanctioning. More on this next time.

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New Members Section:

Welcome to the following new members:

    grandma_cl -- She has a nice war memorial site and other information - check it out! She also has a nice site at http://www.grandmas-house.net/index.html
    bandaidlmp -- Claude is familiar with html, web site development, and Paint Shop Pro
    jhwhitaker -- Jackie is familiar with html, web site building, GeoCities features, and FrontPage 98. Check out all her "freebie" web site.

Guidelines for Members

This column is used to cover some of the guidelines set up for members and to provide answers for some common questions.

Professionalism:
As members of the Experts Group, it is important that we maintain the highest level of professionalism possible when dealing with users and their questions.  This can be very difficult, especially when the user is already upset with the world and just looking for someone to blame.  Bad ratings can be the reward for the help we provide in this case.

Bad Ratings: If we do happen to receive a bad rating, and we know that we did our best to help the user, I think the best thing to do is just delete their rating and press on.  A response is probably not appropriate and probably won't help. If we answer enough questions, a 1 or a 2 won't effect us very much anyway.  The only reason I suggest deleting the response is because other users may review our answers and not realize that the 1 was unjustified. Deleting the response will just avoid problems.

On the other hand, if our answer was insufficient, we should make an attempt to provide a better answer even though we did get the bad rating.

Sometimes the rating is bad because the user thinks our answer was not helpful or didn't like our answer even though it was entirely correct. I think the correct action here is to let the user know that the answer was correct, try to make it more clear, and wish them good luck. We can't force the user to comply.

Advertising Our Membership: It is entirely optional on the part of each member, however, if we are really serious about promoting our group and our integrity, I think it behooves us to include a statement in each response which indicates our affiliation with the Experts Group. I like to end my responses with something like "(Member of Experts Group -- www.geocities.com/expertscorner/)".  You each may find a method more appropriate to your style.  The more we advertise ourselves and the more other experts see the ratings and support we get, the more they are going to want to be like us and a part of us. This, of course should be one of our major goals - to improve the integrity and professionalism of the "Experts" as a whole.

Also, believe me, they are already noticing.  I already gets several questions a day to the "expertsgroup" and although I would prefer to answer them as a member rather than as Webmaster, I do try to help.  Note: Initially, I answered a number of questions as ExpertsCorner in order to get our site listed in Yahoo's Experts list and establish a rating so people could see that we exist..

Questions:

Q:  Will a bad rating effect my membership with the Experts Group?

A:  No, individual response ratings are not necessarily criteria for being members of the Experts Group and a few bad ratings will not necessarily jeopardize your membership. However, serious drops in over all ratings could be cause for concern.

Q:  Do I have to have a Yahoo email account to be a member of the Expert Group?

A:  No, however, it would definitely simplify correspondence both between members and between the expert and users.

Q:  Can I recommend a candidate for membership in the Experts Group?

A:  Yes, any member can submit a candidate for consideration to the group.  As the group grows, we will probably set up an approval committee of 3-4 members to approve/disapprove applications.

Q:  Can I put the Experts Group logo on my site and where should I install it?

A:  Yes, every member is encouraged to insert the Experts Group gif image on their main page and/or other help pages that users may review. If space does not permit, they may insert the smaller image designed by docwho3.  These images are available from the Webmaster or can be copied from the experts corner site. Once the images are installed, the member should create a link from the image to the experts corner site: www.geocities.com/expertscorner/ . 

Q:  Should I advertise to users that I am a member of the Experts Group?

A:  Yes, every member should include a statement in their responses that indicates that they are members of the Experts Group. This helps promote the group and the integrity of yourself as an expert.

Q:  Can I create my own help files and pages?

A:  Yes, you are welcome to do so. Also, you may request that we build a link from the Experts Corner help files to your help pages to provide additional help options to visitors. As long as the question/answers or help files meet our standards of integrity and accurateness they are welcome and encouraged.

Q:  Can I add articles or pages to the Experts Corner?

A:  Indirectly, yes. You may submit your pages or articles to the Webmaster. After review and formatting they will be included into the help site. The Webmaster reserves the right of final authority over the material which is included on the site.

Topics of Discussion:

This column is used to cover some of the on-going topics of discussion and status if any.  Members are encouraged to think about these subjects and submit their comments/recommendations:

1.  During the past few weeks, the group has been exploring several issues regarding promoting professionalism and qualifications of the group and its members.  Suggestions include:
    A certification test made up of general questions, perhaps some from the Terms of Service agreement.  This seemed to have general support but the exact details have not been fully explored.
    A requirement for some sort of education as well as experience.  Some recommendations were for formal education while other members felt this was too restrictive.
    Methodology for accepting new members.  Although all initial members were invited by the Webmaster, subsequent applicants may need to undergo an approval review.  Some members suggested establishing a panel to review new members.  Approval review has been tried once with great success and participation.
STATUS:  OPEN

2.  Early discussions about member participation in the ExpertsCorner site discussed a number of possibilities including giving everyone the password, allowing everyone to submit topics, and even the possibility of a different medium.  For now we have decided that each member may submit articles to the Webmaster for inclusion in the help file, may also create their own help pages covering their particular areas of expertise and request a link to those pages, and that the ExpertsCorner site will be maintained exclusively by the Webmaster.  One good source of Help topics that can be submitted are each member’s “list of responses”.  They show the original question and the response. And can be converted into a series of useful questions/answers as well as provide information for subject-based help topics.
STATUS:  CLOSED

3.  I would like to propose several new issues that we think about:

    a.  That we establish some sort of “Junior” or “Trainee” type of membership where we can bring in members who show a lot of potential but perhaps just don’t measure up completely to our standards.  We could work with them and coach them in how to respond to users, assist them with learning etc., then after a month or so, if they look good bring them into full membership?  Any thoughts/comments?

    b.  That we create a “black ball” list of users who abuse their privilege to rate our responses.  If we get a 1, 2 or 3 response we could have members of the group review both the question and the response, then if deemed appropriate and the members felt that the poor rating was just an attempt to blow off at the first person, they talked to, then we could add their names to a blackball list.  And, actually, I think I would prefer to call it a “Caution” list.  However, if the individual shows a history of doing this to experts, then they should be reported to Yahoo and truly “blackballed.”   Any comments/suggestions?

Suggestions:

Members are encouraged to submit recommendations to help improve this newsletter(as well as the group and site in general) including items that you would like to see covered.  I personally would like to see a members column where we publish articles written by members of the group.  Please submit your articles, recommendations, help files, etc., to the Webmaster at [email protected].