|
The
problem with living with someone who can build sites, forums etc is that they
do just that. You have an idea and before you know it you are the face, the
name, the person behind a highly successful forum. How on earth did that
happen?
My forum
was born on 28th October 2007 at silly o'clock in the morning. It’s still in
its infancy but it’s one of those super babies, those kids that are completing
Masters levels statistics at 5 months. Ok, so I joke, but what has astounded me
is that I expected to be the boss, the one driving the site but it has in fact
driven me. At times I’ve had to run to keep up. I expected a slog to get it off
the ground yet most days I’m stood on a hill looking up at a distant hot air
balloon full of student midwives debating, discussing, sharing and supporting,
and the beautiful balloon says 'I belong to Josie'. It still blows my mind,
even 5 months later. I log on and see that X has said they feel they got their
place at uni because my site helped them, documents and articles I wrote,
whilst usually sat in my PJs with a cuppa, posts and support from other
students, again I imagine them sat at home in face packs, with babies on their
knees, in their comfies, with their bored boyfriends asking the to hurry up,
.... this army of women all supporting one another from inside the family unit,
in PJs.
I wasn’t
exactly a technophobe before but I did have a steep ish learning curve. I love
the statistics, I am still mesmerised by how many hits the site gets a day, how
many new members, what the most replied to thread is..... I find myself
tutoring others how to delete, edit, move, merge posts like I’ve been doing it
for years. I must be getting the hang of it as Rob hasn’t had to come and
rescue me from anything I’ve messed up for a long time now and the site runs
smoothly and efficiently. My next job is the SEO apparently, like I know what I’m
doing with that.... but hey under expert tutorage I’ve learnt I can get the
hang of this IT-geek-don’t-be-scared-of-error-messages lark.
But it is
a full time job. My oh my I didn’t expect it to be so time consuming. It’s not
the kinda thing you fit in around something else; you fit everything else
around it. But it is addictive. I love midwifery and I love learning, I love
teaching, my forum rocks my world, it floats my boat it has everything I like.
When I want to get into a debate about something that sparks me up, I can and I
have some excellent debating partners, if I want to research a topic I’m
interested in - I can, the results of which I can post on my site for others to
learn from, I have a glossary of midwifery terminology that links to every post
with the particular word - brilliant. I source pregnancy, birth, anatomy and
physiology 3D animations and videos for the site, interesting links and
articles........ the education resources section is well populated and well
visited, the students are actually using it, they are learning, they are
enhancing their knowledge, through my lil old site.
But its
not all physiology of the placenta, the general chat area has threads that make
me LOL that make me go 'o0o0o0o I'll go have a look at that then' that make me
search youtube for a video of Sugar Pie Desanto so I can share her music with
my friends. I can go to the wannabe area and help someone write their personal
statement to apply to Uni to study midwifery, I can counsel and support those
who didn’t get a place this year, I can build their confidence so they feel
strong enough to apply again next year. I can respond to someones question on
anything from what’s syntometrine to what shall I have for dinner tonight. Its
a community with a shared purpose. To learn about midwifery, the course, how to
get started, to share the highs and lows of the journey to becoming a midwife,
to share the highs and lows of life, to share a photo gallery of our lives. Its
all in there. And its mine. I get to say what’s cool and what’s not. There’s a
lot of my personality stamped all over the place, unwittingly. I don’t like
bullies, so no one gets bullied, I do like to learn in as many ways as possible
so there are many, many ways to learn, I help anyone who needs a hand so plenty
of that goes on............ but what is so great about having a forum is that
its not just me that gets to all this great stuff, people from all over the
world do. I have clocked up over 800 members in just 5 short months, from 40
different countries, I have on average 70-99 members visit the forum over a 24
hour period, I often have peaks of traffic with over 150 people online at one
time. But what matters to me is the regulars, they have become my friends, they
are people I talk to like I talk to offline friends, I worry about them if they
are having a hard time, I do my best to be a good friend to them, yet I’ve
never met them. Well some of them, some I have met. It redefines the boundaries
of friendship for me, I talk to certain people pretty much every day, I know
when their kids birthdays are, I know what they had for lunch, I know what they
are working on......... but we have never met.
So
running a busy forum for student midwives has been a thrilling ride to date, I
love the site, I love where it is going and I love the 14 staff who are helping
me get it there. It has its own momentum, fuelled on by the wide eyes of wannabes,
the anxiety and elation of newbies, the dedication of students and the
compassion and pastoral care of qualified midwives and nurses. And everyone
gives their time freely, no one bitches about one another, we just get on with
it. As must I, I’ve been off my forum for a whole half an hour, and I’m half
way through a debate about a man who is 22 weeks pregnant. I kid ye not, now I
dare you not to come and have a look...... http://www.studentmidwife.net/midwife-news/2597-pregnant-transgender-male.html
My advice
to anyone who wants to run their own forum is you have to be realistic, you fit
round it, it doesn’t fit round you, you have to be dedicated - it won’t be a
project for long, it will be a way of life. After a while you realise it’s not
about you, it’s about your community, the people you have brought together. By
starting the forum you owe them, they have expectations of you, they need you
to know stuff, they need you to be there for them, all of them. Recruit an
excellent team of staff to help you, you will find you can’t support everyone
in the way you want to purely because your community grows and grows and you
simply can’t get to everyone. Trust your staff, give them free reign, let them
grow into the posts you create, jiggle the posts (jobs) around so everyone gets
to do what they want. Don’t expect anything of any of your staff, let them give
to you and the community what they want, then that way they can never feel
stifled. Thank them, praise them reward them where you can, talk to them about
how grateful you are, about how great you think they are, tell them what you
think, don’t try and be the big boss, the Head Girl or Boy, it will only alienate
you from them. Set yourself up as some mythical magical being expecting
worshippers, then when you display any kind of human fault they will feel let
down, disillusioned- be human. Post silly posts as well a serious 'down to
business' ones, don’t worry about your spelling or grammar being perfect, those
who like to be led by example won’t feel intimated posting what they want and
how, encourage the nervous, praise the courageous 'This is my first post and I don’t
know what I’m doing' - they have been brave and dipped their toe, are you
alligators who snap at it? or are you welcoming, encouraging them in further so
in comes the foot, the leg, the person? Even those that may snap in one
environment won’t snap in another, they feel safe, no one snaps at them so they
will make others feel safe, it perpetuates itself. So think about your
community, it’s not just a website, how do you want your community to be?
Running a forum isn’t just 'having a website' it’s about facilitating a
community where people come, by choice, and stay by choice, they will vote with
their feet or fingers on a keypad in this case, if they don’t like the place. Don’t
'expect' huge success, don’t power trip just let it grow and morph into what
the community wants and needs. Stay close, enforce fair rules and enjoy it. It
will be the fairground ride of your life, in PJ's.
|
iEntry 10th Anniversary
Announcements
Contact
