With the improved FastCompany.com we have vastly improved tools for integrating our community with the publishing arm of the website. With this rejuvenation, the online community is becoming as much of a priority as the site's editorial content. This means that your voice will carry as much weight as the magazine and online staffs' writers. And you'll be able to connect with one another based on the quality of your ideas, not just resumes.
If you're worried that this will be just another LinkedIn, rest easy. Quite the opposite -- we have a tradition going back many years that connects people based first and foremost on their business ideas. Now those ideas will be front and center on FastCompany.com.
We've spent many months building the new site but it's not done yet --- while we've polled many of you, now we need beta testers to really put the site through its paces before we bring it live to the public.
Here are a few more details: all Company of Friends groups and profiles will remain, but the options for participation on Fast Company.com will dramatically increase.
Members will not only be able to create and join groups and post events and messages, but they will also blog for themselves or their group, micro-blog about questions posed by our editors, pose questions to the community, send and receive private messages, partcipate in discussions, rate content, and more. This content will be prominently featured on our homepage and throughout the site, alongside our Fast Company articles and blogs, on a daily basis. It will also go out on our RSS feed to many hundreds of thousands of subscribers.
What's Next?
In the beta phase, current COF membership will allow you to test out the site's new features and add more information to your profile. For all other beta testers, membership will be invite only during this period. Beta testers will be an integral component of providing you with stable core features. We'll be looking for honest feedback during this period.
What Happens to Groups?
Original CoF groups will be moved over, as will the existing moderators, but we are also looking for new groups and new group moderators related to the site's core eight topics: innovation, technology, leadership, management, careers, design, social responsibility and work/life. These will be excellent forums for contributing ideas that will form the basis for meeting people and making business connections.
What Will Moderators Do?
Group moderators are the main contact of a group. They steer the exchange of ideas with interesting topics while ensuring that all interaction within the group adheres with FastCompany.com Codes of Conduct. You don't need to have a large amount of time on your hands to do this, or be an expert in your field, but you do need to be dedicated, excited to meet new people, and able to carry on a great conversation.
While you'll be able to set up your own groups as soon as the beta launches, if you'd like to be considered as a moderator for one of the core topic groups of FastCompany.com, please send me a message. We are also looking for expert bloggers to be featured within these core topic areas and we'd love to hear from you about that, too.
I look forward to talking to all of you in the coming months as we conduct online and in person discussions about what we're doing.
Best,
Lynne
Senior Editor, FastCompany.com
Replies | 44 Total
January 11, 2008 at 6:34am by Dariush Ghatan
So I updated my whole profile and then there is no submit function, only a delete dunction.
Get back to me when the site is at least working.
On another topic. Fast Company- shouldn't you try to something a little less "me too"?
January 11, 2008 at 8:42am by Tim Tymchyshyn
I like it Lynne just as I said in my email to you
I really like the ideas for the new groups, which I would love to be a moderator for social responsibility, I'm vocal and love to get discussions going
January 11, 2008 at 12:07pm by Tim Tymchyshyn
this is good so far and I do like, now how can I update my info??? flakes have rights too
January 11, 2008 at 12:08pm by Lynne d Johnson
Tim - Thanks.
Dariush - Can you please report what you were trying to do when the error occurred. We do have a known bug with updating profiles, but I'd love to know what your bug was specifically.
The known bug with profiles is being addressed.
On the other topic, I'm not quite sure I know what you mean.
--
__
Lynne d Johnson
Senior Editor, FastCompany.com
January 16, 2008 at 3:04pm by Rochelle Mucha
Lynne...glad to be on board. I had no trouble updating my profile and plan on testing out 'discussion topics' next. I will look for next steps and look forward to serving as a moderator.
Rochelle Mucha
January 16, 2008 at 3:52pm by Rochelle Mucha
Two comments on the site.
I tried to create a blog, and when asked to review the content, it disappeared, or I just lost it. Not sure which.
Also...will there will be email alert when there is a topic responded to?
Rochelle Mucha
January 17, 2008 at 9:51am by Tim Tymchyshyn
each day I play with this more the more I get to like, unlike other networking groups ( and yes I am sounding like a suck right now) this one has groups dedicated for some of the more important aspects of our lives. One thing though, could we add when requesting to have a contact a reason why we want that, I am afraid that if we don't some might get blown off and the good connection will be lost
smile the world needs more of those
January 18, 2008 at 8:44am by Carolyn Wells
Thanks for sending me the beta test. I used to spend hours doing research from your archives.I haven't been in to your web site since I completed my degree. Now I am back in school and have once again found your website to be one of the best resources available for students. It's like copming home..
January 18, 2008 at 8:01pm by Lynne d Johnson
Thank you all for coming to the beta test. I just want to assure you that we're addressing all of the issues that you've reported.
--
__
Lynne d Johnson
Senior Editor, FastCompany.com
January 19, 2008 at 4:52am by Joseph Zlomek
Initial reaction: very clean interface, far less confusing. But in beta it does remind me of just another LinkedIn competitor. Hope I'll see more than that.
January 19, 2008 at 7:40pm by Alma Tisher
I have to agree that my initial reaction is: "Is this trying to be another LinkedIn competitor." I can see that Fast Company offers an advantage to its competition. Now the challenge is to clearly focus on what this advantage is. How does Fast Company leverage its contacts, name recognition, content, readership, and loyal people like me to make this more than just a social networking site? I think you will have to dig deep to examine how to pull away from your competition and create the "Blue Ocean Strategy" for this endeavor that differentiates it. Where is the WOW? When I come to this site, what makes me want to stay and end up late for my next appointment? I want Cirque du Soleil, You Tube, and Yellow Tail wine rolled into something that I have not experienced before. Put your thinking caps on, stretch beyond your comfort zone and impress us.
January 24, 2008 at 8:28pm by David Simeon
Lynne,
Just a couple of things.
On the surface the site looks O.K.
One only has to mention FC and one knows that the content will be intellectually stimulating; however I wonder why it cannot be visually stimulating as well?
I could not find the resources centre.
Considering the amount of personal information that will be held on the site, the proposed increase in participation and the rise in ID fraud why is it that the https protocol is not used?
A calendar for the events section would be useful.
Dave
January 26, 2008 at 4:14pm by Ed Cerny
Lynne - Thanks for the opportunity to check this new site out. It is very easy to navigate. I'm sure you've already thought of this & discussed it...how can you attract new contacts with college students? Almost weekly I share something from Fast Take with my students.
Much success in '08.
Ed
January 28, 2008 at 2:52am by Christopher Saeger
Thanks for the invitation. I am not sure how I would use the community features at this time. I have been a long time fastcompany reader and enjoy the content. I agree with the comment by Bronwyn Buck that it having a clearer idea about how to get the most out of the site would be useful.
I dont know about another online community to participate in. I blog elsewhere and did not see a way feed that to this blog instead of re-posting.
Perhaps if it had more of a seminar tone to it it would be more attractive. Something that featured live chat with authors?
I also wonder if it could be more user generated topics and interests. None of the items in the checklist were my primary interest. (which is learning and performance).
Thanks for the oppoertunity to comment
January 28, 2008 at 11:22am by Kathleen Barclay
I like the new layout! A few feedback items: when I save a couple of new settings, the 'save process was very slow. I like the new question/answer boxes-not sure how results are published (but then didn't go hunting for this either :-)). I selected 2 RSS feeds but, when checking My Feeds page, I found it confusing as to what I was subscribed to. Look forward to more browsing.........
January 29, 2008 at 12:20am by Anna Le Pley
Lynne,
First, thanks for letting me be a part of the beta test group!
Second, while a couple people mentioned the "clean" look of your website design and layout, I can't help but disagree. To me there is a lot of information going making it hard to navigate through. For someone who spends most the day on different websites, I was getting overwhelmed trying to figure out what to look at first (not to mention second, or third). Is it possible to group some of the categories into more general groups? Or perhaps change the typeface size of some of the feeds on the main page. I am not exactly sure I am describing what it is I am trying to say, but the front page looks "busy", "crowded", and not easy to read. Maybe what I'm getting at, is that it does not look DESIGNED - which is something I know you guys are into. :)
Anna
January 29, 2008 at 12:31am by Anna Le Pley
Also...I noticed that on some of the pages with longer postings (specifically, under design and then the posting about office space design) the "next, page 1, page 2" links are in the middle of all the text, not at the bottom of the page as they should be.
Just thought you'd like to know!
January 29, 2008 at 4:52pm by Lynne d Johnson
All of your comments are being considered and I want to thank you all for taking the site for a test drive. We will continue our improvements to make this a better site that integrates both community and content.
Anna to address some of your concerns, what we have going on with our home page design wise is a river of content, much like you see on many blogs. The only difference is that each piece of content is broken into sections and then displayed with the latest featured piece of content. Each item of content is ID'd with its section -- for instance: Fast Company Feature, Fast Talk, Member Blog, FC Now Blog, FC Expert Blog.
There are a lot of things there, but it's because it relates to different types of content that you can explore. You can also use your member home page to explore content or the topic channels in the navigation. Go to innovation and it's the latest innovation content. Go to technology and it's the latest in technology.
--
__
Lynne d Johnson
Senior Editor, FastCompany.com
January 30, 2008 at 6:14pm by Tom Divney
I'm more inclined to agree that the interface wasn't as clean as expected. Also, updating my profile lead to a lot of jumping around between pages, and a couple of times lost information without saving. Some of the profile fields force you into a description that is not necessarily correct (for example, the final position description states me as "manager, X organization" when I manager is simply my level within the organization.) While it's not LinkedIn, it seems like it and I am hesistant to continue as I was not previously satisfied with belonging to CoF content groups.
January 30, 2008 at 8:48pm by Renee Edelman
Lynne, Congrats. The beta site is brilliant. I'm impressed by how FC integrates FC features and staff and expert blogs with the voice of the community! Look forward to participating in the new FastCompany.com. Cheers, Renee, renee.edelman@edelman.com
February 1, 2008 at 4:25pm by Janice Simon
Thanks, Lynne. The website is very interesting, and I'm eager to see how it will develop and how we all will wind up using it.
February 7, 2008 at 4:46pm by alvalyn Lundgren
Regarding the member blogging, if one has established blogs, say with Typepad or Blogspot, how would these connect to FC, if at all? Are member blogs within FC available to the general public? And, if one has an established blog, especially one with its own domain, what benefit would there be in blogging via FC?
Just wondering...
February 7, 2008 at 10:41pm by Edward Sussman
Hi Aavalyn, Fast Company guy here: Your questions about member blogs on Fast Company.com are very importanr. Member blogs on FC are available to the general public. There is an RSS icon on your profile. Any content you contribute to the site, including your blog, can be subscribed to on an external feed via that RSS link on your profile. We are going to improve this link so it gives readers several choices among the main readers -- coming soon.
The question as to whether to facilitate imports of blogs from Typepad or Moveable Type is interesting. We want an open dialogue but we also want people to contribue on subjects that are focused on Fast Company. We're worried that wholesale import of blogs may dilute our site focus. What do you think?
The benfits of blogging on FC are tremendous. Your blog instantly appears in a community with 100,0000 members and one million monthly readers. Built in marketing! Editors pour through the blogs to find interesting ones to feature on our homepage and topic pages; widgets on the site feature recent content, including member blogs; member blogs appear in our site search and also get the extra Google juice of being associated with a major site with thousands of link backs; and members view each others profiles all the time while going through the site -- more potential readers!
If you want to build an audience for your blog, and you think it's a good fit for FC, you'll get great traction on our site.
February 15, 2008 at 2:34pm by Joel Scoble
It's great that you are using Drupal as your CMS, but you may want to add some hardware since this site is running pretty slow. It isn't a critcism, just an observation coming from a developer that thinks Drupal is an excellent CMS and community.
Unfortunately, I encountered a workflow issue. I entered my comment, while not registered, and after submit, I was brought to the register page.
So far so good.
But after registering, I discovered that my comment was neither submitted nor saved somewhere. I would expect the comment to have been added to the thread I was commenting on after registration.
If that isn't possible, I would expect a notice that registration/login is required before entering my comment.
Nobody enjoys having their work automagically dissappear.
Thanks and good luck with your new version of the web site.
February 15, 2008 at 2:37pm by Joel Scoble
And could you change the input filter to preserve double space between paragraphs for readability, or was the removal of line breaks the desired behavior?
Just asking and checking.
February 15, 2008 at 9:27pm by Lynne d Johnson
Joel we are definitely addressing both performance in workflow. This is still public beta that we're in and we work in an agile infrastructure. And we're also working on the theme issues with how comments and such are displaying. We will continue to work with the users to implement many of your suggestions, so keep them coming.
--
__
Lynne d Johnson
Senior Editor/Community Director, FastCompany.com
February 26, 2008 at 3:45pm by Paughnee Moore
Yuck. I miss a week on Bloglines and I login today to catch up and find a mess for my Fast Company feed. I just want the FCNow blog back. Does it still exist and I just can't find it???
March 2, 2008 at 1:44pm by Joseph Impellizeri
Hello Lynne,
I apologize in advace if I "just don;t get it", but the site is very difficult to use.
First point of confusion:
I'm a print subscriber and wanted to find a electronic copy of an artile I read in the February issue so I could email a friend.... forget it.... I tried to use the search feature and the article was no where to be found. Finally I exited FastCompany.com and went to Google... inputed the article "Fueling The Future" (February 2008)... bingo! It gave me a reference link to the EXACT location on your site an I pulled the article.
Second Point of Confusion:
I try to send a simple email to the "site" to report confusion #1 above and the only link that looks close is "Feedback" which puts me into sort of a "blog limbo"... I found a page that invited me to send a message to you, but when I clicked it I got an advisory message that I had to add you to my Outlook Contacts, which I clicked "yes" to... but nothing happended... with still no way to send you an email I couldn't another easy way to send a note so I tried to post a message on this blog... is this they way it's supposed to work?
Please advise me on what I'm missing so I can easily search the site and send simple messages.
Thank you!
April 16, 2008 at 8:30pm by Andy Askren
I know I'm late to the table here, but.........it's only because I couldn't for the life of me figure out where/who/how I was supposed to say anything. Big problems, as I see them; very "unFastCompany-y" in terms of clarity, ease of navigation, readily available help or direction... oye. I would be happy to be more constructive; please email me (if you can even figure that out.)
Not impressed, and this from a HUUUUUGE fan!
April 17, 2008 at 11:39pm by Lynne d Johnson
Here is our FAQ page FAQ to learn more about how to use the site.
Here is the contact page in order to contact various departments of the magazine and website Contact Us
Finding the magazine:
You can easily go to the footer navigation on the site. Everything you need is there. There's even a section for Magazine. Besides that, you can find the current issue on each page of the site. Just look on the right hand side of any page -- there's a box on the lower half of the page with the magazine cover and a link to the latest issue.
--
__
Lynne d Johnson
Senior Editor/Community Director, FastCompany.com
April 17, 2008 at 11:48pm by Lynne d Johnson
Joseph,
I just entered the title of the article that you were looking for into the search box and got this results page: http://www.fastcompany.com/search/fc?filter0=%22Fueling+The+Future%22
The article you were looking for can be found there.
--
__
Lynne d Johnson
Senior Editor/Community Director, FastCompany.com
July 30, 2008 at 1:09pm by Carol Snyder
I have to say that your new site is so slow that I don't have the patience to read an article, let alone spend time in the community.
July 31, 2008 at 12:52pm by The Guru
Can someone please tell me how to delete my account?
This is not what I thought it was going to be.
Thank you.
July 31, 2008 at 5:06pm by Lynne d Johnson
Carol - When did you find the slow. We've tested the user experience, and the site really shouldn't be slow for you. What exactly did you experience?
Zane - We don't delete user accounts as policy but I can discuss some options with you.
August 10, 2008 at 11:47am by pd_wpa21
Hi,
How do we delete our online profile?
August 11, 2008 at 9:58pm by nick
I cannot edit my profile, and I really need to. I sent an email to the info mailbox, but maybe posting publically is better?
I don't want to delete my account, I just need to make essential changes. If it has be zapped so be it.
Tick, tick, tick...
August 13, 2008 at 7:40am by The Guru
I need to change my user name. As much as I love this being the first hit when I google myself, I would like my OWN website to be the number one hit....
September 19, 2008 at 2:34pm by Christian Messer
I have had the same problem as Rochelle Mucha, above - My blog entry shows up as one big block of text, no line breaks, now bolding etc. I have coded it in HTML even and still no dice. I'm on a Mac and tested it on both Firefox and Safari.
December 26, 2008 at 3:57pm by Stefan Gorzkiewicz
Where can I delete my account with you?
there is no button, no contact email address. I feel trapped on your website.
http://www.fastcompany.com/user/stefan-gorzkiewicz
January 15, 2009 at 10:24am by moponk
Stefan, i've emailed many times, i've even called Lynn to have my profile deleted - NO response, not even an auto-reply!
if you get a response, please, i beg you, let me know how i can get my profile deleted!