Goodbye ShiaTalk?

Hello ladies… well, as you may have guessed from the title of my post, I am contemplating closing down the ShiaTalk site.   This has been really hard for me to consider, because I love the site so much and have such fond memories of all the times we have shared here.  Mostly, it is hard to think I won’t have a place to communicate with you all.   The past month or so has been very trying for me personally…many things going on in my life.  I have not had a lot of free time, and the site has really been suffering because of my lack of time.  I thought perhaps it was a temporary thing, but as I began to think about how much time it takes for me to upkeep the site, I realized that I would never be able to maintain the site again on my own.  I just have to be honest with myself and with all of you, it’s not possible for me to keep the site updated.   

I have been racking my brain to think of ways to do this - to continue to have a Shia site, and continue to communicate with all of you – and I think it CAN be done, just in a different way perhaps.  Two options come to mind, and I am open for suggestions.

1) Create a ShiaTalk group on Facebook that we can ALL post to.  If you see a Shia related story, picture, video – you can post it there, and we can all comment on it.  Pros:  Basicly almost zero upkeep.  This takes the burden off me to be the one to place the item out for discussion.  It is more interactive in that we are ALL particpating in the content of the site.  Cons: Not sure if you all have Facebook.  Not sure if you are willing to join a group called ShiaTalk – will not be as private as this site is… (ie: other friends of yours can see the site).  Possible Soltions:  Make it a private group – only those who are invited or accepted can view the site.  Or use a different Facebook login for ShiaTalk stuff (perhaps keep your current ShiaTalk username)… so no one knows it’s you (if privacy is a concern).

2) Keep ShiaTalk but completely change the format, so that we ALL just post what we see Shia related (without actual POSTS that only I make).   See if there’s a way to make it like General Chatter – where we just post things and can all comment on what was posted.  The Pros are similar to above.  Cons: This may not be as structured as Facebook and may require some thought and testing before it will work properly.  Still may require me to Archive pages, etc.  It will be more chaotic.

Thoughts?

Moving to Facebook!

Ok, after thinking things through, I decided to move forward with trying out Facebook Groups as a way to keep the ShiaTalk thing going – yet making it more interactive and less work for me. I say we give it a shot and see how it works.  I will send an invite by Facebook to each of you.  If I do not have your e-mail, or you are not on Facebook yet – you can e-mail me as soon as you are there and I will send the e-mail invite to you then! 

If there is anyone lurking about (and you’ve never posted) but you would like to join the group - just send an e-mail to ShiaTalk@yahoo.com to receive an invite.   As of right now the Group is secret and only members can view the group page (it does not even appear on your Facebook profile page)… so when you join no one knows you have joined… and nothing you say there can be seen by anyone other then the members of the group.  We could always change this at a later time if you desire, but I wanted to make everyone comfortable joining it without fear of privacy issues.

General Chatter

01/25/10 - 01/31/10 

A place to talk about Shia & Non-Shia related stuff. A new General Chatter post is started each week and will remain at the top of the front page.

General Chatter

01/18/10 - 01/24/10 

A place to talk about Shia & Non-Shia related stuff. A new General Chatter post is started each week and will remain at the top of the front page.

General Chatter

01/11/10 - 01/17/10 

A place to talk about Shia & Non-Shia related stuff. A new General Chatter post is started each week and will remain at the top of the front page.