Celly Blog: Curation just got more awesome2011-09-06

Today we deployed our #1 requested feature: multiple curators for a cell.

To understand why this is a big deal, let’s just review what curation is and why it is important. First, each cell is owned by an administrator. The administrator can set the conversation mode to “curated chat” which means that any member messages must be first approved by the administrator before they are broadcast to the rest of the cell members. This activity of vetting and then approving messages is known in Celly as “curation”. The reason curation is important is because it does the following:

It allows the administrator to make sure the group conversation stays on topic. The administrator can remove off-topic messages, redundant messages, or offensive messages.

Curation streamlines the discussion. As cell membership grows, “open chat” has the potential to swamp cell members with too many messages. The administrator providing curation can filter out inessential messages allowing only the most relevant messages to be broadcast.

Finally, curation provides the administrator with a means for obtaining feedback. For example, a school administrator might setup a school-wide cell and send one-way alerts to parents and students. More often than not, however, these alerts prompt students and their parents to reply with messages or questions. In “alert-only” mode, members cannot reply. But in “curated chat” mode, the members can reply with feedback that can be received by the administrator. The administrator thus can get valuable information and can optionally decide to broadcast these messages to a wider audience.

With today’s changes, the important role of curation can now be shared across groups of people. On the web, the administrator can simply go to a cell and click “make curator” next to a member. This action will make the member a curator of the group. So when a message is received that needs approval, anybody who is a curator can approve the message. Additional curators can be added to a cell via text messaging too. By just texting ADDCURATOR, the cell admin can then make an existing member a curator.

Adding multiple curators also improves cells that are not in “curated chat” mode, because curators are allowed to send messages, kick members, approve join requests, and invite new members.

This multiple-curator feature has been our #1 request since it distributes the load of curation and administration among a team of curators. An example is where a team of coaches can now moderate message traffic on behalf of a sports team with many kids.

Give it a try and let us know how it works for you. If you have any concerns or questions, don’t hesitate to contact us at support@cel.ly or http://support.cel.ly .