The forum was originally created to ignite a dialog among the investors. We haven’t seen all that many sparks recently. Most of the posts on the forum in the last year have been either investors asking specific questions to MYC4 or MYC4 communicating news to the investors. Not much dialog.
We decided to try something different, so we created a blog.
You can still find the forum here: https://www.myc4.com/Forum You can still write questions to the Partners on the forum. But the other topics have been frozen. You can find all the old posts there, but you can’t write any new ones.
You can share your thoughts by commenting on the blog, or if what your writing is probably only interesting to you and us then send an email to info@myc4.com.
The ‘news’ link has also been removed from the front page. We will be using the blog instead of the news page to inform you about what is going on. You can still find the old news under About/Press: here.
The newsletter won’t go away just yet. We think the newsletter and the blog might reach different groups of people.
The new blog is an experiment. Let us know what you think.
Hi
I think you’re wrong in many ways.
The last year or so the Forum has been critical towards MyC4 – and you don’t particularly like that.
I don’t particularly like this blog – it’s not suited for building a community – but since the community might be critical i I think that’s on purpose.
Best regards
Henrik
This new blog system sucks !
You have removed the ability for your investors to comunicate and exchange idears.
Regards
Chano
[…] official explanation on the blog says: “The forum was originally created to ignite a dialog among the […]
Here is what I replied to on the P2P forum.
I don’t agree with your assertion the forum was so critical of MYC4. That may have been the case a year ago. We deserved some criticism back then. And if we were going to ‘chicken out’ as you put it, that would have been the time to do so. With a few exceptions, I find the feedback to be balanced in the last few months.
I agree with your advice that a forum can be a way to get input to improve the product and a place where investors can help each other, thereby reducing the load on our support team. But I think if you look back through the forum for the last 6 months, you will see that not much of that was happening. So it’s time to try something new.
Note that we haven’t gotten rid of the old forum posts, so you can go back and read them (under About on the MYC4 site).
Woww, sorry to hear this. Can see that Forum was hard to maintain, but also a source of Pride..
http://www.webappers.com/2010/02/26/stack-overflow-like-open-source-qa-systems-for-download/
these type of discussion forums may be more useful in receiving value form the community – where one can post a question, and others can answer and win points – perhaps to be converted into MYC4 credits.. ?
Erdem
Way to kill the dialogue there was
“Let us know what you think.”
I think I don’t like it. Especially since it was neither announced nor discussed in the forum or on the site.
Leaves me with the feeling that you are trying to silence critical voices.
Joerg
Dear MyC4
How do I open new entries in the blog? Is the open communication between investors and MyC4 discontinued .. if so I find it a major step backwards.
Regards
Hans Henrik
I further see that comments are to be approved .. why?
Regards
Hans Henrik
Please see the ‘Comments Policy’ under about: https://myc4.wordpress.com/about/
Steven,
I do like the blog, as the forum software in use was very out of date.
I also do not like that the forum option is totally gone. It admit that the interaction between investors was lower than you might have expected, but part of that has to do with the software used for the forum. Three things that were terrible from an interaction point of view:
1) no possibility to subscribe to an thread besides rss, so no emails for new reactions to discussion I started or discussions I reacted on.
2) only the last 5 or 6 discussion showed up on the left side, without being able to see in which category of the forum they were posted.
3) MyC4 promised on the start to be totally transparant. The last years it proved to be impossible for MyC4 to live up to expectations from investors. I guess that the answer on the question if that is because of extreme demands by investors or lack of transparancy from MyC4 depends on your point of view.
Things I miss and hope will get a place on this blog:
a) updates from providers, like Johnni used to post about how business was going at Growth Africa ltd.
b) updates form providers on individual loans. The blogs over on the MyC4 site are simply to well hidden to replace the forum for that.
I’m also curious what happens to old content. I think it is a shame that it is al gone now. Also I would have like to see an announcement about the disappearing of the forum and setting up of this blog in the newsletter or on the forum (no word on it in the october newsletter).
This post dates from a few weeks back (or is it anti-dated?), while I’ve been adding content on the forum just this weekend about a online survey on capacity building for microfinance in sub-Saharan Africa from the Worldbank. Unfortunately I haven’t got the links any more so if you want to distribute the information to the MyC4 providers it’s up to you.
Thanks for the input. I agree a lot of the problems with the forum were software related. That is one of the reasons we are using wordpress for the blog rather than building our own. Lots of nice features for free. We will watch the investor reaction and may reopen the forum under another form in the future. In this case we would probably go down the same route of finding a standard tool. In the mean time you can still find the old forum under ‘about’, so none of the old content is lost. Note that the provider section is still open, so you can still carry on a dialog with the providers on individual loans. I will also look into whether we can get Johnni to post monthly reports to the blog.
Additionally:
I recommend you keep an eye on other sites for providing the forum option you decided to cancel. For example on Wiseclerk.com. They also have a challenging title for the post about your decision to shut down the forum…
PS Comments on moderation? Do you expect such an outrage from your investors?
Regarding moderation, please see the comments policy under about: https://myc4.wordpress.com/about/
Yes I noticed the post on Wiseclerk. I agree with the reasons he lists for having a forum, but don’t agree that the current forum was meeting those objectives.
I have commented on it.
Let me add that I _especially_ dislike the fact that you are obviously not allowing comments to be posted on the blog!!!
I think it is a shame to take out the fourm. Many improvements on MyC4 were encouraged/forced by forum users. Furthermore, it has been a great tool to keep MyC4 transparent. I find it difficult to understand your argument about missing “sparks”. If anything the forum had too many sparks. This hasn’t always been easy for MyC4 staff but I think that it was also healthy. I admit though that the forum has become too cumbersome over time, replicating similar debates again and again. So to make a clean table was probably necessary. Still I would have more trust in MyC4’s future if I still had a place to go where I can follow the often very high quality debates of users such as Claus, Jörg and the many others. I think that a forum organised around themes might be a possibility. Think a bout it. The forum is what has set MyC4 apart from many other enterprises. Good luck!
To start with the positive: I appreciate that you decided to allow comments now. I find it unbelievable, though, that you do such a step without at least having a moderation policy in place upfront and you will never eradicate my feeling that this was done for the sole reason to silence off all the critical voices on the forum for newcomers who look at MyC4 to vote on this World Challenge thing.
Kai,
“The forum is what has set MyC4 apart from many other enterprises.”
Actually I don’t see it this way.
The way I see it is that these day _not_ having a forum as an self-acclaimed “internet business” is what’s now setting MyC4 apart from many other enterprises.
Compare to Kiva, for example.
I didn’t have a particular lot of belief in MyC4 left but I think this is the step that is finishing it off for me.
Sorry.
Joerg
Sorry about the delay in publishing the moderation policy and approving the comments.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but Kiva doesn’t have a forum. Kiva Friends has a forum.
Two separate organizations.
http://www.kivafriends.org/index.php?action=about
Update to my last comment:
I was wrong about Kiva, I was always assuming kivafriends was a kiva-run froum because it uses the same UI. It is not.
Maybe somebody should open a “MyC4 friends” forum.
And no, sorry Claus, I don’t believe a section on your P2PBanking forum would do, it’s too unrelated/independent, a lot of people would not associate it enough with MyC4.
I think there are a lot of good reasons for having a forum. I just didn’t see the current forum meeting those objectives. Maybe a clean table, a new tool and an independent organization is the way to go?
Well, maybe the forum didn’t meet all of these objectives but this blog CERTAINLY doesn’t. You can’t even do basic things like editing comments. Or sort stuff or have a real debate.
Clean table may be nice but you should have discussed it before closing the forum not afterwards. Now it’s too late anyway.
Maybe you should have asked questions before closing the Forum.
The way to go is to have a better tool before closing the old one.
By replacing the forum with this blog, you are now limiting discussion to the topics you choose.
A forum is IMO vital to what you are trying to do, in particular the “building a community”-part.
I agree that your forum hasn’t been very useful for good community building, but I believe that this is mainly because the forum software has not been of very good quality – it has been difficult to see all new discussions, and almost impossible to note followups to a discussion, and no notifications (by email or similar) when your own questions are answered.
Fix that, and you may have a hope of getting a community- the top-to-bottom approach to communities that a blog is, does not appeal to me. Blogs are nice, but not for what you want to use it for.
Kære Mask Kjær og MYC4.COM
Dette her er ikke godt nok.
Det gamle systrem med forumet vil blive savnet, meget hvis i skifter det ud men en vejs kommunikation igennem en blok.
Der var maget brok på det gamle forum, men der kom også rigtig mange gode svar til sådan en som mig. Jeg er ordblind og ikke godt til sprog. Ved at bruge forum kunne jeg få svar på de ting som jeg ikke selv kunne finde i FAQ og hvad det ellers heder.
Så lav et nyt mere overskuligt forum hvor vi igen kan havde en debat, om myc4.
Flitig bruger af forum.
MVH
Frank Hansen
For mig er det ligegyldig hvad MyC4 gør fremover med et forum det er også ligegyldig om der kommer et MyC4 friends forum et andet sted.
MyC4 har ved at fjerne et forum uden at spøre om brugerernes mening/input.
Et forum der er hyppigt brugt af deres investor/partner, vist mangle på dømmekraft og respect overfor os der putter penge og tid i MyC4.
For mig er MyC4 ikke mere !!
Regards
Chano
How can a investor warn/point attention to a investment risk on this MyC4 censored blog ?
Now investors are only to inform/debate what MyC4 thinks is MyC4 friendly inputs.
What a improvement !
This “new” blog system is probably the most effective way to kill what little dialogue there was among investors on the “old” forum. So when this blog “thread” dies out I expect nothing but silence from the investor side?
My opinion is down to this: reopen the forum and we’ll discuss there – or I’m out.
The problem with the forum was that MyC4 did a lousy job and discussions revolved around that.
Best regards
Henrik
Det er da for totalt latterligt det her….
Hvis det var fordi i var kede af det gamle Forum-system – så er der jo udemærkede GPL systemer som f.eks. SMF (http://www.simplemachines.org/). Det er godt nok til andre – så mon ikke også til Myc4?
Det her – det fungerer bare IKKE!
I guess the consideration at MyC4 is that the forum as it was before closing was not very good at attracting new customers / new money to the platform. MyC4 prefers have their own view unchallenged and that customers have to go to another site to find the skepticism and critical dialogue.
I think that the many unsatisfied customers will influence the MyC4 business anyhow, and that all will gain from open dialog closely related to the site, so I still hope MyC4 will arrive at another solution than the current one-way blog.
Regards
Hans Henrik
wow.. I was finaly starting to get confidence i MYC4 after the Ebony, FED and Birima scandals. I got enough confidence to start uploading money again.
But closing the forum is a deal breaker for me. your arrogance against the investors is unbelieveble.
I´m out. no more uploading and no more reinvesting. At least till the forum is back
Dennis, I’m going to do the same. No uploading money, no investing until the forum is back…
Dennis, jeg gør det samme som dig. Ingen upload af penge, ingen investering før vi får forummet tilbage…
Yes, the (or a) forum must return. MyC4 isn’t interesting without it.
The great industrialist Andrew Carnegie gave a speech around 1885 which included this insightful advice which should be taken to heart today. “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket is all wrong. I tell you, put all your eggs in one basket, and then watch the basket.” The Investors are the eggs and they need to be acknowledged, appreciated and respected with genuine warmth and concern. The stronger the bonds of relationship in a community wether they be vertical, investor to MyC4 or diagonal, investor to providers or horizontal, investor to peers these relationships are the ties that bind a community together. The strength of these bonds over time, wether celebrating successes or commiserating losses, establishes a rich culture and constantly redefines the group’s identity. The forum is the basket. A better forum software environment is available here: http://www.invisionpower.com/
Best regards,
Dale
Doesn’t MyC4 not have any comments on the feedback the investors have given to closing down the old Forum? Apart from linking to the moderation policy and saying that the old Forum did not meet its objectives (apparently some investors think differently). Or are they just busy manually moderating the new blog 😉
—lars
MyC4
Has nothing to say apparently.
That is shows what value they see in there investors.
I have been on MyC4 so long that i have seen this kind of investor treatment before, it reminde me of past relations with some of MyC4’s past providers who ended up defaulting all there loans and some even totaly disappering.
I also still se loans getting funded on the MyC4 platform, maby they are unable to finde these comments (they are not easy to find on this blog) .
With any luck the last loyal fools will keep MyC4 alive until i have withdrawen the last of my money :o)
Regards
Chano
We’ve decided to let all the comments through moderation on this topic. The only ones we held back were obvious spam or advertisements. We have noted that there is a lot of dissatisfaction with the decision to close the forum.
In the end it is a question of how we at MYC4 best can use our time to create value for the investors and MYC4. A forum that that meets the two objectives of
1) investors helping each other
2) providing ideas to improve MYC4
creates value for the investors and MYC4. Those are good objectives for a forum that we’d like to support. If the forum doesn’t meet those objectives, then there are probably better ways for us to spend our time that will create more values for the investors and MYC4. As I stated in the post, I didn’t see the old forum meeting those objectives.
As I also wrote in the post, the blog is an experiment. We will try this for a while and then evaluate the results. Maybe the forum will reappear in the future under a different form.
We’ve set up WordPress to close posts for comments after 14 days, so this topic is now closed. If you have further comments, especially good ideas as to how better meet the two objectives I mentioned above, please drop me an email: Steven at myc4.com.