Mark - I checked the probelm with place categories - that Ireland isn't there for Europe, among others.

The reason, goof or bad, was this -

We had pretty much all countries in europe, asia, africa, etc. This generated place pages for them all. For many countries the amount of content - serious articles, was very low. For those, to go to the page and see so little was troublesome - so those place were removed as categories.

This was not ideal, I agree with you. We will look into it.

We are currently, as noted in the various messages, doing massive rebuilding - part of that will yield users being able to control the appearance of pages, the content that is conveyed, etc. Part will also be speed up throughout, including searches, etc. But there will be many other benefits too...many of which will come about in response to suggestions and observations like this one - which is precisely what we are seeking...

> I'm replying as one of the 20% who has uploaded my photo and bio to ZSpace; I'm also replying as one of the 10% who has been commenting (infrequently) and blogging (more frequently) using ZSpace.

Glad to hear it is benefitting you! And vice versa!

> Firstly, I find the tone of these messages (this one and the last one in particular) somewhat patronising and condescending; it comes across as if you are saying, "look at all we are doing, why aren't you doing the same?".

Why is indicating our concerns forthrightly patronizing or condescending?

> I'm sure the mailings are not meant to come across in this manner, but to me they do. The corporate world has made great strides to promote its garbage in such as way as to encourage consumers to consume and this is, I think, something that ZSpace (et al) could learn from. The corporate world is good at some things.

I am not sure I see what that is, that they are good at? Expressing themselves in a way that shows caring and concern and respect for others?

> Secondly, blogging on ZSpace can be a pain.

No doubt - so why not make suggestions? That's what we are seeking, positive ideas...

> The options for categorising articles are too limited.

If we had categories that perfectly mapped everything anyone wishes to say - we would have so many that then folks would say, I think rightly, the lists are too long to wade through...no?

> I have not posted one blog piece on ZSpace yet that I have categorised in a way that I would like. For example, today I posted a blog "A Reason to Vote NO to Lisbon 2" and had to categorise it as  >>Politics/Gov. >> Int. Rel. >> Europe. The next category under Europe only lists about six countries in Europe (there are 27 in the EU alone).

That is odd, I am not sure about this - because we put in virtually all European countries, and likewise for other areas - I will take a look.

> Whilst "Europe" is okay for me for Lisbon 2, I would prefer to add in Ireland, since Ireland is where the referendum will be held, making Ireland the most important country in the EU at present. More importantly, I posted a blog last week encouraging students to boycott a commercial endeavour in Irish schools (I'm an Irish teacher/activist), but I couldn't put it in to the category of Ireland. This is something that I feel might alienate many users when (if) they begin to use ZSpace in the manner in which you wish - especially since using something like blogspot.com or wordpress.com is free and easy. Myself, I use Drupal.org and find it fantastic.

There are lots of systems, each does some things very well, others not so well...we are trying to build something - it is far from finished...

> Thirdly, the infrastructure of ZCommunications.org is not very good in my opinion. Things take too long to load, even the menus on the top of pages take a second or two to load the sub-menu when scrolled over.

Not sure what you are using it takes, or should take, about a half second - so that you don't inadvertantly change to x, but then roll over another tab while trying to get to the sub tab, switching to y... Like most things, there are trade offs...

> The search function is also way too slow and cumbersome. Even to find it you have to click on the help menu and then scroll down, click on search and then be taken to a box to tell us what kind of search engine you have, click on that and be taken to another page to start searching; people want to be able to find what they are looking for instantly (for good or bad) - this means a very visible search box on every page,

There is a visible search linkk on every page, I believe - and while that isn't a box for putting in text - it is because the latter generally isn't very efficient, returning way too much - too slowly. Google is far better for text searches - we see the search as a tool for finding types of mateiral, or material by people, etc., with additional filtres - perhaps wrongly.

The reasons you are offering, I think, would affect general use, I suspect, not ZSpace use. General use if very very high...

> in the same position. Perhaps there is one there, but I can't find it (and I think I am slightly more tech savvy than the majority of people. You might need to have a serious look at the platform that ZSpace is running on or get some good designers to work for you, because something is seriously flawed here.

Maybe...

> Fourthly, I have a feeling that many who support ZSpace are happy to support it but don't necessarily wish to be bloggers, commentators, etc.

That is fine...and so noted in the message you dismissed...

> You should be glad of their help in offering funds that will allow a platform for those who do want to blog, comment, etc. My students sometimes tell me they'd like to go to Africa to help the poor. I ask them what can they do and they don't know. I tell them wages are very good in Ireland, why not get a job here and use the money to fund projects in Africa? This is something that many Sustainers are perhaps doing for ZSpace.

> I don't wish to sound pessimistic about the project. I think it is a fantastic one, I wish you the best with it, and I'll certainly be involved, but the problems you may have may not necessarily be ones that us Sustainers can sort out.

In the letters you dismissed, perhaps wrongly, we tried to make clear that we are perfectly aware that we need to improve the operations, particularly the networking - but also make clear that we can't just keep pouring funds and efforts into this side of the operation if, in the end, regardless, it won't generate political and social gains due to a lack of interest in such tools. So we need more evidence - and, more ideas about things to do based on actual experience of users. Very sorry that you found that condescending - but I don't think it was. I think it was saying we need help, in the form of evidence of interest and, even more, practical use leading to suggestions we aren't already familiar with...