CUNY Academic Commons

Thanks, Sarah. I like "CUNY on Twitter." The first four links, though, seem a bit hard to tell apart. Maybe we could say "Tweets from Commons Members" instead of "community" and rename a few others, too.

I like CUNY on Twitter as the title. I also think that we can have just one link to show both @cunycommons tweets and retweets. The hashtags are what they are and can just be listed. Below are a couple of options with Matt's suggestion and alternative.

I also think we should be clear and open about the lists so I added a few explanatory sentences that would go just under the links in the same box.

Title: CUNY on Twitter
Tweets from Commons Members
Tweets from around CUNY
@cunycommons Tweets (list would include RT too)
#cuny
#cunyevents

Alternates
Title: CUNY on Twitter
Commons Member's Tweets
CUNY related Tweets
@cunycommons Tweets
#cuny
#cunyevents

Then in that same box we should have some explanatory text. Here is a first shot. "click here" should be a link to a new page we would make with the lists. "Tweets from Commons Members" and "Tweets from around CUNY" would be changed if alternative titles are picked. Also they should be bolded to make it clear they're titles.

The Tweets from Commons Members and the Tweets from around CUNY community are pulled from list of know Twitter accounts. To view the lists click here. If you are not on the list and would like to be added, or if you have any other comments, send an email to commons@gc.cuny.edu.

Thanks, Chris. "Commons Member's Tweets" is a bit awkward and grammatically troublesome, since it refers to a singular member. A plural case would be "Commons Members' Tweets" or "Commons Members's Tweets," both of which seem awkward to me. Meshing together our ideas, I'd say:

Title: CUNY on Twitter
Tweets from Commons Members
Tweets from around CUNY
@cunycommons Tweets
#cuny
#cunyevents

I think "around CUNY" could be improved, but "CUNY-related Tweets" seems like more of a description of #cuny than a list of tweets from people we've identified as being part of CUNY.

I like your explanatory text and want to suggest only that they be linked to the actual lists on twitter rather than a page on the Commons

This is all totally doable and I'm updating the layout and functionality of the various links now.

However, because I wasn't at the meeting I'm not sure I understand completely how these new link titles match up with the different twitter timelines I'm loading into the page.

Here is a list of the five widgets I've created on the Commons Twitter account, listed in the order they currently appear on our Twitter page:

1.) The main @cunycommons timeline
2.) A timeline of tweets mentioning @cunycommons
3.) A timeline of tweets from our "cunycommons" list
4.) A timeline of tweets from our "cuny" list
5.) A timeline of tweets containing "#cuny"

According to Matt's most recent update, here is what I think the new titles correspond to:

1.) @cunycommons Tweets
2.) Tweets from around CUNY
3.) Tweets from Commons Members
4.) #cunyevents
5.) #cuny

#4 is the one that doesn't make sense to me. Am I replacing the cuny list timeline with a timeline of tweets containing the hashtag #cunyevents?

looks good to me, Dom, with the exception that "the list" in the explanation actually refers to two different list. I'd change it to "these lists"

OK, I've created the widget needed to display the #cunyevents timeline and edited the template to properly display that timeline - so that's good to go.

There's only one thing I still don't understand and it's about your last update Matt. Let me see if I can explain this as succinctly as possible. You said:

with the exception that "the list" in the explanation actually refers to two different lists

It is accurate that the first link now titled "Tweets from Commons Members" is a link that loads the timeline from our main cunycommons list (currently 443 members). But the second link titled "Tweets from around CUNY" currently loads a timeline of tweets that mention @cunycommons; which is obviously not a list. Technically it is a search similar to the links that load the #cuny and #cunyevents timelines. Is this not correct? Is the second link supposed to be loading a different list?

I'd just link the names of the lists [Tweets from Commons Members and the Tweets from around CUNY community] in the explanation and say "click on their names above"

This is looking good. Matt, I like your rewording for the link names (sorry about the misplaced apostrophe), but I would not add "click on their names above" because the explanation is trying to get people to a place where they can 1) understand how the lists are created and 2) see who is on the lists. That is why I suggested we create a page that explains 1. and then links to the list on Twitter so people can see 2 if they want.

If we go that route of creating an explanatory page with links to Twitter then here is a proposed wording:

The links to Tweets from the Commons Members and Tweets from around CUNY are pulled from lists of known Twitter accounts. To learn more about these lists [click here]. If you are not on the list and would like to be added, or if you have any other comments, please [contact us].

Another option is to change the wording a bit to maybe remove the need for the intermediate page but still get 1) and 2) covered.

The links to Tweets from the Commons Members and Tweets from around CUNY are pulled from lists of known Twitter accounts. Follow these links to view the Commons Members list and view the CUNY list. If you are not on the list and would like to be added, or if you have any other comments, please [contact us].

The links should be to the members pages and not the tweets since those are already visible. Like so:
https://twitter.com/cunycommons/cuny/members
I don't know the link for the CUNY list.

Thanks Sarah. I'll get that link updated today.

As an alternative to a separate page for the explanatory text (or even keeping it in the sidebar), I could put a small header paragraph on the Tweets from the Commons Members and the Tweets from around CUNY timelines. That way we could tailer each paragraph to that specific timeline with a link directly to that list on Twitter. This way we wouldn't have to worry about writing the appropriate text to differentiate between two links and two lists. Each header paragraph would be above its associated timeline, contextually.

I'd prefer for us to separate the issues -- to have the renaming of links, etc., go in the current release, as they've been slated for (and as our documentation will document) and then for us to add explanatory text in the next release if necessary.

Thanks, Dom. Can you please create a new ticket for the explanatory text?