Our community has a new mission! We want this forum to be a place where we all help each other to produce world-changing insights, at every stage of the research process.
Prolificās job? To enable you all to do this. So, weāve restructured the forum with that in mind.
Youāll find a Prolific-specific area called the āProlific Hubā, where all the normal forum activity like asking questions, and getting help, will still be going on. However, youāll also find new spaces called āThe Co-Labā and āGroup Chatsā.
In āThe Co-Labā, youāll find spaces that correspond to the different activities you undertake as a researcher, like a space to discuss designing your study.
In āGroup Chatsā , youāll find private spaces where you can connect with researchers from your region, institution and field.
But, we want you to own this and shape how each space evolves! So, weāre asking two questions:
What would you love to see happening in this space?
What would you do to encourage others to use this space, if you were in charge?
Everyone who replies to our questions will be put in a raffle to win Ā£250 in Prolific credit!
I would use this space to encourage people to share the funding opportunities that they know of and to create potential collaborations for funding (as we know that interdisciplinary and international collaborations are encouraged and sometimes required).
Encourage new contributions and participation by providing a small fund to those initiated through the community (if built through partnerships- nominal % of the fund used to spend on Prolific matched). Something like that?
Encourage new contributions and participation by providing a small fund to those initiated through the community (if built through partnerships- nominal % of the fund used to spend on Prolific matched). Something like that?
I really like this idea! Iām going on vacation until Sept, but when I get back, Iād love to discuss this further with you
Josh
First of all, I hope you had a refreshing holiday.
I had a think about this while you were away but i did not come up with much.
One of the things that I have noticed on is that rather than answers (which if people have the knowledge they tend to like to give) it is questions that can be in short supply and that is why, I think Quora has been so successful, because there it is the questions that are rewarded, financially, such that questions that get a lot of answers and watches, and thus generate add revenue for Quora, are rewarded for asking the question. It is a bit sad as a answered to see folks dump question after question for ad-sense clicks but as long as people keep responding for free, it seems to work. So instead, or probably in addition to the raffle for responses, and Kristenās idea of a fund for initiatives, here at Prolific, it might be a good idea to reward questioners per response. I only say might because it might on the other hand create a lot of useless questions that wear us all out.
Another issue is anonymity. Anonymity can lead to various negatives but at the same time it can help others ask questions that they might otherwise be embarrassed to ask. I am not sure whether it is possible using this system but if there were an area of the community were one could post anonymously it might help.
The other issue is privacy. Researchers are to an extent in competition with each other so the really interesting stuff they may not wish to share, unless it is with their own research team. It might be possible and beneficial therefore to allow teams to set up rooms with privacy but, come to think of it, that is probably what the āGroup Chatsā are.
I would be grateful of the creation of a Japan Group Chat, and that be okay to write in Japanese there.
These are really great ideas! Iām going to look more closely at the Quora model to see if it can fit into what weāre trying to do here.
Another issue is anonymity. Anonymity can lead to various negatives but at the same time it can help others ask questions that they might otherwise be embarrassed to ask. I am not sure whether it is possible using this system but if there were an area of the community were one could post anonymously it might help.
We do encourage the use of real names, but people can add whatever anon usename theyād like. Perhaps we can make this clearerā¦
It might be possible and beneficial therefore to allow teams to set up rooms with privacy but, come to think of it, that is probably what the āGroup Chatsā are
Yep, thatās the idea.
I would be grateful of the creation of a Japan Group Chat, and that be okay to write in Japanese there.
I think that with the community feel here, and the greetings, people may want to use their names. But then they may have a question that they donāt want to post next to their name. Or I have. I honestly canāt remember what the question was but I think it was associated with being stingy, like, āhow little can I offer for a studyā and I was not to prepared to post it under my own name. I did not in the end submit a support request either but I might have done, and I guess that Support is Prolificās main cost. So if it were possible to post to a certain place keeping ones named account, not having to create a second account, anonymously, then that might reduce support requests, perhaps.
I think the space could be optimally used as a combo of a) some posts from Prolific folks sending ideas and best-practices in all the different research stages/domains you listed, as well as b) an inviting place for researchers to ask specific questions about stuck points in the different stages.
And two other points on that: I can imagine it being useful for admins to facilitate some of the answering of questions posted, being sure that someone with relevant expertise may find the question; and secondly, I think that for all of this to work, a crucial thing is for it to have good searchability built in. Maybe lots of keywords or something. It just seems that something like a new forum could easily become too time-consuming and cumbersome to navigate for it to be worth it, so easy searchability to find answers to questions is important I think.
These are great ideas! Weāre currently in the midst of planning our Community initiatives for Q4, and Iām going take this onboard
Maybe lots of keywords or something. It just seems that something like a new forum could easily become too time-consuming and cumbersome to navigate for it to be worth it, so easy searchability to find answers to questions is important I think.
Yep! This is certainly a problem we recognise. Weāve already had a suggestion about how we can restructure the forum to make it more navigable. Iāll tag you in whatever we come up with
but I think it was associated with being stingy, like, āhow little can I offer for a studyā and I was not to prepared to post it under my own name. I did not in the end submit a support request either but I might have done, and I guess that Support is Prolificās main cost. So if it were possible to post to a certain place keeping ones named account, not having to create a second account, anonymously, then that might reduce support requests, perhaps.