Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Web site specificity: opinions?

[Doug Chamberlin (chamberlin.doug]

On 2/1/12 2:28 PM, Greg Nelson wrote:
> There has been a perennial debate in our community.  Drawn in the most
> extreme terms: some want a minimal web site which just gives people
> contact information and gets them to talk to us in person; others want
> a maximal web site with pages about everything anyone could ever want
> to know about us.

Beyond the issues already identified with maintaining a larger web site
up there is the danger of sharing too much information. The dangers and
benefits of sharing info online are just now being fully appreciated and
explored. (Many people would be horrified at the level of knowledge that
can be obtained about them online.) Some people are full-on converts in
this sharing phenomenon and others are more cautious. This is a tension
that will continue for a long time.

I suggest that you should not have just one web site where the decision
is "all or nothing" about this issue.

Perhaps you could have a page that invites interested people to see more
by sharing their email address with you. Once that is submitted they
will get access to an expanded part of the web site. This would need to
be a quick and easy process so it does not present a large hurdle to
prospectives but still a necessary step that keeps  automated search
engines and undesirables away from the whole site.

I believe a good working compromise is achievable. It just takes some
experimentation.