- Original Poster
- #1
Now that January is out of the way I have a brief moment to pop my head above the parapet and let you know what's been going on here and some of the features we have rolled out for the site, and some which are imminently coming. Pretty much all of this is a result of the hard work that @Ethan39 has been doing behind the scenes here, so hit tip to him who's a diamond in supporting and working hard behind the scenes for UKBF.
Since buying Supplier Central last year we've been doing a lot of work cleaning up the membership databases of both UKBF and Supplier Central, and we're in a good place now. With more than half million records to work through we needed to adopt some automated technology, so I know there will be some false-positives but it was a huge task and important to ensure we removed anyone from our records not appropriate to maintain.
Something I've been very keen to put in place are tools to better support new members joining through introductory guides and nurturing messages, as well as follow-up messaging reminding people to check out answers to their questions which sometimes get missed. It was a frustration of mine, and the moderating team, that those joining UKBF for the first time were not welcomed in a way that helped them understand and get the most out of being part of the community here. I'm pleased to report that this is coming into place now.
Alongside this we are also rolling out changes to our emails introducing a weekly business roundup, events and dedicated topic subscriptions. These are currently in the process of being rolled out and if you receive our emails you'll start to see a restructure and better focus on their content, with the option for you opting in and out of what is relevant to you. If you don't receive our newsletters yet, this page needs a polish, but you can opt in here and take a look.
Perhaps the biggest technical change is the integration of Google Perspective into the forums which reads the sentiment of posts as part of the modernisation of the platform we're working on. This works alongside supporting the moderators on content policies and my ongoing desire for UKBF to be welcoming for all. New members are guided to provide good context to their questions and these new members are highlighted to those replying so they know the person may not be as experienced in business. These same tools have been implemented by many of the social media platforms out there today and something we're learning from here at UKBF HQ.
You would have seen some changes to the site, and also changes to the way we are building the editorial content. This is all part of the bigger site overhaul as we prepare to make available the business resources library which will include downloadable resources such as shareholder agreement templates, employment templates, debt recovery letters, and so much more to support small business owners. We've also removed the blogs entirely, mainly because they were being abused (people selling posts on UKBF for £170 on sites such as PeoplePerHour and so on!) and no longer allow external contributors to editorial content on the site. The editorial section is in the process of a complete overhaul and the relevant landing pages and navigation you will see being updated bit by bit as my colleagues work through that area.
Associated with that, you're going to see that creating a thread is going to require you to add keyword tags to each post relevant to the topic. This is all part and parcel to help us link new threads to past threads of the same topic and to any relevant resources that may help the poster with their question.
Something that has taken up so much of my life these past few months is getting BDG (my business behind UKBF) registered with the FCA and implementing all the associated policies and procedures needed for it. This is now done and we are now FCA registered, and now this is complete I'm able to move forward with putting in place the services that will make UKBF self-funding and sustainable. The main feature of which will be the comparison service where UKBF members and visitors can source finance, compare business current accounts, company cards, and more. There'll be a press release coming out soon as I've hired one of the original team from one of the top household names in the price comparison marketplace as Head of Comparison to build that part of the business.
Regarding memberships, we have finally finished cleaning up all the old membership subscriptions from Supplier Central and the Sift days of UKBF and have been able to close those old PayPal accounts. As I mentioned in a previously update, those paying for those old legacy memberships have now been transitioned onto Business Membership for the remainder of their term, and their payment subscriptions cancelled on the relevant old PayPal accounts. I've got some really exciting news to share in the coming months about Business Membership but I'll save that for another day.
For now please may I leave you with a couple of call to actions ?
Since buying Supplier Central last year we've been doing a lot of work cleaning up the membership databases of both UKBF and Supplier Central, and we're in a good place now. With more than half million records to work through we needed to adopt some automated technology, so I know there will be some false-positives but it was a huge task and important to ensure we removed anyone from our records not appropriate to maintain.
Something I've been very keen to put in place are tools to better support new members joining through introductory guides and nurturing messages, as well as follow-up messaging reminding people to check out answers to their questions which sometimes get missed. It was a frustration of mine, and the moderating team, that those joining UKBF for the first time were not welcomed in a way that helped them understand and get the most out of being part of the community here. I'm pleased to report that this is coming into place now.
Alongside this we are also rolling out changes to our emails introducing a weekly business roundup, events and dedicated topic subscriptions. These are currently in the process of being rolled out and if you receive our emails you'll start to see a restructure and better focus on their content, with the option for you opting in and out of what is relevant to you. If you don't receive our newsletters yet, this page needs a polish, but you can opt in here and take a look.
Perhaps the biggest technical change is the integration of Google Perspective into the forums which reads the sentiment of posts as part of the modernisation of the platform we're working on. This works alongside supporting the moderators on content policies and my ongoing desire for UKBF to be welcoming for all. New members are guided to provide good context to their questions and these new members are highlighted to those replying so they know the person may not be as experienced in business. These same tools have been implemented by many of the social media platforms out there today and something we're learning from here at UKBF HQ.
You would have seen some changes to the site, and also changes to the way we are building the editorial content. This is all part of the bigger site overhaul as we prepare to make available the business resources library which will include downloadable resources such as shareholder agreement templates, employment templates, debt recovery letters, and so much more to support small business owners. We've also removed the blogs entirely, mainly because they were being abused (people selling posts on UKBF for £170 on sites such as PeoplePerHour and so on!) and no longer allow external contributors to editorial content on the site. The editorial section is in the process of a complete overhaul and the relevant landing pages and navigation you will see being updated bit by bit as my colleagues work through that area.
Associated with that, you're going to see that creating a thread is going to require you to add keyword tags to each post relevant to the topic. This is all part and parcel to help us link new threads to past threads of the same topic and to any relevant resources that may help the poster with their question.
Something that has taken up so much of my life these past few months is getting BDG (my business behind UKBF) registered with the FCA and implementing all the associated policies and procedures needed for it. This is now done and we are now FCA registered, and now this is complete I'm able to move forward with putting in place the services that will make UKBF self-funding and sustainable. The main feature of which will be the comparison service where UKBF members and visitors can source finance, compare business current accounts, company cards, and more. There'll be a press release coming out soon as I've hired one of the original team from one of the top household names in the price comparison marketplace as Head of Comparison to build that part of the business.
Regarding memberships, we have finally finished cleaning up all the old membership subscriptions from Supplier Central and the Sift days of UKBF and have been able to close those old PayPal accounts. As I mentioned in a previously update, those paying for those old legacy memberships have now been transitioned onto Business Membership for the remainder of their term, and their payment subscriptions cancelled on the relevant old PayPal accounts. I've got some really exciting news to share in the coming months about Business Membership but I'll save that for another day.
For now please may I leave you with a couple of call to actions ?
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