A New GeoNet is Coming: How to Prepare Your Content & What to Expect

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08-04-2020 05:44 PM
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by Anonymous User
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 New: Updated GeoNet Platform Launch November 12, 2020
  • COMMUNITY OUTAGE NOTICE: Due to the GeoNet Community Platform Update, the community will be inaccessible from Tuesday, November 10, 2020, at 7:00 p.m. PST through Wednesday, November 11, 2020. The new platform will be accessible on Thursday, November 12, 2020.

  • If you haven’t done so already, please continue to save your information provided in this blog.

  • See our launch date announcement blog for more information.

In February, The GeoNet Team announced that the technology platform behind the GeoNet community will be changing later this year. This change will bring a new community user experience, features, and design to GeoNet, The Esri Community. If you missed our original announcement, check it out here or watch our video announcement below.

 

 

Key Takeaways in this message

  1. Review the list of features or content that will not migrate to the new platform, and save content associated with your account by November 9.
  2. Get insight on some features you can look forward to in the new community.
  3. Learn more about the new community structure, what to do if you are a Place or Group Owner, Content Creator, or Personal Blogger, and more in the GeoNet Platform Update - FAQs -  August 2020.

  4. Follow the GeoNet Lounge to learn more upcoming announcements leading up to the launch. 

 

What you need to know now:  

Learn how the new platform update and archive rules will impact your content, member follows, notifications, and more.

This requires critical actions to manage your content (where applicable) before the final launch date expected by November 9, 2020.

 

 

Here is the content you will need to back up this month, as these content types and features will not be available or will not migrate to the new platform:

 

  1. Draft content and historical notifications – If you have any content (blogs, questions, discussions, etc.) in draft mode or any historical notifications that are of value to you, these notifications and drafts will not migrate to the new platform.

Why would historical notifications be valuable? Some users may want to document any bookmarks earned, views, or engagement information on their content for their professional brand or expertise on a subject matter.

  1. Profile image gallery and profile banner – Your profile image gallery and profile banner will not automatically migrate over to your new profile. This will provide an opportunity to refresh your profile with new images along with the new profile layout and account features you will be able to utilize. Your avatar will transfer to the new platform.

 

  1. Member Follows and Bookmarks – The list of current community members and places that you follow and your bookmarks will not migrate to the new platform. Watch these videos for guidance on how to quick-save this information to reference once you are in the new platform.

 

  1. Private Messages – Your private messages will not be migrated into the new platform. 

 

  1. Personal Blogs – Personal blogs will not be available in the new platform. Your current personal blog will be archived or visible depending on the content’s views and engagement in the community. If your personal blog is unable to be moved into a product or topic container, it will be migrated into an archive for content that is still providing value to the community as a result of high views or engagement metrics. The GeoNet Team will reach out to you directly regarding your content. If you feel you need more assistance with this topic or have not been contacted about your personal blog to date, e-mail us at geonet@esri.com.

     

  1. Blog Header Images – Header images will not be available in the new platform.

                                                                                                                                       

Blog Header Image

  1. Your Content Views – The historical counts of views of your content (blogs, discussions, questions, documents, polls, videos, etc.) will not transfer to the new platform. All content views will restart in the new platform. If your historical views of your posts are important to you, please record that information as needed. 

Why would historical views be valuable? Some users may want to record views of their content as a metric for their professional brand or expertise on a subject matter.

  1. Polls – Save any valuable content created through community polls, as this interaction style will not be available in the new platform. 

  2. RSS Feeds  RSS Feeds for community content will need to be re-established in the new platform. Identify your current RSS feeds as a reference list to re-create them in the new platform.

 

What will be changing:

  • GeoNet Community gamification will be reconstructed for the new platform. While your points and badges will not be migrated, your current status will be used to determine your new rank in the new system.

 

A few things to look forward to so far:

  • Improved search and filter features at a place or board level to narrow down content and interaction styles of interest to you.
  • Flatter navigation and community structure to find places of interest quickly.
  • Subscription Options: You will be able to enjoy more subscription options to stay connected to topics that are relevant to you by subscribing to predefined labels and specific interaction style boards. With questions and answers, you can subscribe to activity at the Post and Reply level.
  • Cleaner User Interface: The community will be more integrated with the Esri brand and website properties. Expect consistency across the pages that will allow you to focus more on the content.
  • ArcGIS Ideas will live in product places with other interaction styles such as questions, blogs, and documents. You can stay in one place for all product-related content without going to another board or place in the community.
  • Account Privacy: Users will able to enter a display name of their choosing. Your e-mail address will not be displayed.
  • Private Message without restrictions: Users will not be required to follow each other in order to communicate through private messaging.

 

 

GeoNet Platform Update Launch Timeline

We’re taking a user-informed approach to our community design as a result of the numerous participants in our usability studies, community surveys, and general community feedback.

 

Since our announcement in February, we held user research sessions in March, conducted a community-wide usability survey in June with more than 1,000 responses, and held additional studies in July with community users at new, active, and experienced membership levels.

 

New: Updated GeoNet Platform Launch Window: November 12, 2020 - updated 11/4/2020  

Read the latest launch announcement blog

Stay connected to the GeoNet Lounge for more announcements as we get closer to our platform update release! If you have questions, please comment below or e-mail us at geonet@esri.com.

15 Comments
JamalNUMAN
Legendary Contributor

This is good news!

 

Will all our posts (questions, ideas, etc.) and their screenshots be migrated? In the last update, there has been issues related to migrating inline screenshots

Will the quotes will be migrated successfully?

Will the original data of all old posts will be migrated successful?

 

 

We hope that the new design for Geonet will be flexible, dynamic, and full of functions and features.

 

Will there be a section for posting ideas for enhancing the Geonet design itself?

Will all answers of each post are numbered?

Will there be an option to be notified via e-mail in case we got “like” in our posts?

by Anonymous User
Not applicable

Hi Jamal NUMAN, Glad you are looking forward to the platform update.

>>Will all our posts (questions, ideas, etc.) and their screenshots be migrated? In the last update, there has been issues related to migrating inline screenshots

Images and attached images, documents, and compressed files will migrate. Inline images may not have exact formatting and styling due to the change of platforms.

If the image is hosted elsewhere (not in the platform) and embedded into the post, the code behind the embed will migrate, but since the content is hosted outside of the platform, it is not guaranteed to display.

>>Will the quotes will be migrated successfully?

Styling of content such as quotes may not be the same since the platforms have different formatting.

>>Will the original data of all old posts will be migrated successful?

Can you specify what you mean by original data of old posts? 

If it regards metrics or engagement data (like views and bookmarks), all data will reset in the new platform as mentioned in the blog above. The original date a post or reply was published will be retained, as will the number of likes (called Kudos in the new platform).

 

In general and as a response to feedback from community members about the presence of old content, content created before 2018 and with low views (less than 100) will be archived from community view (not deleted), as stated in the FAQ posted above.

>>Will there be a section for posting ideas for enhancing the Geonet design itself?

There will be a community feedback section, that is not a part of ArcGIS Ideas, as that is specifically designed for Esri product and services feedback.

>>Will all answers of each post are numbered?

Can you clarify this question? I'm not sure what the reference is here.

>>Will there be an option to be notified via e-mail in case we got “like” in our posts?

Yes! There are numerous options to customize notifications and subscriptions that we will create guidance for in the new platform.

AndresCastillo
MVP Regular Contributor

excellent guidance for the migration Leslie.

I think you are missing https://community.esri.com/docs/DOC-15072 for the personal blog recovery.

by Anonymous User
Not applicable

Hi Andres Castillo,

Since we are reaching out to personal bloggers directly, not everyone will need to take that step. Personal bloggers are directed to that resource once we reach out to them so they can take a look at their content. Thanks for sharing it!

EricEagle
Occasional Contributor III

Are you guys looking at a mobile app(s) for GeoNet (push notifications, reply from notification, etc)?  At this point we are very close (if not beyond) to the point where mobile is the dominant platform.  A mobile GeoNet app would be pretty awesome.

by Anonymous User
Not applicable

Hi Eric Eagle,

We haven't explored mobile apps for GeoNet at this point (nice idea!), but you can expect some improvements with the overall mobile experience and notifications with the platform update. 

MichelleMathias
Esri Community Manager

Hi Eric, As Leslie noted above there isn't a dedicated mobile app, but our design is built to be mobile responsive, so that accessing the site from your phone or tablet browser will be an much improved experience.

HussamAl_Jabri
New Contributor

Hi,

if you level up the GeoNet to be available as mobile app it will be a great leap where we keep our addiction on it instead of other social media ^.^

AndresCastillo
MVP Regular Contributor

Thanks Leslie,

I missed that, sorry. I see it now.

Justin_ODell
New Contributor III

Leslie Fountain wrote:

...

>>Will the original data of all old posts will be migrated successful?

Can you specify what you mean by original data of old posts? 

If it regards metrics or engagement data (like views and bookmarks), all data will reset in the new platform as mentioned in the blog above. The original date a post or reply was published will be retained, as will the number of likes (called Kudos in the new platform).

 

In general and as a response to feedback from community members about the presence of old content, content created before 2018 and with low views (less than 100) will be archived from community view (not deleted), as stated in the FAQ posted above.

Re: Before 2018 and less than 100 -- I hope that there's an easy way to search and get results from both the active posts and the archive.  The topics that address most of the questions I have tend to have low views and are sometimes older.

I'm also hoping one of the "Cleaner User Interface" items will be to make searching within a particular group/place, less clicks.  I always found the searching mechanism awkward on the current GeoNet.

Thanks for all the details about the transition and looking forward to seeing how it turns out!

MarkBoucher
Occasional Contributor III

Good instructions. Has the migration happened yet? Looks the same so far.

Thanks,

Mark

DanPatterson
MVP Esteemed Contributor

I will look different... everything is there, and more, just different... it will be fine

MichelleMathias
Esri Community Manager

Mark, The change over to the new GeoNet platform has not happened yet. it will happen in October, when we have an exact date we will update the community. 

Cheers. 

DavidWheelock2
Occasional Contributor II

Will all of the votes and scores and statistics for items in ArcGIS Ideas be migrated?

KoryKramer
Esri Community Moderator

Good question, David Wheelock‌.  We answer that in https://community.esri.com/community/arcgis-ideas/blog/2020/08/27/arcgis-ideas-a-home-remodel 

Idea scores today are scaled by a factor of 10.  Score is obviously really important when it comes to ideas, so it will of course carry over through the migration.  But since the new site uses 1 kudo = 1 vote, today's scores will essentially get divided by 10.  If an idea today has 15 upvotes, giving a score of 150, when you see it on the new site, it will have 15 kudos.

Comments, content such as attachments/embedded screenshots and number of views are also all carried over.  This is important metadata that is often considered by teams when reviewing ideas. 

Note that some ideas that have already been addressed, or if a team has decided that something will not be considered, or if there has been no activity for more than 5 years, will be archived.

I hope this helps!