Mixing Light Member Update – January 2022

A message to our members from the desk of Patrick Inhofer

With this Insight, I’m starting a new tradition of occasional Insights talking about what’s new or ‘in the works’ for MixingLight.com. Since taking over Mixing Light I’ve put a lot of thought into where I can improve things for you, our members. This video message covers a few key areas where you’ll see noticeable changes over the next 4-12 weeks:

• Predictable Insight release schedule: If there’s one thing that’s bothered me the last few years, is the unpredictable nature of how and when Insights are released. Some months we might release 5 Insights on 5 consecutive days, and then go 3 weeks without another Insight. Month-to-month, this results in a huge variation of the number of Insights you get from us.
  
  In this video, you’ll learn about the key changes I’m making to Mixing Light to end this habit – and create a new habit of 2-3 Insights released week-after-week-after-week.
• Updates on how Members and Contributors interact:
  
  
  • Changes to comments – The 3rd party comments system we currently use is being replaced with a more modern, lightweight, and reliable system. In the video, you learn that my end goal is to give you more consistent control of your profile images and comment notifications.
  • Changes to Slack – At the start of the pandemic, we introduced Slack for more member-to-member interactions. It’s been terrific in that regard. But there are some real problems with Slack’s lack of integration into the overall Mixing Light service.
    
    For that reason, I’m making some significant changes to how we use Slack on Mixing Light. I detail those changes in this video. Slack isn’t going away. But in a few months, it’ll be used differently as we move to a new, more useful solution.
  • Integrating forums – To solve the dual problems of a commenting system that is lacking and a Slack knowledge base that is isolated from the rest of Mixing Light, we’re going to roll out Forums. Form threads will be fully integrated into the commenting system but will also have the flexibility of un-managed discussions like we have in Slack (including a reading view that will (hopefully) mimic the Slack conversation view) but keeping everything in neatly organized threads and fully searchable within a single search query.
  • Contributor Consulting – Have you ever wished you could hire one of our Contributors for a 30-minute or 1-hour session to help you work through a problem? Soon, you will be able to do just that! I’ve got more details in the video.
• New Stand-Alone Training Titles:
  
  
  • Patrick’s LinkedIn Learning courses – In 2021 I recorded and released three training titles on LinkedIn Learning. Find out why I’ve decided to bring them to Mixing Light! And why all future titles I do for LinkedIn will end up here, too.
  • New Learning Management System (LMS) – In support of the new training titles, we’re integrating a system for taking our Courses, fully online. Our new LMS will keep track of your progress and allow us to link to related Insights in the Insights Library for even more learning.
  • New credit system – I’ve asked our developers to program a new credit system that earns you ‘credits’ every time your membership renews. Those credits can be used to unlock the training titles on Mixing Light. Plus, when you first join with a Premium membership (or on the first renewal of a Premium membership after we roll out this new system), you’ll automatically get enough credits to unlock at least one training course in our library.

Those are the major points I cover in this video. In the end, I tease something new for the homepage and I share one of my favorite new changes to the website that’ll roll out in about 8-12 weeks (there are other things to do, before then).

Questions? Comments? Feedback?

Let me know what you think of these plans? Do you have your own feature requests for the upcoming development of the Mixing Light experience? Use the comments below! I guarantee you, I read them all!

– pi