Network Sites#
The MainCross Social+ product suite allows one to create a 360° integrated digital presence – comingled content and community hubs. One of the pillars is the cohesion of a "website" component and a "network" component.
Website is the usual static website that everyone needs - businesses, organizations, individuals etc - a point of presence, marketing site that explains about the goods and services, or vanity site about an individual etc.
Network is a digital network - they connect people to people, people to businesses, and enable flow of knowledge, information and commerce.
MainCross Network Sites are designed to be largely open, ie with mostly public channels, and fewer restricted channels. One of the core tenets of a Network Site is hybrid access, where the same system can have varying levels of access.
Many websites and services exist in only 2 states - either they are public or they are private (or at least need signin). Lots of community sites, FB groups etc operate in this mode. Various closed spaces like Slack, MS Team, Discord, etc also operate the same way.
HybridAccess enable endless use cases - paid memberships, paywalls, subscriber only areas where premium content may be shared, or community tech support or enabling private group discussions, cohorts and special sessions, etc.
Operators#
Operators may be Network or Channel Operators.
A MainCross Network Site may be single operator or multi operator.
- A single operator network is run by a Network Operator. A Network Site can only have 1 Network Operator.
- A multi operator network is run by both Network Operators and Channel Operators. A multi operator network has 1 or more Channel Operators (in addition to the mandatory Network Operator).
The Network Operator is the legal entity which operates the network - ie owns, manages, moderates and optionally pays the MainCross Systems (the company) the network subscription fees. A Network Operator gets a number of Hero accounts for setup and management of the Network.
MainCross Systems (the company) only deals with Network Operators. The Network Operator in turn deals with Channel Operators, ie MainCross does not deal directly with Channel Operators.
A Channel operator is the legal entity which operates an individual channel - ie manages, moderates and optionally pays for the channel subscription to the Network Operator. A Channel Operator may get a number of Hero accounts for setup and management of the Channel.
Multi-user content#
The heart of the MainCross system is a Network CMS, meant for large-scale user generated content (UGC), self-serve content creators, and audience & member engagement, built for harnessing network effects and social graph of members. A Network CMS is unlike any standard content management system, and is used for realizing community, media, and market networks.
Content can be created only by members. Membership is gained by creating an account and logging in. Anyone can create an account on a Network Site using any provided authentication mechanism - Email, social, Telegram, phone etc.
Any content unit, be it posts, comments, pages etc is owned by and publicly attributed to an account. The account which has published the content can freely edit and delete the content at will. Each content unit allows various micro-transactions (upvote, downvote, bookmark etc) and actions (share, report, embed etc).
All posts reside in a TOP channel. All posts allow threaded commenting. Pages are standalone. Some posts are attached to other posts, eg multiple Answer posts are attached to a Question post.
TOP channels#
Every Network Site build on the MainCross system has 1 or more channels which are created and configured by the network operator. Each channel is a microsite for a Topic, or Organization or Persona.
The Network Site can be utilized only after 1 or more channels are created.
What are channels and how do they work?
How are channels setup and managed?
