CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

I've had a hard time getting my mind wrapped around CiviCampaign usage. I realize it was originally designed for a specific orgs needs, and then extrapolated and included into core at a later point. But I feel like the terminology and certain restrictions are quite limiting for what could otherwise be a much broader use. Some examples:

• the terms "survey" and "petition" have specific meaning in civicampaign terminology which doesn't translate broadly. for example, many people and websites use "survey" to mean a form that people complete online answering various questions. but in civicampaign, a survey is an admin/staff-administered verbal questionaire, not something made available online. a petition is the equivalent of a form-based site survey. but "petition" is a very restrictive concept, so it is misleading to people.
• it looks like petitions can only use individual-based profiles. in broader usage, it would not be uncommon for an org to want to collect information for organization contacts through an online form.
• really -- part of of what i'm getting at is there is real value in providing the ability to have online forms that collect information to new activity records. that might be an online survey, request for information, or even a basic contact us form. each of those need to collect some basic details about the contact, and then store the rest in an activity record. doing so would also provide an alternative for multi-record custom data sets, which currently have no way to be added to online profiles.
• piggybacking on the last point -- things like the petition(survey) capabilities should be available without requiring they be part of a campaign. while that campaign "container" can be of value, it's not always necessary when simply trying to collect activity data from constituents, and presents an additional layer that clutters things.

some of the above are probably low-hanging fruit -- some generalization of terminology, loosening restrictions on profile selection, etc.

Lobo- I agree that the use of terminology is a major stumbling point in Civi-
I see the word "campaign" used in too many places- and survey, walklist, petition, etc- are all basically the same thing- a "contact" with an "individual"
Civi needs to simplify the many different terminologies into an easily understandable and usable vocabulary.

Campaigns are efforts to reach a goal- ie get someone elected, a ballot initiative etc that an organization would sponsor.
Within campaigns- we do stuff-
raise money, send emails, contact people, hold events-  these aren't campaigns. Using the word "campaign" here is inappropriate.
Thanks