Ranks?

rickvigorous

So I just got a new "rank", but no notification for it. Got me thinking: with the stickers the need of "rank" as gamification and incentive disappeared. Will the new forum carry over the ranks?

stephenpperry

rickvigorous where did you find your rank?

blackfive460

Vanilla does have that feature. See https://docs.vanillaforums.com/help/reputation/ranks/.

Since ranks have been less prominent for some time now I'd like to think that we won't be bothering with them when Vanilla arrives but if we must have them, lets make them simpler please.

How about just three?

New member, Member and Established Member based on something like length of membership and number of posts?

Done like that they could actually be meaningful.

alanjury

@blackfive460

I agree entirely.

suppers_ready

I think the ranks should be brought back. This forum urgently needs some form of gamification strategy. There were 2274 members on here before I posted this message. That's pretty woeful compared to where the number of members present used to be.

Of course that could be attributed to several reasons depending on your point of view, but this forum is dwindling and that is undeniable. I'm surprised that staffers haven't recognised that and took some remedial action. Maybe they have and are formulating a plan, either way Rome is burning and there's no sign of any fire engines.

alanjury

I’m not sure absolute numbers online is at all important. In terms of providing support to other members, my opinion would be that it is better to have 50 members who can provide coherent and sensible advice and support online than to have thousands of the copy and paste something, anything however irrelevant to the question asked type of member.

suppers_ready

@alanjury wrote:

I’m not sure absolute numbers online is at all important. In terms of providing support to other members, my opinion would be that it is better to have 50 members who can provide coherent and sensible advice and support online than to have thousands of the copy and paste something, anything however irrelevant to the question asked type of member.

I don't disagree with you on that point relative to Help & Support. I suspect that there are relatively few members of those members online that are actually participating on the Help & Support board.

What the number does reflect is the number of members actually interested in particpating on the community. From a peak of around 6000 a few years back it is looking pretty worrying these days, or at least I would be worried if it was my forum.

k89bpa

I wish they'd use the switch as an opporunity to do away with both.

jamesrodrigeous

Good to know about that

giffgaff20147

@rickvigorous

Hello they want scrapping they give the impression we know what we doing

mij_sky

its nice to get a rank up but its not so big anymore ,,, i used to like trying to boost myself up

hayleyb1187

I like having the ranks and being able to rank up so think it should stay

shabazmoqsud

@rickvigorous i like the rank system i hope that is kept, im not a fan of stickers though.

bill48er

I happen to like "ranks".
However, the giffgaff system is way OTT.
A simple meaning full system based on meaningful contribution would make more sense and give newbies a better idea of who might be responding to to a thread.

chand311

Agreed with @rickvigorous, ranks are good in terms of defining your experience/knowledge or a way of appreciation to improve your skills.

c_lockett

I ranked up at some point without knowing either. I do wish they'd get rid of those awful stickers and put the ranks back. They were far more interesting I thought. @rickvigorous

sibtahmed

Ranks are good than stickers.

andath

I quite liked the ranks. In what other organisation could I ever be labelled a 'rocket scientist' and not have people snigger?

pinkunykorn

I like both but getting a rank I think more better.

afahmed

Yes stickers are more necessary for us but ranks have their on charms

alex_w

@suppers_ready wrote:

I think the ranks should be brought back. This forum urgently needs some form of gamification strategy. There were 2274 members on here before I posted this message. That's pretty woeful compared to where the number of members present used to be.

Total members online at any given time is a bit of a misleading stat to be using. That particular stat is affected on a day-to-day basis by variables that have exactly nothing to do with how "healthy" the community here is. As a quick example, it can be heavily affected by how many members need to visit to get help from the community. That varies a lot depending on service stability (eg December 6th saw a massive spike) amongst other factors.

Returning to the actual topic of Ranks - they are available in the new platform, but what we do (or don't) do with them will be a decision for the community managers (Will, Arletta, Roxy) alongside yourselves - technically there is nothing that needs to be done from a development standpoint.

endorphin

luke198830 if you are referring to the old Ranks system:

alex_w Returning to the actual topic of Ranks - they are available in the new platform, but what we do (or don't) do with them will be a decision for the community managers (Will, Arletta, Roxy) alongside yourselves - technically there is nothing that needs to be done from a development standpoint.

from here.