THIS is how you encourage engagement

[jackflash]

Here's something that really helps guide forum members through the process of setting up their account better.  Buttons with links that guide new members with uploading their avatar, creating their first post, creating their signature, etc. and even includes a progress bar.  This is an excellent way for new members to become better engaged in the community and it's a fun process and less frustrating experience.

While not a new idea, it's nice to have this message added to the bottom of a new member's first post.  It highlights the obvious. . .

On the sidebar profile, these fields better illustrate how the member interacts with the community and creates better user engagement

The ability for a new registrant to choose SMS validation should really be part of the software right out of the box.  This greatly helps alleviate the "I didn't get the confirmation letters" and provides a much faster time from registration to a user's first post.

[Michael R]

I would add one thing. On my site our members are "not so good with puters". At each step it would be helpful to have a GIF or video or even screen captures.

[D.Va]

I second this. I'd like this a lot. 

[Koby]

Definitely seems like something I'd welcome.

[SJ77]

Love it!

[Lindy]

Incidentally - regarding the first screenshot - something similar has been on our roadmap since last year and should happen this year. A complete your account/profile feature would be awesome. 

[IveLeft...]

New Account Setup is a great idea and I like the SMS idea as well - I personally use Clickatell - but there are others out there

[Colonel_mortis]

Complete account would be great, especially if what is displayed can be customised - maybe finally we'll be able to get new members to read the rules without being too in-your-face about it. It would also be nice if you could add extra links that aren't progress-type things, such as "if you joined to ask about x, start your topic in <a>y</a>", that would also be really useful.

I'm not so keen on SMS integration though - members do need an email address to be able to get notification emails etc, so they need to show that their email address is valid - there's no way that we would want members to be able to have emails sent to an address that they haven't proven ownership of. Also, SMSes cost money, albeit not very much (yes, so do emails, but far less).

That's not to say that I think it's a bad idea, but I think it would have to be carefully implemented, and wouldn't really add a huge amount - most users are used to having to verify their email when they register on a site these days.

[CheersnGears]

49 minutes ago, Lindy said:

Incidentally - regarding the first screenshot - something similar has been on our roadmap since last year and should happen this year. A complete your account/profile feature would be awesome. 

Will we be able to toggle which fields are required, not required, not available?

[Lindy]

17 minutes ago, CheersnGears said:

Will we be able to toggle which fields are required, not required, not available?

Like birthday? Yes. There will be admin required and optional.

[CheersnGears]

Just now, Lindy said:

Like birthday? Yes. There will be admin required and optional.

Yup. Thanks, I knew you'd know what I was driving at.  

[Koby]

44 minutes ago, Colonel_mortis said:

SMSes cost money, albeit not very much (yes, so do emails, but far less).

o.O There is hundreds of free email providers; and those that do charge, I've never seen charge on a per-email basis.

As for SMS; what carriers still limit SMS? Every single carrier available here offers unlimited talk and text now days. It's internet bandwidth that is often limited, but that doesn't involve SMS typically. AT&T, AT&T Go, Family Mobile, T-Mobile, MetroPCS, Sprint, Verizon, RepublicWireless, Boost, StraightTalk, etc.. all have unlimited SMS.

The only limited SMS I know of is the free Obama phone people get on Medicaid.

 

My only concern about toggling SMS is that my site being targeted at anyone over 13, that some teens may still not have a cell phone, lol.

[Colonel_mortis]

Just now, Koby said:

o.O There is hundreds of free email providers; and those that do charge, I've never seen charge on a per-email basis.

Yeah, but that doesn't make the email free, even if it's not itemised.

Just now, Koby said:

As for SMS; what carriers still limit SMS? Every single carrier available here offers unlimited talk and text now days. It's internet bandwidth that is often limited, but that doesn't involve SMS typically. AT&T, AT&T Go, Family Mobile, T-Mobile, MetroPCS, Sprint, Verizon, RepublicWireless, Boost, StraightTalk, etc.. all have unlimited SMS.

Sending SMSes for a website is very different from sending SMSes from your phone. Sending an SMS to a US number will cost about $0.0075, obviously depending on what service you use, and other countries can cost considerably more.

[NPO]

2 hours ago, jackflash said:

Would be neat if this could be set on a per group basis with differing steps for each. For instance, the default registered users group could have options similar to adding avatar, signature, etc. while when added to a different group they would see entirely different steps. Then for those in multiple groups which have setup steps show everything for all their groups.

Support for expansion by third party developers adding custom steps could also yield some extremely interesting uses.

[CheersnGears]

Just now, NPO said:

Would be neat if this could be set on a per group basis with differing steps for each. For instance, the default registered users group could have options similar to adding avatar, signature, etc. while when added to a different group they would see entirely different steps. Then for those in multiple groups which have setup steps show everything for all their groups.

Support for expansion by third party developers adding custom steps could also yield some extremely interesting uses.

Also, adding some sort of points to gamify the system would be nice too, but that's also probably 3rd party.

[Koby]

25 minutes ago, Colonel_mortis said:

Yeah, but that doesn't make the email free, even if it's not itemised.

Sending SMSes for a website is very different from sending SMSes from your phone. Sending an SMS to a US number will cost about $0.0075, obviously depending on what service you use, and other countries can cost considerably more.

Cost the user or the site owner? I've validated myself via SMF at numerous places including Facebook, Google, etc. but I've never seen any charges on my bill for SMS. Looking at the link you provided seems to suggest that's payment to Twilio for using their services to do as such. As with anything else, I'd assume there would be free options.

[Colonel_mortis]

6 minutes ago, Koby said:

Cost the user or the site owner? I've validated myself via SMF at numerous places including Facebook, Google, etc. but I've never seen any charges on my bill for SMS. Looking at the link you provided seems to suggest that's payment to Twilio for using their services to do as such. As with anything else, I'd assume there would be free options.

Site owner.

[jackflash]

2 hours ago, Lindy said:

Incidentally - regarding the first screenshot - something similar has been on our roadmap since last year and should happen this year. A complete your account/profile feature would be awesome. 

It works great and people use the feature quite a bit.  Look forward to IPB sites using it.

2 hours ago, Colonel_mortis said:

Complete account would be great, especially if what is displayed can be customised - maybe finally we'll be able to get new members to read the rules without being too in-your-face about it. It would also be nice if you could add extra links that aren't progress-type things, such as "if you joined to ask about x, start your topic in <a>y</a>", that would also be really useful.

I'm not so keen on SMS integration though - members do need an email address to be able to get notification emails etc, so they need to show that their email address is valid - there's no way that we would want members to be able to have emails sent to an address that they haven't proven ownership of. Also, SMSes cost money, albeit not very much (yes, so do emails, but far less).

That's not to say that I think it's a bad idea, but I think it would have to be carefully implemented, and wouldn't really add a huge amount - most users are used to having to verify their email when they register on a site these days.

Good point on the valid e-mails.

[Koby]

The thing about 'valid' emails is there is so many instant-one-time-use (aka disposable emails) email providers out there; so users can validate right away but then the email address is no longer used. Which renders the whole validation by email system moot.

[jackflash]

3 hours ago, Koby said:

The thing about 'valid' emails is there is so many instant-one-time-use (aka disposable emails) email providers out there; so users can validate right away but then the email address is no longer used. Which renders the whole validation by email system moot.

We see it every day.

[Mopar1973Man]

8 hours ago, Michael R said:

I would add one thing. On my site our members are "not so good with puters". At each step it would be helpful to have a GIF or video or even screen captures.

I've got a mixed bag some are computer savvy and other have troubles just dragging and dropping a picture to upload.

I've seen this mod on a vBulletin site as well. I think it a neat idea to promote user interaction with the site software. Again some are computer savvy and other well have to ask their kids on surfing the site. Depends on the crowd your working with.

[tjk]

9 hours ago, jackflash said:

Here's something that really helps guide forum members through the process of setting up their account better.  Buttons with links that guide new members with uploading their avatar, creating their first post, creating their signature, etc. and even includes a progress bar.  This is an excellent way for new members to become better engaged in the community and it's a fun process and less frustrating experience.

While not a new idea, it's nice to have this message added to the bottom of a new member's first post.  It highlights the obvious. . .

On the sidebar profile, these fields better illustrate how the member interacts with the community and creates better user engagement

The ability for a new registrant to choose SMS validation should really be part of the software right out of the box.  This greatly helps alleviate the "I didn't get the confirmation letters" and provides a much faster time from registration to a user's first post.

Thought I posted this earlier, not sure if it was removed or not?

Is this from another script or mock-ups?

 

[Claire Field]

I created guides with screen shots for some of these processes, am about to make one covering how to add avatars and sigs and profile stuff. So yeah, this would be great.

[Colonel_mortis]

8 hours ago, Koby said:

The thing about 'valid' emails is there is so many instant-one-time-use (aka disposable emails) email providers out there; so users can validate right away but then the email address is no longer used. Which renders the whole validation by email system moot.

That is true, but part of it is to prevent people from entering the wrong email, not just to make sure it's real. Sending emails to the wrong person means they will probably be flagged as spam, which is bad for the site's email reputation. 

[Simon Woods]

Would love to see this happen.