Hi.

Is there a full overview of Community Experts, associated systems, and manual/guide anywhere?

Thanks.

This may be what you are looking for :)

Hi @Marc

It is a start, but I was looking for something more like a user guide.

Having said that, it has answered at least one of my questions - I'll come to this in one moment.

But first:

1. Why was Community Expert enabled by default when I upgraded to v5 a few days ago (and for all usergroups)?

2. Why is a new member with just a few posts under his/her belt labelled as a Community Expert?

The blog post you linked indicates that I can 'block' a community expert. I wondered if the 'remove & block' option is permanent - the blog article clarifies this: yes, it is permanent. I wish to remove people from the list, but without this being a permanent bar. The new member should not be an 'expert' - not for now. But I have no reason to bar the member in the future.

I also note that if I remove a usergroup from Expert eligibility, members of the usergroup are still labelled as an expert. The only option I have is to block them permanently. Our community makes a point of being a non-expert, peer-support community. And since it relates to health matters, the wish to avoid some members being labelled as 'experts'. The last thing we need to do is encourage know-it-alls playing doctor.

However, we might still be able to use Community Expert. We would relabel 'Expert' to something else, and manually add suitable members to a single eligible usergroup of potential 'experts' ('community helpers', ' community guides', or whatever we might relabel them).

But right now, I wish to start from a clean slate. How do I achieve this?

And I suggest three changes:

1. We can remove members from the list of experts without it being a permanent bar

2. If we remove a usergroup as eligible Community Experts, those members should be removed from the list (unless they qualify via another usergroup)

3. Community Expert should not be enabled by default, and across all usergroups no less.

14 hours ago, Como said:

Why was Community Expert enabled by default when I upgraded to v5 a few days ago (and for all usergroups)?

As with any feature on the platform, we have to make decisions on what the default state is. On this one, the default state is switched on (as with most new features, to be honest).

14 hours ago, Como said:

Why is a new member with just a few posts under his/her belt labelled as a Community Expert?

Without an example, its not possible for me to really comment one way or another. If you can provide this, we can certainly take a look for you

14 hours ago, Como said:

The blog post you linked indicates that I can 'block' a community expert. I wondered if the 'remove & block' option is permanent - the blog article clarifies this: yes, it is permanent. I wish to remove people from the list, but without this being a permanent bar. The new member should not be an 'expert' - not for now. But I have no reason to bar the member in the future.

There isnt an option for this at present. If you remove someone from being an expert its permanent. You can however remove them by looking at the blocked experts list

14 hours ago, Como said:

But right now, I wish to start from a clean slate. How do I achieve this?

The only way to really do this would be to go in and remove experts from the list in the admin CP, and then remove them from the block list

14 hours ago, Como said:

And I suggest three changes:

1. We can remove members from the list of experts without it being a permanent bar

2. If we remove a usergroup as eligible Community Experts, those members should be removed from the list (unless they qualify via another usergroup)

3. Community Expert should not be enabled by default, and across all usergroups no less.

Please post a separate topic on this within our feedback area, if you wish to see changes in this area. Just so it doesn't get buried within a support topic :)

Hi @Marc

Thank for you taking the time to respond to each of my points and questions. Appreciated.

3 hours ago, Marc said:

As with any feature on the platform, we have to make decisions on what the default state is. On this one, the default state is switched on (as with most new features, to be honest).

Given that Community Experts works in an unpredictable manner, that its controls are lacking, and problems with reversibility,* I think Community Experts would be better disabled by default allowing owners/admin the opportunity to make decisions before it goes live. But I guess we will have to agree to disagree.

Edit: *It actually appears to be reversible - I address this again below.

3 hours ago, Marc said:

Without an example, its not possible for me to really comment one way or another. If you can provide this, we can certainly take a look for you

Although I totally disabled the system yesterday, some of the entries (including the one I mentioned) have disappeared overnight (I did not remove them and they do not appear in the 'Blocked' list). But I know which account it is, and have managed to determine the likely cause for the account being labelled as an Expert.

The account was created 4-April-2025. It has only nine posts. The first seven posts occurred between 4th and 6th April. In response to a bulk email concerning a policy change, the account holder returned to our community on 18th May to seek clarification by posting to our contact forum. They have not been back since. I marked the member's last post to our Contact forum (where he/she acknowledged our clarification) as the solution for the topic. This is the only forum where we use 'marked as solved' - we use it to indicate that the ticket it closed/resolved. Presumably, Community Expert uses 'solved' posts as part of the algorithm. Clearly, the algorithm needs a tweaking.

I think community operators need to have control greater over how Community Expert systems. New members, with a few posts should not be labelled as experts based upon a single post being 'marked as solved'. We need to be able to operate control over weighting of the inputs and be able to disable selected input parameters for particular forums/areas from feeding into Expert system at all. I do appreciate that it will not be a simple matter to apply the kind of overhaul I have suggested, but I think it is needed.

3 hours ago, Marc said:

There isnt an option for this at present. If you remove someone from being an expert its permanent. You can however remove them by looking at the blocked experts list

I did not even know about the Blocked list. It would help to have full instructions for the Community Expert system and the other systems which feed into it or are affected by it.

So, if I understand you correctly, when we 'remove & block' a member, they are moved to the 'Blocked' list. And if we then remove them from the Blocked list, they are then eligible to be an Expert again - yes? It means unnecessary extra steps, but that works.

3 hours ago, Marc said:

The only way to really do this would be to go in and remove experts from the list in the admin CP, and then remove them from the block list

I am a bit puzzled by this, As per my earlier comments, this member has disappeared from the list. I disabled the entire system yesterday - some entries disappeared overnight; others remain. I would have supposed that it was the result of an overnight chron job acting upon my disabling of the system, but not all the entries are gone.

Edit: I've gone back and checked. Although I disabled Community Experts, I have just enabled it again (without saving) and I note that some (team) usergroups are still labelled as 'allowed groups'. So, it would seem that the functionality to remove whole usergroups (and for this to act retrospectively) already exists.

1. Removing a usergroup from allowed groups does indeed remove the relevant members of the disallowed groups as Community Experts. But this only occurs during the next update (appears to be every 24 hours).

2. Disabling Community Experts does not remove members from Allowed Groups. This is probably the correct behaviour, as disabling the system might be only temporary. And if Experts need to be removed en masse, the relevant usergroups can be removed from the allowed groups list (just allow for up to 24 hours for it to take effect).

3 hours ago, Marc said:

Please post a separate topic on this within our feedback area, if you wish to see changes in this area. Just so it doesn't get buried within a support topic :)

Yes, I'll do that. I do appreciate that this is a new system, and a quite radical one at that. It is bound to have unpredictable effects. I think it holds great promise, and I really would like to trial it. But the lack of control and its unpredictability means I cannot. And I/we (I surely cannot be the only one here) need more control over its input parameters.

Thanks.

People can remove themselves from being an expert, and they are told when they are marked as one. So its possible this may also be what you are seeing

Just now, Marc said:

People can remove themselves from being an expert, and they are told when they are marked as one. So its possible this may also be what you are seeing

No, that's not it. The removed new member has not logged in since the 18th May. I upgraded to v5 on 6th June.

Without examples its not possible for me to properly comment. If you can provide this we can take a look

Just now, Marc said:

Without examples its not possible for me to properly comment. If you can provide this we can take a look

In case you missed it:

1 hour ago, Como said:

The account was created 4-April-2025. It has only nine posts. The first seven posts occurred between 4th and 6th April. In response to a bulk email concerning a policy change, the account holder returned to our community on 18th May to seek clarification by posting to our contact forum. They have not been back since. I marked the member's last post to our Contact forum (where he/she acknowledged our clarification) as the solution for the topic. This is the only forum where we use 'marked as solved' - we use it to indicate that the ticket it closed/resolved. Presumably, Community Expert uses 'solved' posts as part of the algorithm. Clearly, the algorithm needs a tweaking.

[...]

I am a bit puzzled by this, As per my earlier comments, this member has disappeared from the list. I disabled the entire system yesterday - some entries disappeared overnight; others remain. I would have supposed that it was the result of an overnight chron job acting upon my disabling of the system, but not all the entries are gone.

Edit: I've gone back and checked. Although I disabled Community Experts, I have just enabled it again (without saving) and I note that some (team) usergroups are still labelled as 'allowed groups'. So, it would seem that the functionality to remove whole usergroups (and for this to act retrospectively) already exists.

1. Removing a usergroup from allowed groups does indeed remove the relevant members of the disallowed groups as Community Experts. But this only occurs during the next update (appears to be every 24 hours).

2. Disabling Community Experts does not remove members from Allowed Groups. This is probably the correct behaviour, as disabling the system might be only temporary. And if Experts need to be removed en masse, the relevant usergroups can be removed from the allowed groups list (just allow for up to 24 hours for it to take effect).

If you wish, I can send you the name of the account. But since it is no longer listed, it might not help. In any case, I've detailed (above) the likely trigger for the account being added as an expert.

Edited Wednesday at 01:37 PM3 days by Como

1 hour ago, Como said:

Although I totally disabled the system yesterday

Where is that setting? Can’t find it.

7 minutes ago, opentype said:

Where is that setting? Can’t find it.

Community => Forums => Community Experts

Enable Community Experts?Required

If enabled, members who are identified as being helpful in the community can receive a weekly email showing topics without an answer in the forums they are an expert in, as well as a community expert badge visible with each post they make.

To remove those already labelled as experts, you will also need to remove the usergroups (same page). It takes up to 24 hours for this to take effect and the label removed from member profiles.

Edited Wednesday at 02:16 PM3 days by Como

6 minutes ago, Como said:

Community => Forums => Community Experts

Thanks. Must be Cloud only then. I don’t have that.

Just now, opentype said:

Thanks. Must be Cloud only then. I don’t have that.

Yeah. As I understand it, it is a Cloud-only system.

27 minutes ago, Como said:

To remove those already labelled as experts, you will also need to remove the usergroups (same page). It takes up to 24 hours for this to take effect and the label removed from member profiles.

Ive added a bug report for this

30 minutes ago, Marc said:

Ive added a bug report for this

I think how it works now is correct. Disabling Experts might be only temporary. If we need to remove Expert usergroups (permanently), this can be done in additional to disabling the whole system. Although the logic of how this is implemented is a little iffy, the outcome, I think, is correct.

What I think is a bug is when a new member, with nine posts, is elevated to Expert.

Edited Wednesday at 03:17 PM3 days by Como

Is is possible to allow for the Community Experts function to only operate in specific forums?

18 minutes ago, My Sharona said:

Is is possible to allow for the Community Experts function to only operate in specific forums?

I think this would help. And the ability to bar algorithm inputs from specific forums (solved topics at our Contact forum, for example); and the ability to weight the various inputs to suit each of our sites

Having said that, since there is supposed to be an AI behind Community Experts, wouldn't it be ideal to utilize RLHF? I know little about AI, but this seems like a situation where human feedback to the AI from forum operators removing poorly chosen Experts would improve the system no end over time. I am sure it will depend upon how AI has been implemented by Invision - it may not be possible at all.