Joel R

What's funny is that I had renamed "Calendar" to "Events" via language strings years ago.  I'm glad IPS has decided to come along for the ride.  🤣

This I think will be really useful, putting further limelight on a feature that is central to why members visits - or not - a Q&A-oriented community.
Something to consider about the statistics offered could be to complement with a basic way to show the spread of time to solution (e.g. the standard deviation). This would show if the time to solution in a forum is similar for most questions (like the fictive forum being red in the picture), or if some come members get answers with the speed of light and some have to wait painfully long (blue).
A measure of spread could indicate if there is an imbalance between the answers needed by members and the answers provided within specific knowledge areas. Combined with a way to identify the posts in the statistics shown (maybe the search function will do the trick) this could trigger rewarding actions to close this gap, increasing member satisfaction and strengthening the community brand. 
Posts never being marked as solved could be treated similarly, being able to identify and analyze so that appropriate action may be taken.
I'll add this idea to the Feature Suggestions forum when we have used the solution for a while.
 
 

Figure: Same mean value to solution but different spread.

Some questions:
Will community owners be able to select the default push notification for new members, similar to default notifications?  When users login and are prompted to accept notifications, I'd like to recommend that IPS adds a 'recommended' tag to the default selection.  This will give communities the greatest chance of engagement (or no engagement, whatever floats your boat). 

With Native mobile, web push... IPS is on the modern need trend way, but still pending the UI clunky and use of space in mobile issues... And yes, I have hope again! 
Oh forgot mention... The Editor too

This is a great blog post.  
I do think clients should think strategically about what role they'd like have in their community, how it's perceived by the community, and how that role can evolve (or not evolve!) over time. 
I like the point about Titles and language choices.  How you couch your titles, ranks, and phrases - calling visitors as "friends" or yourself as "Community Leader," for example - can make a difference in how those users perceive their relationship to the rest of the community. 
 

@Jordan InvisionI posted a comment in another forum posting about the fact I have come to know a fair amount of personal details about the staff here.   There was a time when they were more personally vulnerable and open with the community. Heck @Matt was the first blogger I kept tabs on.  That was long before blogs became a "thing". They "were" community leaders here but over time became Admins. 
When you start out as an admin and morph into a community leader its important to not to go back to being an admin as your members will miss the connection they had when they were a community leader.  You might take on lots of extra duties running your site making it difficult to find time to be community leader  an effort should be made to carve out a few moments each day to put on the community leader hat.
Any site bad news you may have to impart onto your community will incur less of a sting if it comes from community leader versus admin.  Community leaders are "one of us" while admins are often seen as cold uncaring individuals who think "it's my way or the highway".
 

Just to avoid some further confusion:) There was actually a bug which was resolved for 4.6 where the digests weren't stopped by this link.

Some questions:
Will community owners be able to select the default push notification for new members, similar to default notifications?  When users login and are prompted to accept notifications, I'd like to recommend that IPS adds a 'recommended' tag to the default selection.  This will give communities the greatest chance of engagement (or no engagement, whatever floats your boat). 

Some questions:
Will community owners be able to select the default push notification for new members, similar to default notifications?  When users login and are prompted to accept notifications, I'd like to recommend that IPS adds a 'recommended' tag to the default selection.  This will give communities the greatest chance of engagement (or no engagement, whatever floats your boat). 

Some questions:
Will community owners be able to select the default push notification for new members, similar to default notifications?  When users login and are prompted to accept notifications, I'd like to recommend that IPS adds a 'recommended' tag to the default selection.  This will give communities the greatest chance of engagement (or no engagement, whatever floats your boat). 

Some questions:
Will community owners be able to select the default push notification for new members, similar to default notifications?  When users login and are prompted to accept notifications, I'd like to recommend that IPS adds a 'recommended' tag to the default selection.  This will give communities the greatest chance of engagement (or no engagement, whatever floats your boat). 

I'm not, in any way, trying to be overly critical or harsh, but that post is pretty much 100% verbal fluff and no actual actionable content. We're all adults here, and we're all (I guess) community managers ourselves and know fluff when we see it. Maybe it's my Israeli no-bullcrap-"chutzpah" talking, but I'd would LOVE it if you could point out some of the actual technical reasons that led to making this decision, and how Invision is looking to proceed from here - is this feature never going to be available for self-hosted clients? Are you wanting to implement some sort of alternative? What's the probability of there being more of those cases in the future? Are you at all interested in doing the work needed to get hard-to-implement features available for self-hosted clients or will you put those efforts into more seamlessly integrating them for cloud clients?
 
I know what I'm saying might come off as harsh or rude, but you have to understand that none of us (I hope) bought the IPS suite as a single time purchase and "the next time" we buy a community software "we'll try something else". This isn't a bottle of shampoo, we're all making long-term plans based on your software, some of us have businesses involving actual money and peoples' jobs and livelihoods relying on it. So "being vulnerable" is nice and all, but it can't be taken to the bank, and is - honestly - kind of insulting. This whole interaction needs to be WAY more pragmatic and way less like we're a community of 10 year olds getting together to have a great time.

Feedback aka Feature Suggestions needs to be improved. As the definitive location for your clients to post any and all feedback for consideration by the company, it is by far the most important forum for our collective futures.  You literally tell retail clients to post their suggestions in Feedback, but because it's so unorganized and so unmanaged, your own company follow-through on client feedback is embarrassingly non-existent over the years.  
Feedback is a combination of site feedback, company feedback, feedback on seven apps, the admin control panel, clubs, community enhancements and integration, product guidance because people don't know where to post, and the personal planning of kmk on using community software in literally every way except as a community. Feedback needs to be broken-out per app, to be actively collated and tallied and merged, and non-feedback needs to be moved out.    
There is zero incentive for clients to search for past feedback when everything is jumbled together, zero guidance on how clients can bump or lend weight to a prior suggestion, and finally zero transparency to your client base on how our aggregate suggestions are flowing through the suggestion pipeline. Probably because it's a hot mess.  
 
If you had simply tasked Jordan to organize this section with clearly defined workflows, I would have applauded. Something like:
Prequalify all posts in Feedback: Ask for poster to provide minimum specifications as defined by the company. Until those are submitted by the poster, the suggestion shouldn't be accepted.  One of community management's best practices is realizing that great suggestions aren't written by the poster, they're elicited by the asker.      If bug, give poster instructions for sending in a support ticket.  Close and mark as resolved. If non-feedback, give poster instructions on proper navigation of site for reference.  Move as needed. If feedback that meets minimum specs, then move, organize, and merge as needed.   For site feedback: If valid, escalate to site management team. Follow-up and mark as resolved when done.   If not valid, follow-up and mark with a thanks but no thanks.   For company feedback: If positive, ask for permission and promote on social media.  Follow-up and mark as resolved when done.        If negative, escalate to company management as needed.  

Feedback aka Feature Suggestions needs to be improved. As the definitive location for your clients to post any and all feedback for consideration by the company, it is by far the most important forum for our collective futures.  You literally tell retail clients to post their suggestions in Feedback, but because it's so unorganized and so unmanaged, your own company follow-through on client feedback is embarrassingly non-existent over the years.  
Feedback is a combination of site feedback, company feedback, feedback on seven apps, the admin control panel, clubs, community enhancements and integration, product guidance because people don't know where to post, and the personal planning of kmk on using community software in literally every way except as a community. Feedback needs to be broken-out per app, to be actively collated and tallied and merged, and non-feedback needs to be moved out.    
There is zero incentive for clients to search for past feedback when everything is jumbled together, zero guidance on how clients can bump or lend weight to a prior suggestion, and finally zero transparency to your client base on how our aggregate suggestions are flowing through the suggestion pipeline. Probably because it's a hot mess.  
 
If you had simply tasked Jordan to organize this section with clearly defined workflows, I would have applauded. Something like:
Prequalify all posts in Feedback: Ask for poster to provide minimum specifications as defined by the company. Until those are submitted by the poster, the suggestion shouldn't be accepted.  One of community management's best practices is realizing that great suggestions aren't written by the poster, they're elicited by the asker.      If bug, give poster instructions for sending in a support ticket.  Close and mark as resolved. If non-feedback, give poster instructions on proper navigation of site for reference.  Move as needed. If feedback that meets minimum specs, then move, organize, and merge as needed.   For site feedback: If valid, escalate to site management team. Follow-up and mark as resolved when done.   If not valid, follow-up and mark with a thanks but no thanks.   For company feedback: If positive, ask for permission and promote on social media.  Follow-up and mark as resolved when done.        If negative, escalate to company management as needed.  

Feedback aka Feature Suggestions needs to be improved. As the definitive location for your clients to post any and all feedback for consideration by the company, it is by far the most important forum for our collective futures.  You literally tell retail clients to post their suggestions in Feedback, but because it's so unorganized and so unmanaged, your own company follow-through on client feedback is embarrassingly non-existent over the years.  
Feedback is a combination of site feedback, company feedback, feedback on seven apps, the admin control panel, clubs, community enhancements and integration, product guidance because people don't know where to post, and the personal planning of kmk on using community software in literally every way except as a community. Feedback needs to be broken-out per app, to be actively collated and tallied and merged, and non-feedback needs to be moved out.    
There is zero incentive for clients to search for past feedback when everything is jumbled together, zero guidance on how clients can bump or lend weight to a prior suggestion, and finally zero transparency to your client base on how our aggregate suggestions are flowing through the suggestion pipeline. Probably because it's a hot mess.  
 
If you had simply tasked Jordan to organize this section with clearly defined workflows, I would have applauded. Something like:
Prequalify all posts in Feedback: Ask for poster to provide minimum specifications as defined by the company. Until those are submitted by the poster, the suggestion shouldn't be accepted.  One of community management's best practices is realizing that great suggestions aren't written by the poster, they're elicited by the asker.      If bug, give poster instructions for sending in a support ticket.  Close and mark as resolved. If non-feedback, give poster instructions on proper navigation of site for reference.  Move as needed. If feedback that meets minimum specs, then move, organize, and merge as needed.   For site feedback: If valid, escalate to site management team. Follow-up and mark as resolved when done.   If not valid, follow-up and mark with a thanks but no thanks.   For company feedback: If positive, ask for permission and promote on social media.  Follow-up and mark as resolved when done.        If negative, escalate to company management as needed.  

Feedback aka Feature Suggestions needs to be improved. As the definitive location for your clients to post any and all feedback for consideration by the company, it is by far the most important forum for our collective futures.  You literally tell retail clients to post their suggestions in Feedback, but because it's so unorganized and so unmanaged, your own company follow-through on client feedback is embarrassingly non-existent over the years.  
Feedback is a combination of site feedback, company feedback, feedback on seven apps, the admin control panel, clubs, community enhancements and integration, product guidance because people don't know where to post, and the personal planning of kmk on using community software in literally every way except as a community. Feedback needs to be broken-out per app, to be actively collated and tallied and merged, and non-feedback needs to be moved out.    
There is zero incentive for clients to search for past feedback when everything is jumbled together, zero guidance on how clients can bump or lend weight to a prior suggestion, and finally zero transparency to your client base on how our aggregate suggestions are flowing through the suggestion pipeline. Probably because it's a hot mess.  
 
If you had simply tasked Jordan to organize this section with clearly defined workflows, I would have applauded. Something like:
Prequalify all posts in Feedback: Ask for poster to provide minimum specifications as defined by the company. Until those are submitted by the poster, the suggestion shouldn't be accepted.  One of community management's best practices is realizing that great suggestions aren't written by the poster, they're elicited by the asker.      If bug, give poster instructions for sending in a support ticket.  Close and mark as resolved. If non-feedback, give poster instructions on proper navigation of site for reference.  Move as needed. If feedback that meets minimum specs, then move, organize, and merge as needed.   For site feedback: If valid, escalate to site management team. Follow-up and mark as resolved when done.   If not valid, follow-up and mark with a thanks but no thanks.   For company feedback: If positive, ask for permission and promote on social media.  Follow-up and mark as resolved when done.        If negative, escalate to company management as needed.  

I'd be curious to see how IPS envisages using an IP.Pages database as a leaders-only discussion over trouble members or topics.  How is that better than just using a moderator forum or the actual ModCP? 
There are some big insights on this article that aren't identified on their own but govern some broad principles to community management:
1. Keep your rules uniform -- I think it's important to keep your rules consistent and uniform for all members.  It makes it easier to moderate, easier to remember, and easier to enforce.  It also doesn't allow members to go crazy in certain topics and then have to switch personalities to participate other topics.
2. New members vs Veteran members -- this is another great point that sometimes we, as admins, may forget about.  A new member is just trying to get accustomed to the site, and their enthusiasm shouldn't be mistaken for policy mistake.  I personally focus more on educating  new members when there's a problem ("did you know about this policy, here's what you could have done instead, etc").  A  veteran member, however, should be more familiar with the rules and I'm more willing to be stricter with veteran members than new members.
3. Steward - Users give us their time, attention, intellectual capital, insight, humor, and clicks.  Collectively, that forms a community and I think its important to remember that even though those actions and items are freely given, they need to be nurtured on behalf of something that's not just of my own making.  As an admin, it's easy to take credit for the success of the community.  But I think a proper admin knows that he's really a steward of everyone's contribution.  
 

Jordan - Congrats
Matt - What does this position actually mean for clients?  How will he triage, prioritize, and escalate client feedback to the IPS team, all of whom can and do visit the forums themselves? What are the parameters for clients to help highlight and channel our feedback in an effective manner?  And finally, as a community advocate, what does he actually advocate?  Whom does he represent, and to what extent?  
Until the company articulates - and the community can validate - these above questions, this new position is entirely aspirational.  
Invision has attempted multiple community engagement tactics over the years.  And I have a long history of memory:
I remember IPS Release Notes when Charles said you were going to provide a roadmap.  That quietly disappeared and failed.  I remember Tagging when Lindy said you were going to tag the status of features.  That quietly disappeared and failed.   I remember how you removed Pre-Sales and merged Feedback from all product lines together.  Product Feedback is now a mess.   I remember how you recently launched a Slack channel for Marketplace devs.  How is that going?   I genuinely and honestly don't mind you guys trying new things - that's great.  Every community (and company) should always be experimenting and launching new initiatives.  But the past history of your community engagement is littered with no follow through.  How is this time different?    
To be blunt and on behalf of all of your retail clients, we don't need a Community Advocate to post memes.  We need a Community Advocate with the power to deliver and communicate on meaningful actions to drive our communities forward.

Jordan - Congrats
Matt - What does this position actually mean for clients?  How will he triage, prioritize, and escalate client feedback to the IPS team, all of whom can and do visit the forums themselves? What are the parameters for clients to help highlight and channel our feedback in an effective manner?  And finally, as a community advocate, what does he actually advocate?  Whom does he represent, and to what extent?  
Until the company articulates - and the community can validate - these above questions, this new position is entirely aspirational.  
Invision has attempted multiple community engagement tactics over the years.  And I have a long history of memory:
I remember IPS Release Notes when Charles said you were going to provide a roadmap.  That quietly disappeared and failed.  I remember Tagging when Lindy said you were going to tag the status of features.  That quietly disappeared and failed.   I remember how you removed Pre-Sales and merged Feedback from all product lines together.  Product Feedback is now a mess.   I remember how you recently launched a Slack channel for Marketplace devs.  How is that going?   I genuinely and honestly don't mind you guys trying new things - that's great.  Every community (and company) should always be experimenting and launching new initiatives.  But the past history of your community engagement is littered with no follow through.  How is this time different?    
To be blunt and on behalf of all of your retail clients, we don't need a Community Advocate to post memes.  We need a Community Advocate with the power to deliver and communicate on meaningful actions to drive our communities forward.

Jordan - Congrats
Matt - What does this position actually mean for clients?  How will he triage, prioritize, and escalate client feedback to the IPS team, all of whom can and do visit the forums themselves? What are the parameters for clients to help highlight and channel our feedback in an effective manner?  And finally, as a community advocate, what does he actually advocate?  Whom does he represent, and to what extent?  
Until the company articulates - and the community can validate - these above questions, this new position is entirely aspirational.  
Invision has attempted multiple community engagement tactics over the years.  And I have a long history of memory:
I remember IPS Release Notes when Charles said you were going to provide a roadmap.  That quietly disappeared and failed.  I remember Tagging when Lindy said you were going to tag the status of features.  That quietly disappeared and failed.   I remember how you removed Pre-Sales and merged Feedback from all product lines together.  Product Feedback is now a mess.   I remember how you recently launched a Slack channel for Marketplace devs.  How is that going?   I genuinely and honestly don't mind you guys trying new things - that's great.  Every community (and company) should always be experimenting and launching new initiatives.  But the past history of your community engagement is littered with no follow through.  How is this time different?    
To be blunt and on behalf of all of your retail clients, we don't need a Community Advocate to post memes.  We need a Community Advocate with the power to deliver and communicate on meaningful actions to drive our communities forward.

Jordan - Congrats
Matt - What does this position actually mean for clients?  How will he triage, prioritize, and escalate client feedback to the IPS team, all of whom can and do visit the forums themselves? What are the parameters for clients to help highlight and channel our feedback in an effective manner?  And finally, as a community advocate, what does he actually advocate?  Whom does he represent, and to what extent?  
Until the company articulates - and the community can validate - these above questions, this new position is entirely aspirational.  
Invision has attempted multiple community engagement tactics over the years.  And I have a long history of memory:
I remember IPS Release Notes when Charles said you were going to provide a roadmap.  That quietly disappeared and failed.  I remember Tagging when Lindy said you were going to tag the status of features.  That quietly disappeared and failed.   I remember how you removed Pre-Sales and merged Feedback from all product lines together.  Product Feedback is now a mess.   I remember how you recently launched a Slack channel for Marketplace devs.  How is that going?   I genuinely and honestly don't mind you guys trying new things - that's great.  Every community (and company) should always be experimenting and launching new initiatives.  But the past history of your community engagement is littered with no follow through.  How is this time different?    
To be blunt and on behalf of all of your retail clients, we don't need a Community Advocate to post memes.  We need a Community Advocate with the power to deliver and communicate on meaningful actions to drive our communities forward.

Jordan - Congrats
Matt - What does this position actually mean for clients?  How will he triage, prioritize, and escalate client feedback to the IPS team, all of whom can and do visit the forums themselves? What are the parameters for clients to help highlight and channel our feedback in an effective manner?  And finally, as a community advocate, what does he actually advocate?  Whom does he represent, and to what extent?  
Until the company articulates - and the community can validate - these above questions, this new position is entirely aspirational.  
Invision has attempted multiple community engagement tactics over the years.  And I have a long history of memory:
I remember IPS Release Notes when Charles said you were going to provide a roadmap.  That quietly disappeared and failed.  I remember Tagging when Lindy said you were going to tag the status of features.  That quietly disappeared and failed.   I remember how you removed Pre-Sales and merged Feedback from all product lines together.  Product Feedback is now a mess.   I remember how you recently launched a Slack channel for Marketplace devs.  How is that going?   I genuinely and honestly don't mind you guys trying new things - that's great.  Every community (and company) should always be experimenting and launching new initiatives.  But the past history of your community engagement is littered with no follow through.  How is this time different?    
To be blunt and on behalf of all of your retail clients, we don't need a Community Advocate to post memes.  We need a Community Advocate with the power to deliver and communicate on meaningful actions to drive our communities forward.

Jordan - Congrats
Matt - What does this position actually mean for clients?  How will he triage, prioritize, and escalate client feedback to the IPS team, all of whom can and do visit the forums themselves? What are the parameters for clients to help highlight and channel our feedback in an effective manner?  And finally, as a community advocate, what does he actually advocate?  Whom does he represent, and to what extent?  
Until the company articulates - and the community can validate - these above questions, this new position is entirely aspirational.  
Invision has attempted multiple community engagement tactics over the years.  And I have a long history of memory:
I remember IPS Release Notes when Charles said you were going to provide a roadmap.  That quietly disappeared and failed.  I remember Tagging when Lindy said you were going to tag the status of features.  That quietly disappeared and failed.   I remember how you removed Pre-Sales and merged Feedback from all product lines together.  Product Feedback is now a mess.   I remember how you recently launched a Slack channel for Marketplace devs.  How is that going?   I genuinely and honestly don't mind you guys trying new things - that's great.  Every community (and company) should always be experimenting and launching new initiatives.  But the past history of your community engagement is littered with no follow through.  How is this time different?    
To be blunt and on behalf of all of your retail clients, we don't need a Community Advocate to post memes.  We need a Community Advocate with the power to deliver and communicate on meaningful actions to drive our communities forward.

Jordan - Congrats
Matt - What does this position actually mean for clients?  How will he triage, prioritize, and escalate client feedback to the IPS team, all of whom can and do visit the forums themselves? What are the parameters for clients to help highlight and channel our feedback in an effective manner?  And finally, as a community advocate, what does he actually advocate?  Whom does he represent, and to what extent?  
Until the company articulates - and the community can validate - these above questions, this new position is entirely aspirational.  
Invision has attempted multiple community engagement tactics over the years.  And I have a long history of memory:
I remember IPS Release Notes when Charles said you were going to provide a roadmap.  That quietly disappeared and failed.  I remember Tagging when Lindy said you were going to tag the status of features.  That quietly disappeared and failed.   I remember how you removed Pre-Sales and merged Feedback from all product lines together.  Product Feedback is now a mess.   I remember how you recently launched a Slack channel for Marketplace devs.  How is that going?   I genuinely and honestly don't mind you guys trying new things - that's great.  Every community (and company) should always be experimenting and launching new initiatives.  But the past history of your community engagement is littered with no follow through.  How is this time different?    
To be blunt and on behalf of all of your retail clients, we don't need a Community Advocate to post memes.  We need a Community Advocate with the power to deliver and communicate on meaningful actions to drive our communities forward.

Jordan - Congrats
Matt - What does this position actually mean for clients?  How will he triage, prioritize, and escalate client feedback to the IPS team, all of whom can and do visit the forums themselves? What are the parameters for clients to help highlight and channel our feedback in an effective manner?  And finally, as a community advocate, what does he actually advocate?  Whom does he represent, and to what extent?  
Until the company articulates - and the community can validate - these above questions, this new position is entirely aspirational.  
Invision has attempted multiple community engagement tactics over the years.  And I have a long history of memory:
I remember IPS Release Notes when Charles said you were going to provide a roadmap.  That quietly disappeared and failed.  I remember Tagging when Lindy said you were going to tag the status of features.  That quietly disappeared and failed.   I remember how you removed Pre-Sales and merged Feedback from all product lines together.  Product Feedback is now a mess.   I remember how you recently launched a Slack channel for Marketplace devs.  How is that going?   I genuinely and honestly don't mind you guys trying new things - that's great.  Every community (and company) should always be experimenting and launching new initiatives.  But the past history of your community engagement is littered with no follow through.  How is this time different?    
To be blunt and on behalf of all of your retail clients, we don't need a Community Advocate to post memes.  We need a Community Advocate with the power to deliver and communicate on meaningful actions to drive our communities forward.