jair101

Couldn't care less about the GIFs, but this one is exciting:
Edit: OK, let me express my emotions about this post with gif as requested:

 
 
 

That's how I start.  
I start with my Unread Activity Stream, and then once I open an unread topic, I zip through the rest of the unreads in that particular board.  Once you start using the "next unread topic," you get hooked.    
I've done everything on mobile ... updated to a new version, troubleshooted my IPS support tickets, approved content, and adjusted settings on mobile.  It's not the easiest thing to do and the ACP is not intuitively designed for mobile.  You really have to know where things are located in advance.   But it does allow me to manage everything even while traveling, so I'm thankful for the ability.  It's allowed me to be 'untethered' from my home workstation and to be a certified digital nomad.  

Pages by far. Activity streams is in a very distant second.
Maybe it is an interesting side discussion about how 'we', the admins, use the software compared to the users. I, for example, never use the "next unread topic" link. I check my unread activity streams and open all unread topics in new tabs.
I also avoid checking my community logged in from mobile - chances are I will just read a topic that I will have to attend to (moderate, reply, split, move, etc) and I hate doing that from mobile. The problem is, once I open it, it is already marked as read, so if I don't manipulate it immediately I won't do it ever. 

Pages by far. Activity streams is in a very distant second.
Maybe it is an interesting side discussion about how 'we', the admins, use the software compared to the users. I, for example, never use the "next unread topic" link. I check my unread activity streams and open all unread topics in new tabs.
I also avoid checking my community logged in from mobile - chances are I will just read a topic that I will have to attend to (moderate, reply, split, move, etc) and I hate doing that from mobile. The problem is, once I open it, it is already marked as read, so if I don't manipulate it immediately I won't do it ever. 

The most underrated feature ever! And its not even that complex.
But it seems that the users are living in the FB/iWorld, where you cannot decide which content is most interesting, some ultra-mega-giga-ai-big-data-algorithm does it for you in a totally lame way. Users would rather get useless feed served for them on a plate then spending 5 min to customize a good one. Sad. 
 

The most underrated feature ever! And its not even that complex.
But it seems that the users are living in the FB/iWorld, where you cannot decide which content is most interesting, some ultra-mega-giga-ai-big-data-algorithm does it for you in a totally lame way. Users would rather get useless feed served for them on a plate then spending 5 min to customize a good one. Sad. 
 

The most underrated feature ever! And its not even that complex.
But it seems that the users are living in the FB/iWorld, where you cannot decide which content is most interesting, some ultra-mega-giga-ai-big-data-algorithm does it for you in a totally lame way. Users would rather get useless feed served for them on a plate then spending 5 min to customize a good one. Sad. 
 

Yay for the start of 4.4. announcements! Not particularly excited about this feature, but overall 🙂

Yay for the start of 4.4. announcements! Not particularly excited about this feature, but overall 🙂

Yay for the start of 4.4. announcements! Not particularly excited about this feature, but overall 🙂

I see travel being a common theme. Guys, having a pretty active travel community in the most undeveloped EU country I can definitely say that you don't need a million dollars to travel. Just don't let your life pass by while you wait for the million 🙂

Mark S, this is me at the SPA grand prix last weekend. Amazing race that is totally worth the 4h traffic jam after it:

I see travel being a common theme. Guys, having a pretty active travel community in the most undeveloped EU country I can definitely say that you don't need a million dollars to travel. Just don't let your life pass by while you wait for the million 🙂

Mark S, this is me at the SPA grand prix last weekend. Amazing race that is totally worth the 4h traffic jam after it:

I see travel being a common theme. Guys, having a pretty active travel community in the most undeveloped EU country I can definitely say that you don't need a million dollars to travel. Just don't let your life pass by while you wait for the million 🙂

Mark S, this is me at the SPA grand prix last weekend. Amazing race that is totally worth the 4h traffic jam after it:

Gamification is seriously lacking. While the described feature are nice, they are far from being ideal.
Winning most likes for the day does not make you the most valuable, more often it makes you the guy that posted the funniest meme in the humor section. We need a serious, customizable rating system that can be tuned up to objectively rate the members and their contributions. 
 
@Matt - I know you are lurking in TAZ, this is a nice thread with some ideas: https://theadminzone.com/threads/determining-your-best-members-with-data.143807/#post-1120746  

Is this blog post the definitive guide to gamification? No.  But I think it's a decent start of a conceptual introduction, and more importantly, a conceptual framework to think deeply and broadly about gamification.  
For example, here are things that can be easily extended for gamification:
- Ranks and Pips: old school gamification badges that have been around forever.  If you're not using a third party trophy system, then you should at least be using Ranks.  
- Language: most of us are probably using the default language for things like reactions, leaderboard, and reputation.  The default language is not geared towards  personally engaging or congratulating the user, so you can change the language strings.  
- Recognition topics: this is something that needs to be manually done and many boards already do this, but a board for public recognition of major accomplishments and group promotions.  Think of it as going up on stage to get an award from the organization's president.  
Gamification is the defining user engagement framework of our time and that's because gamification techniques are behaviorally-based.  The first website to get into your mind is the website who wins your attention, and thus your time, clicks, and money.  I think this blog post is a good springboard to think profoundly about all the aspects of gamification and the application of the idea to our specific communities.  Do I think IPS can and ought to do much more in the core software? Hell yes.  But in the meantime, there are plenty of things to think about, experiment with, and implement.  

Gamification is seriously lacking. While the described feature are nice, they are far from being ideal.
Winning most likes for the day does not make you the most valuable, more often it makes you the guy that posted the funniest meme in the humor section. We need a serious, customizable rating system that can be tuned up to objectively rate the members and their contributions. 
 
@Matt - I know you are lurking in TAZ, this is a nice thread with some ideas: https://theadminzone.com/threads/determining-your-best-members-with-data.143807/#post-1120746  

Gamification is seriously lacking. While the described feature are nice, they are far from being ideal.
Winning most likes for the day does not make you the most valuable, more often it makes you the guy that posted the funniest meme in the humor section. We need a serious, customizable rating system that can be tuned up to objectively rate the members and their contributions. 
 
@Matt - I know you are lurking in TAZ, this is a nice thread with some ideas: https://theadminzone.com/threads/determining-your-best-members-with-data.143807/#post-1120746  

Gamification is seriously lacking. While the described feature are nice, they are far from being ideal.
Winning most likes for the day does not make you the most valuable, more often it makes you the guy that posted the funniest meme in the humor section. We need a serious, customizable rating system that can be tuned up to objectively rate the members and their contributions. 
 
@Matt - I know you are lurking in TAZ, this is a nice thread with some ideas: https://theadminzone.com/threads/determining-your-best-members-with-data.143807/#post-1120746  

It is not that I don't trust you, believe me for most admins this GDPR thing is mainly a headache. I can also tell the authorities statement similar to yours here and just not create any privacy policy at all :). Not trying to open a can of worms here, really. But it is a fact that you have access to this data and the statement that you won't download/export/use it for whatever purposes I guess needs to be formalized. 
Again, not trying to accuse of dishonesty, not at all, just trying to be compliant as much as possible. In my privacy policy I am disclosing who has access to the data and IPS support is listed there. It would be nice if I can include an official statement that IPS supports never downloads and exports member data. 
 
 

Yes, I was wondering the same as @ptprog. If you delete a member, but without deleting his posts, there is no way to delete the IP address. I definitely want to keep the posts - as you mentioned they are in public domain and it is ok to keep them as Guest. 
However, they will still carry the IP address, which will be a problem. Right now it seems that if you want to get rid of the IP, you need to delete the posts/pms as well, which shouldn't be the case. 

Charles:

Charles:

Charles:

Charles:

The lurker week looks interesting, I will have to read more about it. 
But asking for feedback can be a double edged sword. It makes the members feel like their opinions are appreciated, that their opinion matters and they are actually part of building the community. Unfortunately more often then not their ideas are not achievable easily, or lets be blunt, are stupid. And when you refuse to make the change, they feel bitter and sometimes can even leave the community. This has happened to me - a user proposed entirely new forum structure, I said no, he said "You are not listening to us, so I am leaving".
Then there is a risk that you may promise something and when you don't do it, it will be constantly bumped. I am sure IPS can relate to this when seeing all those feedback topics tagged with "Internal review" and "will be done" that are bumped from two years ago...
Another risk is when you ask for an opinion and you get 50/50 split replies. This creates division in the community. I had it a few times, for example when planning our get togethers. We made a poll which day is most convenient for people, the result was 50/50 split. So a day was picked by me, which obviously disappointed half of the people that felt I am giving not deserved advantage to the other half.
At least for me, actively pursuing feedback seems to bring more negatives and can create needless camps within the community. Not that I discourage it, I do have a feedback section, but I rarely actively ask for a feedback and it is usually for harmless things - logo, header, etc.