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Matt

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  1. Like
    Matt got a reaction from Mike Gholson for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Finding community experts   
    Long ago, back in the dark ages, forums used the number of posts a member made and how long ago they joined to demonstrate trust and experience.
    Is simply posting a lot and being a member for a long time the best way to know which community members are experts?
    And is there a better way?
    We think so.
     
     
    What makes an expert, and why are they important?
    Community experts are the keystones to any thriving community. You probably recognise a handful in your community. They tend to be active regularly, are often the first to try and help others with their questions and help set a positive example within the community.
    Wouldn't it be great if newer community members could discover who these super users were a little easier? These members trying to find their feet in a new community could follow trustworthy individuals, absorb the positive tone of the community, and even get help a little quicker.
    In the past, forums have shown trust and experience through basic metrics like post count and the years since they joined. However, these metrics only show that the individual has been around a long time and posts a lot. It doesn't show that they are potential role models or helpful and trustworthy.
    Community Experts with Invision Community 5
    Invision Community 5 identifies these experts through metrics such as the number of solutions they have, the volume of 'helpful' votes on their replies, the speed of answers and more.
    Each forum will have its own experts, so if you have a very broad community, someone who is very helpful in a particular area will show as an expert in that area only.
    When a member has been picked as an expert, they'll receive an email thanking them, and they can then opt-in to be shown as an expert along with a regular notification or email with any unanswered questions in forums they are experts in.

    I'm absolutely killing it in the Test Forum
    Every few months, the experts are recalculated to reflect the organic way communities grow and change. After all, there's little point in showing that a non-active member is an expert. It might even encourage new community experts to keep up the great work and remain active longer.

    Community experts have a badge shown with their posts, along with the option to follow them. Encouraging new members to follow trusted community members should be a core part of any community strategy.
    Settings and control
    Of course, not everyone should be labelled as a community expert, and perhaps, in very rare circumstances, an existing community expert could have a bad day and not represent the community well.
    Invision Community 5 gives you the ability to set which groups experts can be picked from and offers you the opportunity to block existing experts, ensuring they won't be selected again in the future.

    Over to you
    All communities have to be purposeful and provide value. That value may be in close friendships, or it may be in getting answers for problems you have. Either way, locating the most helpful members will help develop trust, provide guidance and increase knowledge within your community.
    For transactional communities such as support-based communities, experts are vital in providing timely answers and demonstrating credibility and expertise to others.
    As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Please let us know in the comments.
     
  2. Haha
    Matt got a reaction from diogorocha18 for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: The story so far...   
    Just six short weeks ago, Ehren hit record on a video that changed everything for Invision Community.
    The blog was called "Introducing a fresh new vision for Invision Community 5," and it ripped up the rule book on what forums should look like and revealed a slick new look featuring a new forum home feed view and sidebar navigation.
    A lot has been discussed, but we're not even close to done!
    Before we bring you news of more features after Thanksgiving, I wanted to take a mid-season break to recap what we've seen so far.
    First up was the introduction video, which gave a broad overview of the new UI Invision Community 5 would be sporting. Ehren takes us through many new elements, including the sidebar navigation, forum feed view, simplified post view and more.
     
     
    Up next was a focus on dark mode, accessibility and mobile views. Invision Community 5 features the ability to have native dark mode without additional themes or complex variables to set up. Our aim with Invision Community 5 is to hide the complexities and technology and just let you focus on creating a great community experience for your audience.
     
     
    Bringing complex theming to everyone was the message in the blog talking about the new theme editor. Now, you can make wide-ranging changes to your theme without the need to edit CSS or manage HTML templates, all driven by a smart and simple interface.
     
     
    Next, it was my turn to talk about a new feature. I introduced two new features designed to help those who run support-based communities. Finding the most helpful answers and identifying community experts help your members do more with less time and frustration.
     
     
    Last week, Ehren demonstrated our new icon and badge builder, which is an amazingly powerful tool to produce slick and professional badges along with the ability to customize your community further with emojis and icons for menus, reactions and more. Building ways to reduce the barrier to customization has been a strong theme for Invision Community 5.
     
     
    Phew!
    We can all agree that we've showcased a lot of impressive functionality coming with Invision Community 5 already.
    But what does the future hold?
    Lots! We have a lot of new functionality that we're putting the finishing touches on, and we can't wait to show you more. These new features further help to reduce noise in topics, make the community feel alive and bring long-needed updates to core components such as the editor. Not to mention, there is a significant update to Pages underway.
    We also have a lot of less flashy updates, such as the new consolidated Feature/Our Picks feature, which is now a single feature.
     
    Feature-window.mp4
     
    An improved Moderators Control Panel brings a more uniform experience across deleted, hidden, and content waiting to be approved.
     

    We're still on course for a release of Invision Community in early 2024 and can't wait for you to experience the future of forums.
    What has been your favourite feature so far? I'd love to know; drop a comment below!
  3. Like
    Matt got a reaction from Gill for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Finding community experts   
    Long ago, back in the dark ages, forums used the number of posts a member made and how long ago they joined to demonstrate trust and experience.
    Is simply posting a lot and being a member for a long time the best way to know which community members are experts?
    And is there a better way?
    We think so.
     
     
    What makes an expert, and why are they important?
    Community experts are the keystones to any thriving community. You probably recognise a handful in your community. They tend to be active regularly, are often the first to try and help others with their questions and help set a positive example within the community.
    Wouldn't it be great if newer community members could discover who these super users were a little easier? These members trying to find their feet in a new community could follow trustworthy individuals, absorb the positive tone of the community, and even get help a little quicker.
    In the past, forums have shown trust and experience through basic metrics like post count and the years since they joined. However, these metrics only show that the individual has been around a long time and posts a lot. It doesn't show that they are potential role models or helpful and trustworthy.
    Community Experts with Invision Community 5
    Invision Community 5 identifies these experts through metrics such as the number of solutions they have, the volume of 'helpful' votes on their replies, the speed of answers and more.
    Each forum will have its own experts, so if you have a very broad community, someone who is very helpful in a particular area will show as an expert in that area only.
    When a member has been picked as an expert, they'll receive an email thanking them, and they can then opt-in to be shown as an expert along with a regular notification or email with any unanswered questions in forums they are experts in.

    I'm absolutely killing it in the Test Forum
    Every few months, the experts are recalculated to reflect the organic way communities grow and change. After all, there's little point in showing that a non-active member is an expert. It might even encourage new community experts to keep up the great work and remain active longer.

    Community experts have a badge shown with their posts, along with the option to follow them. Encouraging new members to follow trusted community members should be a core part of any community strategy.
    Settings and control
    Of course, not everyone should be labelled as a community expert, and perhaps, in very rare circumstances, an existing community expert could have a bad day and not represent the community well.
    Invision Community 5 gives you the ability to set which groups experts can be picked from and offers you the opportunity to block existing experts, ensuring they won't be selected again in the future.

    Over to you
    All communities have to be purposeful and provide value. That value may be in close friendships, or it may be in getting answers for problems you have. Either way, locating the most helpful members will help develop trust, provide guidance and increase knowledge within your community.
    For transactional communities such as support-based communities, experts are vital in providing timely answers and demonstrating credibility and expertise to others.
    As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Please let us know in the comments.
     
  4. Like
    Matt got a reaction from Gary for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Topic Summaries   
    Whether you have hours to browse a community or are short on time, scrolling through a very long topic can be more than a little frustrating when you want to follow the topic's core journey.
    Recently, we discussed another feature designed to help support-based communities find helpful answers quickly, but what about social topics that do not have a simple question-and-answer format?
    We've all come to a lengthy topic for the first time and found it a little intimidating to find the most relevant content among hundreds of posts, which don't always further the topic. These off-topic posts are important because they help social cohesion and build relationships between members at the time of posting. Still, those visiting later often want the truth of the topic.
    Invision Community 5 brings a topic summary feature designed to make the most of your time.

    The topic summary is generated by an algorithm that uses many touch points such as average read times, reactions, number of shares, external linking and more to determine how useful a post is via a numeric ranking.
    The summary shows an estimated read time of the entire topic and an estimated read time using the summary, which gives your members a good idea of the time they'll save.
    A shorter read time will make longer topics more accessible to a greater audience.

    Adjusting the summary
    We believe that algorithms should be used to support human decisions but not override them. Those with permission can add posts from the summary if they feel they are more relevant. Likewise, posts can be removed if you think they are irrelevant.

    Interactions with Helpful Posts
    Invision Community supports a broad range of communities, including support-based and social communities. We are improving our toolset to help both.
    You can have helpful post-voting enabled as well as topic summaries enabled. When this is the case, the topic summary will show until the helpful post-voting meets a threshold. Once that threshold is met, the helpful post information will replace it.
    Of course, not all communities and not every forum will have the support features enabled, meaning the topic summary will be the only way to reduce the topic complexity.
    Less is more
    Browsing the summary gives you a concise view of the topic's journey with no distractions, a vital strategy for growth. 
    By allowing members to focus on the core journey, you reward the time they spend on your community and make it more accessible for those short on time.
    We hope you've enjoyed this feature introduction and would love to hear your thoughts!
    a.ipsAttachLink img { margin: 18px 0px 18px 0px;}
  5. Like
    Matt got a reaction from Gary for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: The story so far...   
    Just six short weeks ago, Ehren hit record on a video that changed everything for Invision Community.
    The blog was called "Introducing a fresh new vision for Invision Community 5," and it ripped up the rule book on what forums should look like and revealed a slick new look featuring a new forum home feed view and sidebar navigation.
    A lot has been discussed, but we're not even close to done!
    Before we bring you news of more features after Thanksgiving, I wanted to take a mid-season break to recap what we've seen so far.
    First up was the introduction video, which gave a broad overview of the new UI Invision Community 5 would be sporting. Ehren takes us through many new elements, including the sidebar navigation, forum feed view, simplified post view and more.
     
     
    Up next was a focus on dark mode, accessibility and mobile views. Invision Community 5 features the ability to have native dark mode without additional themes or complex variables to set up. Our aim with Invision Community 5 is to hide the complexities and technology and just let you focus on creating a great community experience for your audience.
     
     
    Bringing complex theming to everyone was the message in the blog talking about the new theme editor. Now, you can make wide-ranging changes to your theme without the need to edit CSS or manage HTML templates, all driven by a smart and simple interface.
     
     
    Next, it was my turn to talk about a new feature. I introduced two new features designed to help those who run support-based communities. Finding the most helpful answers and identifying community experts help your members do more with less time and frustration.
     
     
    Last week, Ehren demonstrated our new icon and badge builder, which is an amazingly powerful tool to produce slick and professional badges along with the ability to customize your community further with emojis and icons for menus, reactions and more. Building ways to reduce the barrier to customization has been a strong theme for Invision Community 5.
     
     
    Phew!
    We can all agree that we've showcased a lot of impressive functionality coming with Invision Community 5 already.
    But what does the future hold?
    Lots! We have a lot of new functionality that we're putting the finishing touches on, and we can't wait to show you more. These new features further help to reduce noise in topics, make the community feel alive and bring long-needed updates to core components such as the editor. Not to mention, there is a significant update to Pages underway.
    We also have a lot of less flashy updates, such as the new consolidated Feature/Our Picks feature, which is now a single feature.
     
    Feature-window.mp4
     
    An improved Moderators Control Panel brings a more uniform experience across deleted, hidden, and content waiting to be approved.
     

    We're still on course for a release of Invision Community in early 2024 and can't wait for you to experience the future of forums.
    What has been your favourite feature so far? I'd love to know; drop a comment below!
  6. Like
    Matt got a reaction from Gary for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Finding community experts   
    Long ago, back in the dark ages, forums used the number of posts a member made and how long ago they joined to demonstrate trust and experience.
    Is simply posting a lot and being a member for a long time the best way to know which community members are experts?
    And is there a better way?
    We think so.
     
     
    What makes an expert, and why are they important?
    Community experts are the keystones to any thriving community. You probably recognise a handful in your community. They tend to be active regularly, are often the first to try and help others with their questions and help set a positive example within the community.
    Wouldn't it be great if newer community members could discover who these super users were a little easier? These members trying to find their feet in a new community could follow trustworthy individuals, absorb the positive tone of the community, and even get help a little quicker.
    In the past, forums have shown trust and experience through basic metrics like post count and the years since they joined. However, these metrics only show that the individual has been around a long time and posts a lot. It doesn't show that they are potential role models or helpful and trustworthy.
    Community Experts with Invision Community 5
    Invision Community 5 identifies these experts through metrics such as the number of solutions they have, the volume of 'helpful' votes on their replies, the speed of answers and more.
    Each forum will have its own experts, so if you have a very broad community, someone who is very helpful in a particular area will show as an expert in that area only.
    When a member has been picked as an expert, they'll receive an email thanking them, and they can then opt-in to be shown as an expert along with a regular notification or email with any unanswered questions in forums they are experts in.

    I'm absolutely killing it in the Test Forum
    Every few months, the experts are recalculated to reflect the organic way communities grow and change. After all, there's little point in showing that a non-active member is an expert. It might even encourage new community experts to keep up the great work and remain active longer.

    Community experts have a badge shown with their posts, along with the option to follow them. Encouraging new members to follow trusted community members should be a core part of any community strategy.
    Settings and control
    Of course, not everyone should be labelled as a community expert, and perhaps, in very rare circumstances, an existing community expert could have a bad day and not represent the community well.
    Invision Community 5 gives you the ability to set which groups experts can be picked from and offers you the opportunity to block existing experts, ensuring they won't be selected again in the future.

    Over to you
    All communities have to be purposeful and provide value. That value may be in close friendships, or it may be in getting answers for problems you have. Either way, locating the most helpful members will help develop trust, provide guidance and increase knowledge within your community.
    For transactional communities such as support-based communities, experts are vital in providing timely answers and demonstrating credibility and expertise to others.
    As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Please let us know in the comments.
     
  7. Like
    Matt got a reaction from -RAW- for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Finding community experts   
    Long ago, back in the dark ages, forums used the number of posts a member made and how long ago they joined to demonstrate trust and experience.
    Is simply posting a lot and being a member for a long time the best way to know which community members are experts?
    And is there a better way?
    We think so.
     
     
    What makes an expert, and why are they important?
    Community experts are the keystones to any thriving community. You probably recognise a handful in your community. They tend to be active regularly, are often the first to try and help others with their questions and help set a positive example within the community.
    Wouldn't it be great if newer community members could discover who these super users were a little easier? These members trying to find their feet in a new community could follow trustworthy individuals, absorb the positive tone of the community, and even get help a little quicker.
    In the past, forums have shown trust and experience through basic metrics like post count and the years since they joined. However, these metrics only show that the individual has been around a long time and posts a lot. It doesn't show that they are potential role models or helpful and trustworthy.
    Community Experts with Invision Community 5
    Invision Community 5 identifies these experts through metrics such as the number of solutions they have, the volume of 'helpful' votes on their replies, the speed of answers and more.
    Each forum will have its own experts, so if you have a very broad community, someone who is very helpful in a particular area will show as an expert in that area only.
    When a member has been picked as an expert, they'll receive an email thanking them, and they can then opt-in to be shown as an expert along with a regular notification or email with any unanswered questions in forums they are experts in.

    I'm absolutely killing it in the Test Forum
    Every few months, the experts are recalculated to reflect the organic way communities grow and change. After all, there's little point in showing that a non-active member is an expert. It might even encourage new community experts to keep up the great work and remain active longer.

    Community experts have a badge shown with their posts, along with the option to follow them. Encouraging new members to follow trusted community members should be a core part of any community strategy.
    Settings and control
    Of course, not everyone should be labelled as a community expert, and perhaps, in very rare circumstances, an existing community expert could have a bad day and not represent the community well.
    Invision Community 5 gives you the ability to set which groups experts can be picked from and offers you the opportunity to block existing experts, ensuring they won't be selected again in the future.

    Over to you
    All communities have to be purposeful and provide value. That value may be in close friendships, or it may be in getting answers for problems you have. Either way, locating the most helpful members will help develop trust, provide guidance and increase knowledge within your community.
    For transactional communities such as support-based communities, experts are vital in providing timely answers and demonstrating credibility and expertise to others.
    As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Please let us know in the comments.
     
  8. Like
    Matt got a reaction from FanClub Mike for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: The story so far...   
    Just six short weeks ago, Ehren hit record on a video that changed everything for Invision Community.
    The blog was called "Introducing a fresh new vision for Invision Community 5," and it ripped up the rule book on what forums should look like and revealed a slick new look featuring a new forum home feed view and sidebar navigation.
    A lot has been discussed, but we're not even close to done!
    Before we bring you news of more features after Thanksgiving, I wanted to take a mid-season break to recap what we've seen so far.
    First up was the introduction video, which gave a broad overview of the new UI Invision Community 5 would be sporting. Ehren takes us through many new elements, including the sidebar navigation, forum feed view, simplified post view and more.
     
     
    Up next was a focus on dark mode, accessibility and mobile views. Invision Community 5 features the ability to have native dark mode without additional themes or complex variables to set up. Our aim with Invision Community 5 is to hide the complexities and technology and just let you focus on creating a great community experience for your audience.
     
     
    Bringing complex theming to everyone was the message in the blog talking about the new theme editor. Now, you can make wide-ranging changes to your theme without the need to edit CSS or manage HTML templates, all driven by a smart and simple interface.
     
     
    Next, it was my turn to talk about a new feature. I introduced two new features designed to help those who run support-based communities. Finding the most helpful answers and identifying community experts help your members do more with less time and frustration.
     
     
    Last week, Ehren demonstrated our new icon and badge builder, which is an amazingly powerful tool to produce slick and professional badges along with the ability to customize your community further with emojis and icons for menus, reactions and more. Building ways to reduce the barrier to customization has been a strong theme for Invision Community 5.
     
     
    Phew!
    We can all agree that we've showcased a lot of impressive functionality coming with Invision Community 5 already.
    But what does the future hold?
    Lots! We have a lot of new functionality that we're putting the finishing touches on, and we can't wait to show you more. These new features further help to reduce noise in topics, make the community feel alive and bring long-needed updates to core components such as the editor. Not to mention, there is a significant update to Pages underway.
    We also have a lot of less flashy updates, such as the new consolidated Feature/Our Picks feature, which is now a single feature.
     
    Feature-window.mp4
     
    An improved Moderators Control Panel brings a more uniform experience across deleted, hidden, and content waiting to be approved.
     

    We're still on course for a release of Invision Community in early 2024 and can't wait for you to experience the future of forums.
    What has been your favourite feature so far? I'd love to know; drop a comment below!
  9. Like
    Matt reacted to Ehren for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: A more performant, polished UI   
    As showcased in our past blogs, Invision Community 5 introduces a brand new, modern interface which brings improvements to performance, aesthetics and mobile usability.
    An optional side navigation panel, new view modes, light/dark modes, customizable header layouts, a search modal and a mobile navigation bar are some of the things we've showcased previously. Today, lets take a closer look at some other miscellaneous changes that we've been working on while developing Version 5, including some of the code reductions and performance improvements that we've been able to achieve in the process.
    For those of you who are developers, we'll also give some simple explanations of how (and why) we've implemented these changes.
     
    Widgets
    Sidebar widgets are perfect for displaying content feeds, featured members, announcements, advertisements and more on your page. In version 4 however, the widget column would often become an empty space once the widgets had been scrolled past:
      widgets-v4.mp4  
    In version 5, widgets now stick to the screen once the last widget has been reached, ensuring your readers have more convenient  access to your widgets rather than a void space:
      sticky-widgets-v5.mp4  
     
    Messenger
    The Messenger is a great way to reach out to members when a private chat is more appropriate than a topic. Inspired by modern email clients, the messenger in Version 5 has been revamped with a full-height, sticky inbox, a longer message snippet, mini profiles and a more polished UI - all with a 25% reduction in CSS and a 100% reduction in Javascript.
    messenger-v5.mp4
     
    Sticky elements
    We've mentioned sticky elements a couple of times now, so lets take a look behind the scenes at how they're created, and some of the performance improvements with Version 5. Traditionally, sticky elements were created using Javascript which would calculate the position of the element on the page and adjust it's stickiness every time the page was scrolled. Scroll events can be quite taxing for browsers, and when it comes to Javascript, the less, the better (especially when aiming for great page speed scores)!
    With that in mind, all sticky elements are now handled using sticky positioning via CSS, which is a native and much more performant way of controlling these elements. We've been able to replace an entire 400 line Javascript component with just 3 lines of CSS.
     
    Grids and Masonry
    Grids have previously been handled in a similar fashion. Javascript would scan all elements within a grid to determine how many could fit on a single line, and would then shuffle these elements into position after the page was loaded or resized. CSS has since introduced its own grid properties, which has allowed us to replace more than 350 lines of Javascript with just a few lines of CSS, resulting in more performant page rendering and nicer looking grids (especially on small-medium displays such as mobiles and tablets).
     

     
    Fun fact: We first introduced a similar performance improvement to "masonry grids" in our Gallery update from January this year, by replacing more than 400 lines of Javascript with, you guessed it, just a few lines of CSS.
     

     
     
     
    Click targets
    We wanted to make Version 5 as simple as possible to navigate, and one way of doing that has been by implementing larger click targets. Clicking anywhere inside an entry in a table or grid will now take you to that entry (you can still click on other links like normal within the click target, such as subforums or profile links). Click targets are optional and can be disabled via your theme settings if necessary.
     
    click-targets.mp4
     
    Data Lists (tables)
    Speaking of tables, they too have been revamped. Tables automatically adapt to the space they've been assigned to (for those curious, this is done using CSS container-queries), so they're always neat regardless of the screen size, with no overflow or squashed layouts. Behind the scenes, the two columns below are created with identical code, yet they're quite different visually due to the size which they've been allocated. Even with these improvements, tables have received a 25% reduction in CSS.
     

     
    Profiles
    Profiles have been polished for Version 5 and include some nice improvements such as sticky widgets and tabs. 
    profile-desktop.mp4
     
    On mobiles, the side column collapses into a carousel, and the sticky tabs allow you to easily flick between content types without scrolling to the top of the page.
    profile-mobile.mp4
     

    Tabs
    You may have noticed in the above clip that tabs on mobiles are now scrollable, compared to a dropdown menu from version 4. We made this change to ensure that tabs are given more equal exposure on small devices, and have managed to reduce the CSS by a whopping 80%.
     
    Carousels
    Last and certainly not least, are carousels. Carousels are great for displaying large amounts of data in a confined space and they've been rewritten from scratch for version 5. Previously, a Javascript library was used to create the "scroll effect", however this has never been the smoothest experience on laptop trackpads and touch devices.
    In version 5, carousels are powered by native smooth-scrolling and scroll-snapping, which results in a much nicer user experience, especially on touchscreens. We've been able to remove a staggering 95% of the Javascript, substituting it with just a few lines of CSS.
     
    carousel.mp4
     
    To be honest, we've only just scratched the surface here! In addition to these changes, we've modernized (and reduced code) in almost every component throughout the suite including avatars, cover photos, dropdown menus, forms, inputs, buttons, lists, off-canvas menus, side menus, columns and more!
    Combined, these changes result in not only a significant reduction in code, but also a polished UI that performs smoothly on desktop and touch devices. We're excited to continue modernizing Invision Community well into the future as new technologies and techniques become available to us, and are looking forward to getting it in your hands in 2024.
  10. Like
    Matt got a reaction from shahed for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Topic Summaries   
    Whether you have hours to browse a community or are short on time, scrolling through a very long topic can be more than a little frustrating when you want to follow the topic's core journey.
    Recently, we discussed another feature designed to help support-based communities find helpful answers quickly, but what about social topics that do not have a simple question-and-answer format?
    We've all come to a lengthy topic for the first time and found it a little intimidating to find the most relevant content among hundreds of posts, which don't always further the topic. These off-topic posts are important because they help social cohesion and build relationships between members at the time of posting. Still, those visiting later often want the truth of the topic.
    Invision Community 5 brings a topic summary feature designed to make the most of your time.

    The topic summary is generated by an algorithm that uses many touch points such as average read times, reactions, number of shares, external linking and more to determine how useful a post is via a numeric ranking.
    The summary shows an estimated read time of the entire topic and an estimated read time using the summary, which gives your members a good idea of the time they'll save.
    A shorter read time will make longer topics more accessible to a greater audience.

    Adjusting the summary
    We believe that algorithms should be used to support human decisions but not override them. Those with permission can add posts from the summary if they feel they are more relevant. Likewise, posts can be removed if you think they are irrelevant.

    Interactions with Helpful Posts
    Invision Community supports a broad range of communities, including support-based and social communities. We are improving our toolset to help both.
    You can have helpful post-voting enabled as well as topic summaries enabled. When this is the case, the topic summary will show until the helpful post-voting meets a threshold. Once that threshold is met, the helpful post information will replace it.
    Of course, not all communities and not every forum will have the support features enabled, meaning the topic summary will be the only way to reduce the topic complexity.
    Less is more
    Browsing the summary gives you a concise view of the topic's journey with no distractions, a vital strategy for growth. 
    By allowing members to focus on the core journey, you reward the time they spend on your community and make it more accessible for those short on time.
    We hope you've enjoyed this feature introduction and would love to hear your thoughts!
    a.ipsAttachLink img { margin: 18px 0px 18px 0px;}
  11. Like
    Matt got a reaction from Jens DE for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Topic Summaries   
    Whether you have hours to browse a community or are short on time, scrolling through a very long topic can be more than a little frustrating when you want to follow the topic's core journey.
    Recently, we discussed another feature designed to help support-based communities find helpful answers quickly, but what about social topics that do not have a simple question-and-answer format?
    We've all come to a lengthy topic for the first time and found it a little intimidating to find the most relevant content among hundreds of posts, which don't always further the topic. These off-topic posts are important because they help social cohesion and build relationships between members at the time of posting. Still, those visiting later often want the truth of the topic.
    Invision Community 5 brings a topic summary feature designed to make the most of your time.

    The topic summary is generated by an algorithm that uses many touch points such as average read times, reactions, number of shares, external linking and more to determine how useful a post is via a numeric ranking.
    The summary shows an estimated read time of the entire topic and an estimated read time using the summary, which gives your members a good idea of the time they'll save.
    A shorter read time will make longer topics more accessible to a greater audience.

    Adjusting the summary
    We believe that algorithms should be used to support human decisions but not override them. Those with permission can add posts from the summary if they feel they are more relevant. Likewise, posts can be removed if you think they are irrelevant.

    Interactions with Helpful Posts
    Invision Community supports a broad range of communities, including support-based and social communities. We are improving our toolset to help both.
    You can have helpful post-voting enabled as well as topic summaries enabled. When this is the case, the topic summary will show until the helpful post-voting meets a threshold. Once that threshold is met, the helpful post information will replace it.
    Of course, not all communities and not every forum will have the support features enabled, meaning the topic summary will be the only way to reduce the topic complexity.
    Less is more
    Browsing the summary gives you a concise view of the topic's journey with no distractions, a vital strategy for growth. 
    By allowing members to focus on the core journey, you reward the time they spend on your community and make it more accessible for those short on time.
    We hope you've enjoyed this feature introduction and would love to hear your thoughts!
    a.ipsAttachLink img { margin: 18px 0px 18px 0px;}
  12. Like
    Matt got a reaction from admos for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Topic Summaries   
    Whether you have hours to browse a community or are short on time, scrolling through a very long topic can be more than a little frustrating when you want to follow the topic's core journey.
    Recently, we discussed another feature designed to help support-based communities find helpful answers quickly, but what about social topics that do not have a simple question-and-answer format?
    We've all come to a lengthy topic for the first time and found it a little intimidating to find the most relevant content among hundreds of posts, which don't always further the topic. These off-topic posts are important because they help social cohesion and build relationships between members at the time of posting. Still, those visiting later often want the truth of the topic.
    Invision Community 5 brings a topic summary feature designed to make the most of your time.

    The topic summary is generated by an algorithm that uses many touch points such as average read times, reactions, number of shares, external linking and more to determine how useful a post is via a numeric ranking.
    The summary shows an estimated read time of the entire topic and an estimated read time using the summary, which gives your members a good idea of the time they'll save.
    A shorter read time will make longer topics more accessible to a greater audience.

    Adjusting the summary
    We believe that algorithms should be used to support human decisions but not override them. Those with permission can add posts from the summary if they feel they are more relevant. Likewise, posts can be removed if you think they are irrelevant.

    Interactions with Helpful Posts
    Invision Community supports a broad range of communities, including support-based and social communities. We are improving our toolset to help both.
    You can have helpful post-voting enabled as well as topic summaries enabled. When this is the case, the topic summary will show until the helpful post-voting meets a threshold. Once that threshold is met, the helpful post information will replace it.
    Of course, not all communities and not every forum will have the support features enabled, meaning the topic summary will be the only way to reduce the topic complexity.
    Less is more
    Browsing the summary gives you a concise view of the topic's journey with no distractions, a vital strategy for growth. 
    By allowing members to focus on the core journey, you reward the time they spend on your community and make it more accessible for those short on time.
    We hope you've enjoyed this feature introduction and would love to hear your thoughts!
    a.ipsAttachLink img { margin: 18px 0px 18px 0px;}
  13. Like
    Matt got a reaction from LiquidFractal for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Topic Summaries   
    Whether you have hours to browse a community or are short on time, scrolling through a very long topic can be more than a little frustrating when you want to follow the topic's core journey.
    Recently, we discussed another feature designed to help support-based communities find helpful answers quickly, but what about social topics that do not have a simple question-and-answer format?
    We've all come to a lengthy topic for the first time and found it a little intimidating to find the most relevant content among hundreds of posts, which don't always further the topic. These off-topic posts are important because they help social cohesion and build relationships between members at the time of posting. Still, those visiting later often want the truth of the topic.
    Invision Community 5 brings a topic summary feature designed to make the most of your time.

    The topic summary is generated by an algorithm that uses many touch points such as average read times, reactions, number of shares, external linking and more to determine how useful a post is via a numeric ranking.
    The summary shows an estimated read time of the entire topic and an estimated read time using the summary, which gives your members a good idea of the time they'll save.
    A shorter read time will make longer topics more accessible to a greater audience.

    Adjusting the summary
    We believe that algorithms should be used to support human decisions but not override them. Those with permission can add posts from the summary if they feel they are more relevant. Likewise, posts can be removed if you think they are irrelevant.

    Interactions with Helpful Posts
    Invision Community supports a broad range of communities, including support-based and social communities. We are improving our toolset to help both.
    You can have helpful post-voting enabled as well as topic summaries enabled. When this is the case, the topic summary will show until the helpful post-voting meets a threshold. Once that threshold is met, the helpful post information will replace it.
    Of course, not all communities and not every forum will have the support features enabled, meaning the topic summary will be the only way to reduce the topic complexity.
    Less is more
    Browsing the summary gives you a concise view of the topic's journey with no distractions, a vital strategy for growth. 
    By allowing members to focus on the core journey, you reward the time they spend on your community and make it more accessible for those short on time.
    We hope you've enjoyed this feature introduction and would love to hear your thoughts!
    a.ipsAttachLink img { margin: 18px 0px 18px 0px;}
  14. Like
    Matt got a reaction from Rich N for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Topic Summaries   
    Whether you have hours to browse a community or are short on time, scrolling through a very long topic can be more than a little frustrating when you want to follow the topic's core journey.
    Recently, we discussed another feature designed to help support-based communities find helpful answers quickly, but what about social topics that do not have a simple question-and-answer format?
    We've all come to a lengthy topic for the first time and found it a little intimidating to find the most relevant content among hundreds of posts, which don't always further the topic. These off-topic posts are important because they help social cohesion and build relationships between members at the time of posting. Still, those visiting later often want the truth of the topic.
    Invision Community 5 brings a topic summary feature designed to make the most of your time.

    The topic summary is generated by an algorithm that uses many touch points such as average read times, reactions, number of shares, external linking and more to determine how useful a post is via a numeric ranking.
    The summary shows an estimated read time of the entire topic and an estimated read time using the summary, which gives your members a good idea of the time they'll save.
    A shorter read time will make longer topics more accessible to a greater audience.

    Adjusting the summary
    We believe that algorithms should be used to support human decisions but not override them. Those with permission can add posts from the summary if they feel they are more relevant. Likewise, posts can be removed if you think they are irrelevant.

    Interactions with Helpful Posts
    Invision Community supports a broad range of communities, including support-based and social communities. We are improving our toolset to help both.
    You can have helpful post-voting enabled as well as topic summaries enabled. When this is the case, the topic summary will show until the helpful post-voting meets a threshold. Once that threshold is met, the helpful post information will replace it.
    Of course, not all communities and not every forum will have the support features enabled, meaning the topic summary will be the only way to reduce the topic complexity.
    Less is more
    Browsing the summary gives you a concise view of the topic's journey with no distractions, a vital strategy for growth. 
    By allowing members to focus on the core journey, you reward the time they spend on your community and make it more accessible for those short on time.
    We hope you've enjoyed this feature introduction and would love to hear your thoughts!
    a.ipsAttachLink img { margin: 18px 0px 18px 0px;}
  15. Like
    Matt got a reaction from Kenneth Baker for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Topic Summaries   
    Whether you have hours to browse a community or are short on time, scrolling through a very long topic can be more than a little frustrating when you want to follow the topic's core journey.
    Recently, we discussed another feature designed to help support-based communities find helpful answers quickly, but what about social topics that do not have a simple question-and-answer format?
    We've all come to a lengthy topic for the first time and found it a little intimidating to find the most relevant content among hundreds of posts, which don't always further the topic. These off-topic posts are important because they help social cohesion and build relationships between members at the time of posting. Still, those visiting later often want the truth of the topic.
    Invision Community 5 brings a topic summary feature designed to make the most of your time.

    The topic summary is generated by an algorithm that uses many touch points such as average read times, reactions, number of shares, external linking and more to determine how useful a post is via a numeric ranking.
    The summary shows an estimated read time of the entire topic and an estimated read time using the summary, which gives your members a good idea of the time they'll save.
    A shorter read time will make longer topics more accessible to a greater audience.

    Adjusting the summary
    We believe that algorithms should be used to support human decisions but not override them. Those with permission can add posts from the summary if they feel they are more relevant. Likewise, posts can be removed if you think they are irrelevant.

    Interactions with Helpful Posts
    Invision Community supports a broad range of communities, including support-based and social communities. We are improving our toolset to help both.
    You can have helpful post-voting enabled as well as topic summaries enabled. When this is the case, the topic summary will show until the helpful post-voting meets a threshold. Once that threshold is met, the helpful post information will replace it.
    Of course, not all communities and not every forum will have the support features enabled, meaning the topic summary will be the only way to reduce the topic complexity.
    Less is more
    Browsing the summary gives you a concise view of the topic's journey with no distractions, a vital strategy for growth. 
    By allowing members to focus on the core journey, you reward the time they spend on your community and make it more accessible for those short on time.
    We hope you've enjoyed this feature introduction and would love to hear your thoughts!
    a.ipsAttachLink img { margin: 18px 0px 18px 0px;}
  16. Like
    Matt got a reaction from ASTRAPI for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Topic Summaries   
    Whether you have hours to browse a community or are short on time, scrolling through a very long topic can be more than a little frustrating when you want to follow the topic's core journey.
    Recently, we discussed another feature designed to help support-based communities find helpful answers quickly, but what about social topics that do not have a simple question-and-answer format?
    We've all come to a lengthy topic for the first time and found it a little intimidating to find the most relevant content among hundreds of posts, which don't always further the topic. These off-topic posts are important because they help social cohesion and build relationships between members at the time of posting. Still, those visiting later often want the truth of the topic.
    Invision Community 5 brings a topic summary feature designed to make the most of your time.

    The topic summary is generated by an algorithm that uses many touch points such as average read times, reactions, number of shares, external linking and more to determine how useful a post is via a numeric ranking.
    The summary shows an estimated read time of the entire topic and an estimated read time using the summary, which gives your members a good idea of the time they'll save.
    A shorter read time will make longer topics more accessible to a greater audience.

    Adjusting the summary
    We believe that algorithms should be used to support human decisions but not override them. Those with permission can add posts from the summary if they feel they are more relevant. Likewise, posts can be removed if you think they are irrelevant.

    Interactions with Helpful Posts
    Invision Community supports a broad range of communities, including support-based and social communities. We are improving our toolset to help both.
    You can have helpful post-voting enabled as well as topic summaries enabled. When this is the case, the topic summary will show until the helpful post-voting meets a threshold. Once that threshold is met, the helpful post information will replace it.
    Of course, not all communities and not every forum will have the support features enabled, meaning the topic summary will be the only way to reduce the topic complexity.
    Less is more
    Browsing the summary gives you a concise view of the topic's journey with no distractions, a vital strategy for growth. 
    By allowing members to focus on the core journey, you reward the time they spend on your community and make it more accessible for those short on time.
    We hope you've enjoyed this feature introduction and would love to hear your thoughts!
    a.ipsAttachLink img { margin: 18px 0px 18px 0px;}
  17. Like
    Matt got a reaction from ArashDev for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Topic Summaries   
    Whether you have hours to browse a community or are short on time, scrolling through a very long topic can be more than a little frustrating when you want to follow the topic's core journey.
    Recently, we discussed another feature designed to help support-based communities find helpful answers quickly, but what about social topics that do not have a simple question-and-answer format?
    We've all come to a lengthy topic for the first time and found it a little intimidating to find the most relevant content among hundreds of posts, which don't always further the topic. These off-topic posts are important because they help social cohesion and build relationships between members at the time of posting. Still, those visiting later often want the truth of the topic.
    Invision Community 5 brings a topic summary feature designed to make the most of your time.

    The topic summary is generated by an algorithm that uses many touch points such as average read times, reactions, number of shares, external linking and more to determine how useful a post is via a numeric ranking.
    The summary shows an estimated read time of the entire topic and an estimated read time using the summary, which gives your members a good idea of the time they'll save.
    A shorter read time will make longer topics more accessible to a greater audience.

    Adjusting the summary
    We believe that algorithms should be used to support human decisions but not override them. Those with permission can add posts from the summary if they feel they are more relevant. Likewise, posts can be removed if you think they are irrelevant.

    Interactions with Helpful Posts
    Invision Community supports a broad range of communities, including support-based and social communities. We are improving our toolset to help both.
    You can have helpful post-voting enabled as well as topic summaries enabled. When this is the case, the topic summary will show until the helpful post-voting meets a threshold. Once that threshold is met, the helpful post information will replace it.
    Of course, not all communities and not every forum will have the support features enabled, meaning the topic summary will be the only way to reduce the topic complexity.
    Less is more
    Browsing the summary gives you a concise view of the topic's journey with no distractions, a vital strategy for growth. 
    By allowing members to focus on the core journey, you reward the time they spend on your community and make it more accessible for those short on time.
    We hope you've enjoyed this feature introduction and would love to hear your thoughts!
    a.ipsAttachLink img { margin: 18px 0px 18px 0px;}
  18. Like
    Matt got a reaction from Claudia999 for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Topic Summaries   
    Whether you have hours to browse a community or are short on time, scrolling through a very long topic can be more than a little frustrating when you want to follow the topic's core journey.
    Recently, we discussed another feature designed to help support-based communities find helpful answers quickly, but what about social topics that do not have a simple question-and-answer format?
    We've all come to a lengthy topic for the first time and found it a little intimidating to find the most relevant content among hundreds of posts, which don't always further the topic. These off-topic posts are important because they help social cohesion and build relationships between members at the time of posting. Still, those visiting later often want the truth of the topic.
    Invision Community 5 brings a topic summary feature designed to make the most of your time.

    The topic summary is generated by an algorithm that uses many touch points such as average read times, reactions, number of shares, external linking and more to determine how useful a post is via a numeric ranking.
    The summary shows an estimated read time of the entire topic and an estimated read time using the summary, which gives your members a good idea of the time they'll save.
    A shorter read time will make longer topics more accessible to a greater audience.

    Adjusting the summary
    We believe that algorithms should be used to support human decisions but not override them. Those with permission can add posts from the summary if they feel they are more relevant. Likewise, posts can be removed if you think they are irrelevant.

    Interactions with Helpful Posts
    Invision Community supports a broad range of communities, including support-based and social communities. We are improving our toolset to help both.
    You can have helpful post-voting enabled as well as topic summaries enabled. When this is the case, the topic summary will show until the helpful post-voting meets a threshold. Once that threshold is met, the helpful post information will replace it.
    Of course, not all communities and not every forum will have the support features enabled, meaning the topic summary will be the only way to reduce the topic complexity.
    Less is more
    Browsing the summary gives you a concise view of the topic's journey with no distractions, a vital strategy for growth. 
    By allowing members to focus on the core journey, you reward the time they spend on your community and make it more accessible for those short on time.
    We hope you've enjoyed this feature introduction and would love to hear your thoughts!
    a.ipsAttachLink img { margin: 18px 0px 18px 0px;}
  19. Like
    Matt got a reaction from Ehren for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Topic Summaries   
    Whether you have hours to browse a community or are short on time, scrolling through a very long topic can be more than a little frustrating when you want to follow the topic's core journey.
    Recently, we discussed another feature designed to help support-based communities find helpful answers quickly, but what about social topics that do not have a simple question-and-answer format?
    We've all come to a lengthy topic for the first time and found it a little intimidating to find the most relevant content among hundreds of posts, which don't always further the topic. These off-topic posts are important because they help social cohesion and build relationships between members at the time of posting. Still, those visiting later often want the truth of the topic.
    Invision Community 5 brings a topic summary feature designed to make the most of your time.

    The topic summary is generated by an algorithm that uses many touch points such as average read times, reactions, number of shares, external linking and more to determine how useful a post is via a numeric ranking.
    The summary shows an estimated read time of the entire topic and an estimated read time using the summary, which gives your members a good idea of the time they'll save.
    A shorter read time will make longer topics more accessible to a greater audience.

    Adjusting the summary
    We believe that algorithms should be used to support human decisions but not override them. Those with permission can add posts from the summary if they feel they are more relevant. Likewise, posts can be removed if you think they are irrelevant.

    Interactions with Helpful Posts
    Invision Community supports a broad range of communities, including support-based and social communities. We are improving our toolset to help both.
    You can have helpful post-voting enabled as well as topic summaries enabled. When this is the case, the topic summary will show until the helpful post-voting meets a threshold. Once that threshold is met, the helpful post information will replace it.
    Of course, not all communities and not every forum will have the support features enabled, meaning the topic summary will be the only way to reduce the topic complexity.
    Less is more
    Browsing the summary gives you a concise view of the topic's journey with no distractions, a vital strategy for growth. 
    By allowing members to focus on the core journey, you reward the time they spend on your community and make it more accessible for those short on time.
    We hope you've enjoyed this feature introduction and would love to hear your thoughts!
    a.ipsAttachLink img { margin: 18px 0px 18px 0px;}
  20. Like
    Matt got a reaction from Marc Stridgen for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Topic Summaries   
    Whether you have hours to browse a community or are short on time, scrolling through a very long topic can be more than a little frustrating when you want to follow the topic's core journey.
    Recently, we discussed another feature designed to help support-based communities find helpful answers quickly, but what about social topics that do not have a simple question-and-answer format?
    We've all come to a lengthy topic for the first time and found it a little intimidating to find the most relevant content among hundreds of posts, which don't always further the topic. These off-topic posts are important because they help social cohesion and build relationships between members at the time of posting. Still, those visiting later often want the truth of the topic.
    Invision Community 5 brings a topic summary feature designed to make the most of your time.

    The topic summary is generated by an algorithm that uses many touch points such as average read times, reactions, number of shares, external linking and more to determine how useful a post is via a numeric ranking.
    The summary shows an estimated read time of the entire topic and an estimated read time using the summary, which gives your members a good idea of the time they'll save.
    A shorter read time will make longer topics more accessible to a greater audience.

    Adjusting the summary
    We believe that algorithms should be used to support human decisions but not override them. Those with permission can add posts from the summary if they feel they are more relevant. Likewise, posts can be removed if you think they are irrelevant.

    Interactions with Helpful Posts
    Invision Community supports a broad range of communities, including support-based and social communities. We are improving our toolset to help both.
    You can have helpful post-voting enabled as well as topic summaries enabled. When this is the case, the topic summary will show until the helpful post-voting meets a threshold. Once that threshold is met, the helpful post information will replace it.
    Of course, not all communities and not every forum will have the support features enabled, meaning the topic summary will be the only way to reduce the topic complexity.
    Less is more
    Browsing the summary gives you a concise view of the topic's journey with no distractions, a vital strategy for growth. 
    By allowing members to focus on the core journey, you reward the time they spend on your community and make it more accessible for those short on time.
    We hope you've enjoyed this feature introduction and would love to hear your thoughts!
    a.ipsAttachLink img { margin: 18px 0px 18px 0px;}
  21. Like
    Matt got a reaction from Bionic Rooster for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Topic Summaries   
    Whether you have hours to browse a community or are short on time, scrolling through a very long topic can be more than a little frustrating when you want to follow the topic's core journey.
    Recently, we discussed another feature designed to help support-based communities find helpful answers quickly, but what about social topics that do not have a simple question-and-answer format?
    We've all come to a lengthy topic for the first time and found it a little intimidating to find the most relevant content among hundreds of posts, which don't always further the topic. These off-topic posts are important because they help social cohesion and build relationships between members at the time of posting. Still, those visiting later often want the truth of the topic.
    Invision Community 5 brings a topic summary feature designed to make the most of your time.

    The topic summary is generated by an algorithm that uses many touch points such as average read times, reactions, number of shares, external linking and more to determine how useful a post is via a numeric ranking.
    The summary shows an estimated read time of the entire topic and an estimated read time using the summary, which gives your members a good idea of the time they'll save.
    A shorter read time will make longer topics more accessible to a greater audience.

    Adjusting the summary
    We believe that algorithms should be used to support human decisions but not override them. Those with permission can add posts from the summary if they feel they are more relevant. Likewise, posts can be removed if you think they are irrelevant.

    Interactions with Helpful Posts
    Invision Community supports a broad range of communities, including support-based and social communities. We are improving our toolset to help both.
    You can have helpful post-voting enabled as well as topic summaries enabled. When this is the case, the topic summary will show until the helpful post-voting meets a threshold. Once that threshold is met, the helpful post information will replace it.
    Of course, not all communities and not every forum will have the support features enabled, meaning the topic summary will be the only way to reduce the topic complexity.
    Less is more
    Browsing the summary gives you a concise view of the topic's journey with no distractions, a vital strategy for growth. 
    By allowing members to focus on the core journey, you reward the time they spend on your community and make it more accessible for those short on time.
    We hope you've enjoyed this feature introduction and would love to hear your thoughts!
    a.ipsAttachLink img { margin: 18px 0px 18px 0px;}
  22. Like
    Matt got a reaction from Cedric V for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Topic Summaries   
    Whether you have hours to browse a community or are short on time, scrolling through a very long topic can be more than a little frustrating when you want to follow the topic's core journey.
    Recently, we discussed another feature designed to help support-based communities find helpful answers quickly, but what about social topics that do not have a simple question-and-answer format?
    We've all come to a lengthy topic for the first time and found it a little intimidating to find the most relevant content among hundreds of posts, which don't always further the topic. These off-topic posts are important because they help social cohesion and build relationships between members at the time of posting. Still, those visiting later often want the truth of the topic.
    Invision Community 5 brings a topic summary feature designed to make the most of your time.

    The topic summary is generated by an algorithm that uses many touch points such as average read times, reactions, number of shares, external linking and more to determine how useful a post is via a numeric ranking.
    The summary shows an estimated read time of the entire topic and an estimated read time using the summary, which gives your members a good idea of the time they'll save.
    A shorter read time will make longer topics more accessible to a greater audience.

    Adjusting the summary
    We believe that algorithms should be used to support human decisions but not override them. Those with permission can add posts from the summary if they feel they are more relevant. Likewise, posts can be removed if you think they are irrelevant.

    Interactions with Helpful Posts
    Invision Community supports a broad range of communities, including support-based and social communities. We are improving our toolset to help both.
    You can have helpful post-voting enabled as well as topic summaries enabled. When this is the case, the topic summary will show until the helpful post-voting meets a threshold. Once that threshold is met, the helpful post information will replace it.
    Of course, not all communities and not every forum will have the support features enabled, meaning the topic summary will be the only way to reduce the topic complexity.
    Less is more
    Browsing the summary gives you a concise view of the topic's journey with no distractions, a vital strategy for growth. 
    By allowing members to focus on the core journey, you reward the time they spend on your community and make it more accessible for those short on time.
    We hope you've enjoyed this feature introduction and would love to hear your thoughts!
    a.ipsAttachLink img { margin: 18px 0px 18px 0px;}
  23. Thanks
    Matt got a reaction from Marco Junior for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: The story so far...   
    Just six short weeks ago, Ehren hit record on a video that changed everything for Invision Community.
    The blog was called "Introducing a fresh new vision for Invision Community 5," and it ripped up the rule book on what forums should look like and revealed a slick new look featuring a new forum home feed view and sidebar navigation.
    A lot has been discussed, but we're not even close to done!
    Before we bring you news of more features after Thanksgiving, I wanted to take a mid-season break to recap what we've seen so far.
    First up was the introduction video, which gave a broad overview of the new UI Invision Community 5 would be sporting. Ehren takes us through many new elements, including the sidebar navigation, forum feed view, simplified post view and more.
     
     
    Up next was a focus on dark mode, accessibility and mobile views. Invision Community 5 features the ability to have native dark mode without additional themes or complex variables to set up. Our aim with Invision Community 5 is to hide the complexities and technology and just let you focus on creating a great community experience for your audience.
     
     
    Bringing complex theming to everyone was the message in the blog talking about the new theme editor. Now, you can make wide-ranging changes to your theme without the need to edit CSS or manage HTML templates, all driven by a smart and simple interface.
     
     
    Next, it was my turn to talk about a new feature. I introduced two new features designed to help those who run support-based communities. Finding the most helpful answers and identifying community experts help your members do more with less time and frustration.
     
     
    Last week, Ehren demonstrated our new icon and badge builder, which is an amazingly powerful tool to produce slick and professional badges along with the ability to customize your community further with emojis and icons for menus, reactions and more. Building ways to reduce the barrier to customization has been a strong theme for Invision Community 5.
     
     
    Phew!
    We can all agree that we've showcased a lot of impressive functionality coming with Invision Community 5 already.
    But what does the future hold?
    Lots! We have a lot of new functionality that we're putting the finishing touches on, and we can't wait to show you more. These new features further help to reduce noise in topics, make the community feel alive and bring long-needed updates to core components such as the editor. Not to mention, there is a significant update to Pages underway.
    We also have a lot of less flashy updates, such as the new consolidated Feature/Our Picks feature, which is now a single feature.
     
    Feature-window.mp4
     
    An improved Moderators Control Panel brings a more uniform experience across deleted, hidden, and content waiting to be approved.
     

    We're still on course for a release of Invision Community in early 2024 and can't wait for you to experience the future of forums.
    What has been your favourite feature so far? I'd love to know; drop a comment below!
  24. Like
    Matt got a reaction from Max for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: The story so far...   
    Just six short weeks ago, Ehren hit record on a video that changed everything for Invision Community.
    The blog was called "Introducing a fresh new vision for Invision Community 5," and it ripped up the rule book on what forums should look like and revealed a slick new look featuring a new forum home feed view and sidebar navigation.
    A lot has been discussed, but we're not even close to done!
    Before we bring you news of more features after Thanksgiving, I wanted to take a mid-season break to recap what we've seen so far.
    First up was the introduction video, which gave a broad overview of the new UI Invision Community 5 would be sporting. Ehren takes us through many new elements, including the sidebar navigation, forum feed view, simplified post view and more.
     
     
    Up next was a focus on dark mode, accessibility and mobile views. Invision Community 5 features the ability to have native dark mode without additional themes or complex variables to set up. Our aim with Invision Community 5 is to hide the complexities and technology and just let you focus on creating a great community experience for your audience.
     
     
    Bringing complex theming to everyone was the message in the blog talking about the new theme editor. Now, you can make wide-ranging changes to your theme without the need to edit CSS or manage HTML templates, all driven by a smart and simple interface.
     
     
    Next, it was my turn to talk about a new feature. I introduced two new features designed to help those who run support-based communities. Finding the most helpful answers and identifying community experts help your members do more with less time and frustration.
     
     
    Last week, Ehren demonstrated our new icon and badge builder, which is an amazingly powerful tool to produce slick and professional badges along with the ability to customize your community further with emojis and icons for menus, reactions and more. Building ways to reduce the barrier to customization has been a strong theme for Invision Community 5.
     
     
    Phew!
    We can all agree that we've showcased a lot of impressive functionality coming with Invision Community 5 already.
    But what does the future hold?
    Lots! We have a lot of new functionality that we're putting the finishing touches on, and we can't wait to show you more. These new features further help to reduce noise in topics, make the community feel alive and bring long-needed updates to core components such as the editor. Not to mention, there is a significant update to Pages underway.
    We also have a lot of less flashy updates, such as the new consolidated Feature/Our Picks feature, which is now a single feature.
     
    Feature-window.mp4
     
    An improved Moderators Control Panel brings a more uniform experience across deleted, hidden, and content waiting to be approved.
     

    We're still on course for a release of Invision Community in early 2024 and can't wait for you to experience the future of forums.
    What has been your favourite feature so far? I'd love to know; drop a comment below!
  25. Like
    Matt got a reaction from Yamamura for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Finding community experts   
    Long ago, back in the dark ages, forums used the number of posts a member made and how long ago they joined to demonstrate trust and experience.
    Is simply posting a lot and being a member for a long time the best way to know which community members are experts?
    And is there a better way?
    We think so.
     
     
    What makes an expert, and why are they important?
    Community experts are the keystones to any thriving community. You probably recognise a handful in your community. They tend to be active regularly, are often the first to try and help others with their questions and help set a positive example within the community.
    Wouldn't it be great if newer community members could discover who these super users were a little easier? These members trying to find their feet in a new community could follow trustworthy individuals, absorb the positive tone of the community, and even get help a little quicker.
    In the past, forums have shown trust and experience through basic metrics like post count and the years since they joined. However, these metrics only show that the individual has been around a long time and posts a lot. It doesn't show that they are potential role models or helpful and trustworthy.
    Community Experts with Invision Community 5
    Invision Community 5 identifies these experts through metrics such as the number of solutions they have, the volume of 'helpful' votes on their replies, the speed of answers and more.
    Each forum will have its own experts, so if you have a very broad community, someone who is very helpful in a particular area will show as an expert in that area only.
    When a member has been picked as an expert, they'll receive an email thanking them, and they can then opt-in to be shown as an expert along with a regular notification or email with any unanswered questions in forums they are experts in.

    I'm absolutely killing it in the Test Forum
    Every few months, the experts are recalculated to reflect the organic way communities grow and change. After all, there's little point in showing that a non-active member is an expert. It might even encourage new community experts to keep up the great work and remain active longer.

    Community experts have a badge shown with their posts, along with the option to follow them. Encouraging new members to follow trusted community members should be a core part of any community strategy.
    Settings and control
    Of course, not everyone should be labelled as a community expert, and perhaps, in very rare circumstances, an existing community expert could have a bad day and not represent the community well.
    Invision Community 5 gives you the ability to set which groups experts can be picked from and offers you the opportunity to block existing experts, ensuring they won't be selected again in the future.

    Over to you
    All communities have to be purposeful and provide value. That value may be in close friendships, or it may be in getting answers for problems you have. Either way, locating the most helpful members will help develop trust, provide guidance and increase knowledge within your community.
    For transactional communities such as support-based communities, experts are vital in providing timely answers and demonstrating credibility and expertise to others.
    As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Please let us know in the comments.
     
  26. Thanks
    Matt got a reaction from hpcrazy for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: The story so far...   
    Just six short weeks ago, Ehren hit record on a video that changed everything for Invision Community.
    The blog was called "Introducing a fresh new vision for Invision Community 5," and it ripped up the rule book on what forums should look like and revealed a slick new look featuring a new forum home feed view and sidebar navigation.
    A lot has been discussed, but we're not even close to done!
    Before we bring you news of more features after Thanksgiving, I wanted to take a mid-season break to recap what we've seen so far.
    First up was the introduction video, which gave a broad overview of the new UI Invision Community 5 would be sporting. Ehren takes us through many new elements, including the sidebar navigation, forum feed view, simplified post view and more.
     
     
    Up next was a focus on dark mode, accessibility and mobile views. Invision Community 5 features the ability to have native dark mode without additional themes or complex variables to set up. Our aim with Invision Community 5 is to hide the complexities and technology and just let you focus on creating a great community experience for your audience.
     
     
    Bringing complex theming to everyone was the message in the blog talking about the new theme editor. Now, you can make wide-ranging changes to your theme without the need to edit CSS or manage HTML templates, all driven by a smart and simple interface.
     
     
    Next, it was my turn to talk about a new feature. I introduced two new features designed to help those who run support-based communities. Finding the most helpful answers and identifying community experts help your members do more with less time and frustration.
     
     
    Last week, Ehren demonstrated our new icon and badge builder, which is an amazingly powerful tool to produce slick and professional badges along with the ability to customize your community further with emojis and icons for menus, reactions and more. Building ways to reduce the barrier to customization has been a strong theme for Invision Community 5.
     
     
    Phew!
    We can all agree that we've showcased a lot of impressive functionality coming with Invision Community 5 already.
    But what does the future hold?
    Lots! We have a lot of new functionality that we're putting the finishing touches on, and we can't wait to show you more. These new features further help to reduce noise in topics, make the community feel alive and bring long-needed updates to core components such as the editor. Not to mention, there is a significant update to Pages underway.
    We also have a lot of less flashy updates, such as the new consolidated Feature/Our Picks feature, which is now a single feature.
     
    Feature-window.mp4
     
    An improved Moderators Control Panel brings a more uniform experience across deleted, hidden, and content waiting to be approved.
     

    We're still on course for a release of Invision Community in early 2024 and can't wait for you to experience the future of forums.
    What has been your favourite feature so far? I'd love to know; drop a comment below!
  27. Like
    Matt got a reaction from ArashDev for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: The story so far...   
    Just six short weeks ago, Ehren hit record on a video that changed everything for Invision Community.
    The blog was called "Introducing a fresh new vision for Invision Community 5," and it ripped up the rule book on what forums should look like and revealed a slick new look featuring a new forum home feed view and sidebar navigation.
    A lot has been discussed, but we're not even close to done!
    Before we bring you news of more features after Thanksgiving, I wanted to take a mid-season break to recap what we've seen so far.
    First up was the introduction video, which gave a broad overview of the new UI Invision Community 5 would be sporting. Ehren takes us through many new elements, including the sidebar navigation, forum feed view, simplified post view and more.
     
     
    Up next was a focus on dark mode, accessibility and mobile views. Invision Community 5 features the ability to have native dark mode without additional themes or complex variables to set up. Our aim with Invision Community 5 is to hide the complexities and technology and just let you focus on creating a great community experience for your audience.
     
     
    Bringing complex theming to everyone was the message in the blog talking about the new theme editor. Now, you can make wide-ranging changes to your theme without the need to edit CSS or manage HTML templates, all driven by a smart and simple interface.
     
     
    Next, it was my turn to talk about a new feature. I introduced two new features designed to help those who run support-based communities. Finding the most helpful answers and identifying community experts help your members do more with less time and frustration.
     
     
    Last week, Ehren demonstrated our new icon and badge builder, which is an amazingly powerful tool to produce slick and professional badges along with the ability to customize your community further with emojis and icons for menus, reactions and more. Building ways to reduce the barrier to customization has been a strong theme for Invision Community 5.
     
     
    Phew!
    We can all agree that we've showcased a lot of impressive functionality coming with Invision Community 5 already.
    But what does the future hold?
    Lots! We have a lot of new functionality that we're putting the finishing touches on, and we can't wait to show you more. These new features further help to reduce noise in topics, make the community feel alive and bring long-needed updates to core components such as the editor. Not to mention, there is a significant update to Pages underway.
    We also have a lot of less flashy updates, such as the new consolidated Feature/Our Picks feature, which is now a single feature.
     
    Feature-window.mp4
     
    An improved Moderators Control Panel brings a more uniform experience across deleted, hidden, and content waiting to be approved.
     

    We're still on course for a release of Invision Community in early 2024 and can't wait for you to experience the future of forums.
    What has been your favourite feature so far? I'd love to know; drop a comment below!
  28. Like
    Matt got a reaction from Neville1 for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: The story so far...   
    Just six short weeks ago, Ehren hit record on a video that changed everything for Invision Community.
    The blog was called "Introducing a fresh new vision for Invision Community 5," and it ripped up the rule book on what forums should look like and revealed a slick new look featuring a new forum home feed view and sidebar navigation.
    A lot has been discussed, but we're not even close to done!
    Before we bring you news of more features after Thanksgiving, I wanted to take a mid-season break to recap what we've seen so far.
    First up was the introduction video, which gave a broad overview of the new UI Invision Community 5 would be sporting. Ehren takes us through many new elements, including the sidebar navigation, forum feed view, simplified post view and more.
     
     
    Up next was a focus on dark mode, accessibility and mobile views. Invision Community 5 features the ability to have native dark mode without additional themes or complex variables to set up. Our aim with Invision Community 5 is to hide the complexities and technology and just let you focus on creating a great community experience for your audience.
     
     
    Bringing complex theming to everyone was the message in the blog talking about the new theme editor. Now, you can make wide-ranging changes to your theme without the need to edit CSS or manage HTML templates, all driven by a smart and simple interface.
     
     
    Next, it was my turn to talk about a new feature. I introduced two new features designed to help those who run support-based communities. Finding the most helpful answers and identifying community experts help your members do more with less time and frustration.
     
     
    Last week, Ehren demonstrated our new icon and badge builder, which is an amazingly powerful tool to produce slick and professional badges along with the ability to customize your community further with emojis and icons for menus, reactions and more. Building ways to reduce the barrier to customization has been a strong theme for Invision Community 5.
     
     
    Phew!
    We can all agree that we've showcased a lot of impressive functionality coming with Invision Community 5 already.
    But what does the future hold?
    Lots! We have a lot of new functionality that we're putting the finishing touches on, and we can't wait to show you more. These new features further help to reduce noise in topics, make the community feel alive and bring long-needed updates to core components such as the editor. Not to mention, there is a significant update to Pages underway.
    We also have a lot of less flashy updates, such as the new consolidated Feature/Our Picks feature, which is now a single feature.
     
    Feature-window.mp4
     
    An improved Moderators Control Panel brings a more uniform experience across deleted, hidden, and content waiting to be approved.
     

    We're still on course for a release of Invision Community in early 2024 and can't wait for you to experience the future of forums.
    What has been your favourite feature so far? I'd love to know; drop a comment below!
  29. Like
    Matt got a reaction from shahed for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: The story so far...   
    Just six short weeks ago, Ehren hit record on a video that changed everything for Invision Community.
    The blog was called "Introducing a fresh new vision for Invision Community 5," and it ripped up the rule book on what forums should look like and revealed a slick new look featuring a new forum home feed view and sidebar navigation.
    A lot has been discussed, but we're not even close to done!
    Before we bring you news of more features after Thanksgiving, I wanted to take a mid-season break to recap what we've seen so far.
    First up was the introduction video, which gave a broad overview of the new UI Invision Community 5 would be sporting. Ehren takes us through many new elements, including the sidebar navigation, forum feed view, simplified post view and more.
     
     
    Up next was a focus on dark mode, accessibility and mobile views. Invision Community 5 features the ability to have native dark mode without additional themes or complex variables to set up. Our aim with Invision Community 5 is to hide the complexities and technology and just let you focus on creating a great community experience for your audience.
     
     
    Bringing complex theming to everyone was the message in the blog talking about the new theme editor. Now, you can make wide-ranging changes to your theme without the need to edit CSS or manage HTML templates, all driven by a smart and simple interface.
     
     
    Next, it was my turn to talk about a new feature. I introduced two new features designed to help those who run support-based communities. Finding the most helpful answers and identifying community experts help your members do more with less time and frustration.
     
     
    Last week, Ehren demonstrated our new icon and badge builder, which is an amazingly powerful tool to produce slick and professional badges along with the ability to customize your community further with emojis and icons for menus, reactions and more. Building ways to reduce the barrier to customization has been a strong theme for Invision Community 5.
     
     
    Phew!
    We can all agree that we've showcased a lot of impressive functionality coming with Invision Community 5 already.
    But what does the future hold?
    Lots! We have a lot of new functionality that we're putting the finishing touches on, and we can't wait to show you more. These new features further help to reduce noise in topics, make the community feel alive and bring long-needed updates to core components such as the editor. Not to mention, there is a significant update to Pages underway.
    We also have a lot of less flashy updates, such as the new consolidated Feature/Our Picks feature, which is now a single feature.
     
    Feature-window.mp4
     
    An improved Moderators Control Panel brings a more uniform experience across deleted, hidden, and content waiting to be approved.
     

    We're still on course for a release of Invision Community in early 2024 and can't wait for you to experience the future of forums.
    What has been your favourite feature so far? I'd love to know; drop a comment below!
  30. Like
    Matt got a reaction from Ehren for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: The story so far...   
    Just six short weeks ago, Ehren hit record on a video that changed everything for Invision Community.
    The blog was called "Introducing a fresh new vision for Invision Community 5," and it ripped up the rule book on what forums should look like and revealed a slick new look featuring a new forum home feed view and sidebar navigation.
    A lot has been discussed, but we're not even close to done!
    Before we bring you news of more features after Thanksgiving, I wanted to take a mid-season break to recap what we've seen so far.
    First up was the introduction video, which gave a broad overview of the new UI Invision Community 5 would be sporting. Ehren takes us through many new elements, including the sidebar navigation, forum feed view, simplified post view and more.
     
     
    Up next was a focus on dark mode, accessibility and mobile views. Invision Community 5 features the ability to have native dark mode without additional themes or complex variables to set up. Our aim with Invision Community 5 is to hide the complexities and technology and just let you focus on creating a great community experience for your audience.
     
     
    Bringing complex theming to everyone was the message in the blog talking about the new theme editor. Now, you can make wide-ranging changes to your theme without the need to edit CSS or manage HTML templates, all driven by a smart and simple interface.
     
     
    Next, it was my turn to talk about a new feature. I introduced two new features designed to help those who run support-based communities. Finding the most helpful answers and identifying community experts help your members do more with less time and frustration.
     
     
    Last week, Ehren demonstrated our new icon and badge builder, which is an amazingly powerful tool to produce slick and professional badges along with the ability to customize your community further with emojis and icons for menus, reactions and more. Building ways to reduce the barrier to customization has been a strong theme for Invision Community 5.
     
     
    Phew!
    We can all agree that we've showcased a lot of impressive functionality coming with Invision Community 5 already.
    But what does the future hold?
    Lots! We have a lot of new functionality that we're putting the finishing touches on, and we can't wait to show you more. These new features further help to reduce noise in topics, make the community feel alive and bring long-needed updates to core components such as the editor. Not to mention, there is a significant update to Pages underway.
    We also have a lot of less flashy updates, such as the new consolidated Feature/Our Picks feature, which is now a single feature.
     
    Feature-window.mp4
     
    An improved Moderators Control Panel brings a more uniform experience across deleted, hidden, and content waiting to be approved.
     

    We're still on course for a release of Invision Community in early 2024 and can't wait for you to experience the future of forums.
    What has been your favourite feature so far? I'd love to know; drop a comment below!
  31. Like
    Matt got a reaction from Donnie95 for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: The story so far...   
    Just six short weeks ago, Ehren hit record on a video that changed everything for Invision Community.
    The blog was called "Introducing a fresh new vision for Invision Community 5," and it ripped up the rule book on what forums should look like and revealed a slick new look featuring a new forum home feed view and sidebar navigation.
    A lot has been discussed, but we're not even close to done!
    Before we bring you news of more features after Thanksgiving, I wanted to take a mid-season break to recap what we've seen so far.
    First up was the introduction video, which gave a broad overview of the new UI Invision Community 5 would be sporting. Ehren takes us through many new elements, including the sidebar navigation, forum feed view, simplified post view and more.
     
     
    Up next was a focus on dark mode, accessibility and mobile views. Invision Community 5 features the ability to have native dark mode without additional themes or complex variables to set up. Our aim with Invision Community 5 is to hide the complexities and technology and just let you focus on creating a great community experience for your audience.
     
     
    Bringing complex theming to everyone was the message in the blog talking about the new theme editor. Now, you can make wide-ranging changes to your theme without the need to edit CSS or manage HTML templates, all driven by a smart and simple interface.
     
     
    Next, it was my turn to talk about a new feature. I introduced two new features designed to help those who run support-based communities. Finding the most helpful answers and identifying community experts help your members do more with less time and frustration.
     
     
    Last week, Ehren demonstrated our new icon and badge builder, which is an amazingly powerful tool to produce slick and professional badges along with the ability to customize your community further with emojis and icons for menus, reactions and more. Building ways to reduce the barrier to customization has been a strong theme for Invision Community 5.
     
     
    Phew!
    We can all agree that we've showcased a lot of impressive functionality coming with Invision Community 5 already.
    But what does the future hold?
    Lots! We have a lot of new functionality that we're putting the finishing touches on, and we can't wait to show you more. These new features further help to reduce noise in topics, make the community feel alive and bring long-needed updates to core components such as the editor. Not to mention, there is a significant update to Pages underway.
    We also have a lot of less flashy updates, such as the new consolidated Feature/Our Picks feature, which is now a single feature.
     
    Feature-window.mp4
     
    An improved Moderators Control Panel brings a more uniform experience across deleted, hidden, and content waiting to be approved.
     

    We're still on course for a release of Invision Community in early 2024 and can't wait for you to experience the future of forums.
    What has been your favourite feature so far? I'd love to know; drop a comment below!
  32. Like
    Matt got a reaction from onlyME for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: The story so far...   
    Just six short weeks ago, Ehren hit record on a video that changed everything for Invision Community.
    The blog was called "Introducing a fresh new vision for Invision Community 5," and it ripped up the rule book on what forums should look like and revealed a slick new look featuring a new forum home feed view and sidebar navigation.
    A lot has been discussed, but we're not even close to done!
    Before we bring you news of more features after Thanksgiving, I wanted to take a mid-season break to recap what we've seen so far.
    First up was the introduction video, which gave a broad overview of the new UI Invision Community 5 would be sporting. Ehren takes us through many new elements, including the sidebar navigation, forum feed view, simplified post view and more.
     
     
    Up next was a focus on dark mode, accessibility and mobile views. Invision Community 5 features the ability to have native dark mode without additional themes or complex variables to set up. Our aim with Invision Community 5 is to hide the complexities and technology and just let you focus on creating a great community experience for your audience.
     
     
    Bringing complex theming to everyone was the message in the blog talking about the new theme editor. Now, you can make wide-ranging changes to your theme without the need to edit CSS or manage HTML templates, all driven by a smart and simple interface.
     
     
    Next, it was my turn to talk about a new feature. I introduced two new features designed to help those who run support-based communities. Finding the most helpful answers and identifying community experts help your members do more with less time and frustration.
     
     
    Last week, Ehren demonstrated our new icon and badge builder, which is an amazingly powerful tool to produce slick and professional badges along with the ability to customize your community further with emojis and icons for menus, reactions and more. Building ways to reduce the barrier to customization has been a strong theme for Invision Community 5.
     
     
    Phew!
    We can all agree that we've showcased a lot of impressive functionality coming with Invision Community 5 already.
    But what does the future hold?
    Lots! We have a lot of new functionality that we're putting the finishing touches on, and we can't wait to show you more. These new features further help to reduce noise in topics, make the community feel alive and bring long-needed updates to core components such as the editor. Not to mention, there is a significant update to Pages underway.
    We also have a lot of less flashy updates, such as the new consolidated Feature/Our Picks feature, which is now a single feature.
     
    Feature-window.mp4
     
    An improved Moderators Control Panel brings a more uniform experience across deleted, hidden, and content waiting to be approved.
     

    We're still on course for a release of Invision Community in early 2024 and can't wait for you to experience the future of forums.
    What has been your favourite feature so far? I'd love to know; drop a comment below!
  33. Like
    Matt got a reaction from 403 - Forbiddeen for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: The story so far...   
    Just six short weeks ago, Ehren hit record on a video that changed everything for Invision Community.
    The blog was called "Introducing a fresh new vision for Invision Community 5," and it ripped up the rule book on what forums should look like and revealed a slick new look featuring a new forum home feed view and sidebar navigation.
    A lot has been discussed, but we're not even close to done!
    Before we bring you news of more features after Thanksgiving, I wanted to take a mid-season break to recap what we've seen so far.
    First up was the introduction video, which gave a broad overview of the new UI Invision Community 5 would be sporting. Ehren takes us through many new elements, including the sidebar navigation, forum feed view, simplified post view and more.
     
     
    Up next was a focus on dark mode, accessibility and mobile views. Invision Community 5 features the ability to have native dark mode without additional themes or complex variables to set up. Our aim with Invision Community 5 is to hide the complexities and technology and just let you focus on creating a great community experience for your audience.
     
     
    Bringing complex theming to everyone was the message in the blog talking about the new theme editor. Now, you can make wide-ranging changes to your theme without the need to edit CSS or manage HTML templates, all driven by a smart and simple interface.
     
     
    Next, it was my turn to talk about a new feature. I introduced two new features designed to help those who run support-based communities. Finding the most helpful answers and identifying community experts help your members do more with less time and frustration.
     
     
    Last week, Ehren demonstrated our new icon and badge builder, which is an amazingly powerful tool to produce slick and professional badges along with the ability to customize your community further with emojis and icons for menus, reactions and more. Building ways to reduce the barrier to customization has been a strong theme for Invision Community 5.
     
     
    Phew!
    We can all agree that we've showcased a lot of impressive functionality coming with Invision Community 5 already.
    But what does the future hold?
    Lots! We have a lot of new functionality that we're putting the finishing touches on, and we can't wait to show you more. These new features further help to reduce noise in topics, make the community feel alive and bring long-needed updates to core components such as the editor. Not to mention, there is a significant update to Pages underway.
    We also have a lot of less flashy updates, such as the new consolidated Feature/Our Picks feature, which is now a single feature.
     
    Feature-window.mp4
     
    An improved Moderators Control Panel brings a more uniform experience across deleted, hidden, and content waiting to be approved.
     

    We're still on course for a release of Invision Community in early 2024 and can't wait for you to experience the future of forums.
    What has been your favourite feature so far? I'd love to know; drop a comment below!
  34. Like
    Matt got a reaction from Marc Stridgen for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: The story so far...   
    Just six short weeks ago, Ehren hit record on a video that changed everything for Invision Community.
    The blog was called "Introducing a fresh new vision for Invision Community 5," and it ripped up the rule book on what forums should look like and revealed a slick new look featuring a new forum home feed view and sidebar navigation.
    A lot has been discussed, but we're not even close to done!
    Before we bring you news of more features after Thanksgiving, I wanted to take a mid-season break to recap what we've seen so far.
    First up was the introduction video, which gave a broad overview of the new UI Invision Community 5 would be sporting. Ehren takes us through many new elements, including the sidebar navigation, forum feed view, simplified post view and more.
     
     
    Up next was a focus on dark mode, accessibility and mobile views. Invision Community 5 features the ability to have native dark mode without additional themes or complex variables to set up. Our aim with Invision Community 5 is to hide the complexities and technology and just let you focus on creating a great community experience for your audience.
     
     
    Bringing complex theming to everyone was the message in the blog talking about the new theme editor. Now, you can make wide-ranging changes to your theme without the need to edit CSS or manage HTML templates, all driven by a smart and simple interface.
     
     
    Next, it was my turn to talk about a new feature. I introduced two new features designed to help those who run support-based communities. Finding the most helpful answers and identifying community experts help your members do more with less time and frustration.
     
     
    Last week, Ehren demonstrated our new icon and badge builder, which is an amazingly powerful tool to produce slick and professional badges along with the ability to customize your community further with emojis and icons for menus, reactions and more. Building ways to reduce the barrier to customization has been a strong theme for Invision Community 5.
     
     
    Phew!
    We can all agree that we've showcased a lot of impressive functionality coming with Invision Community 5 already.
    But what does the future hold?
    Lots! We have a lot of new functionality that we're putting the finishing touches on, and we can't wait to show you more. These new features further help to reduce noise in topics, make the community feel alive and bring long-needed updates to core components such as the editor. Not to mention, there is a significant update to Pages underway.
    We also have a lot of less flashy updates, such as the new consolidated Feature/Our Picks feature, which is now a single feature.
     
    Feature-window.mp4
     
    An improved Moderators Control Panel brings a more uniform experience across deleted, hidden, and content waiting to be approved.
     

    We're still on course for a release of Invision Community in early 2024 and can't wait for you to experience the future of forums.
    What has been your favourite feature so far? I'd love to know; drop a comment below!
  35. Like
    Matt got a reaction from DawPi for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: The story so far...   
    Just six short weeks ago, Ehren hit record on a video that changed everything for Invision Community.
    The blog was called "Introducing a fresh new vision for Invision Community 5," and it ripped up the rule book on what forums should look like and revealed a slick new look featuring a new forum home feed view and sidebar navigation.
    A lot has been discussed, but we're not even close to done!
    Before we bring you news of more features after Thanksgiving, I wanted to take a mid-season break to recap what we've seen so far.
    First up was the introduction video, which gave a broad overview of the new UI Invision Community 5 would be sporting. Ehren takes us through many new elements, including the sidebar navigation, forum feed view, simplified post view and more.
     
     
    Up next was a focus on dark mode, accessibility and mobile views. Invision Community 5 features the ability to have native dark mode without additional themes or complex variables to set up. Our aim with Invision Community 5 is to hide the complexities and technology and just let you focus on creating a great community experience for your audience.
     
     
    Bringing complex theming to everyone was the message in the blog talking about the new theme editor. Now, you can make wide-ranging changes to your theme without the need to edit CSS or manage HTML templates, all driven by a smart and simple interface.
     
     
    Next, it was my turn to talk about a new feature. I introduced two new features designed to help those who run support-based communities. Finding the most helpful answers and identifying community experts help your members do more with less time and frustration.
     
     
    Last week, Ehren demonstrated our new icon and badge builder, which is an amazingly powerful tool to produce slick and professional badges along with the ability to customize your community further with emojis and icons for menus, reactions and more. Building ways to reduce the barrier to customization has been a strong theme for Invision Community 5.
     
     
    Phew!
    We can all agree that we've showcased a lot of impressive functionality coming with Invision Community 5 already.
    But what does the future hold?
    Lots! We have a lot of new functionality that we're putting the finishing touches on, and we can't wait to show you more. These new features further help to reduce noise in topics, make the community feel alive and bring long-needed updates to core components such as the editor. Not to mention, there is a significant update to Pages underway.
    We also have a lot of less flashy updates, such as the new consolidated Feature/Our Picks feature, which is now a single feature.
     
    Feature-window.mp4
     
    An improved Moderators Control Panel brings a more uniform experience across deleted, hidden, and content waiting to be approved.
     

    We're still on course for a release of Invision Community in early 2024 and can't wait for you to experience the future of forums.
    What has been your favourite feature so far? I'd love to know; drop a comment below!
  36. Thanks
    Matt got a reaction from Chris59 for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: The story so far...   
    Just six short weeks ago, Ehren hit record on a video that changed everything for Invision Community.
    The blog was called "Introducing a fresh new vision for Invision Community 5," and it ripped up the rule book on what forums should look like and revealed a slick new look featuring a new forum home feed view and sidebar navigation.
    A lot has been discussed, but we're not even close to done!
    Before we bring you news of more features after Thanksgiving, I wanted to take a mid-season break to recap what we've seen so far.
    First up was the introduction video, which gave a broad overview of the new UI Invision Community 5 would be sporting. Ehren takes us through many new elements, including the sidebar navigation, forum feed view, simplified post view and more.
     
     
    Up next was a focus on dark mode, accessibility and mobile views. Invision Community 5 features the ability to have native dark mode without additional themes or complex variables to set up. Our aim with Invision Community 5 is to hide the complexities and technology and just let you focus on creating a great community experience for your audience.
     
     
    Bringing complex theming to everyone was the message in the blog talking about the new theme editor. Now, you can make wide-ranging changes to your theme without the need to edit CSS or manage HTML templates, all driven by a smart and simple interface.
     
     
    Next, it was my turn to talk about a new feature. I introduced two new features designed to help those who run support-based communities. Finding the most helpful answers and identifying community experts help your members do more with less time and frustration.
     
     
    Last week, Ehren demonstrated our new icon and badge builder, which is an amazingly powerful tool to produce slick and professional badges along with the ability to customize your community further with emojis and icons for menus, reactions and more. Building ways to reduce the barrier to customization has been a strong theme for Invision Community 5.
     
     
    Phew!
    We can all agree that we've showcased a lot of impressive functionality coming with Invision Community 5 already.
    But what does the future hold?
    Lots! We have a lot of new functionality that we're putting the finishing touches on, and we can't wait to show you more. These new features further help to reduce noise in topics, make the community feel alive and bring long-needed updates to core components such as the editor. Not to mention, there is a significant update to Pages underway.
    We also have a lot of less flashy updates, such as the new consolidated Feature/Our Picks feature, which is now a single feature.
     
    Feature-window.mp4
     
    An improved Moderators Control Panel brings a more uniform experience across deleted, hidden, and content waiting to be approved.
     

    We're still on course for a release of Invision Community in early 2024 and can't wait for you to experience the future of forums.
    What has been your favourite feature so far? I'd love to know; drop a comment below!
  37. Like
    Matt got a reaction from SeNioR- for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: The story so far...   
    Just six short weeks ago, Ehren hit record on a video that changed everything for Invision Community.
    The blog was called "Introducing a fresh new vision for Invision Community 5," and it ripped up the rule book on what forums should look like and revealed a slick new look featuring a new forum home feed view and sidebar navigation.
    A lot has been discussed, but we're not even close to done!
    Before we bring you news of more features after Thanksgiving, I wanted to take a mid-season break to recap what we've seen so far.
    First up was the introduction video, which gave a broad overview of the new UI Invision Community 5 would be sporting. Ehren takes us through many new elements, including the sidebar navigation, forum feed view, simplified post view and more.
     
     
    Up next was a focus on dark mode, accessibility and mobile views. Invision Community 5 features the ability to have native dark mode without additional themes or complex variables to set up. Our aim with Invision Community 5 is to hide the complexities and technology and just let you focus on creating a great community experience for your audience.
     
     
    Bringing complex theming to everyone was the message in the blog talking about the new theme editor. Now, you can make wide-ranging changes to your theme without the need to edit CSS or manage HTML templates, all driven by a smart and simple interface.
     
     
    Next, it was my turn to talk about a new feature. I introduced two new features designed to help those who run support-based communities. Finding the most helpful answers and identifying community experts help your members do more with less time and frustration.
     
     
    Last week, Ehren demonstrated our new icon and badge builder, which is an amazingly powerful tool to produce slick and professional badges along with the ability to customize your community further with emojis and icons for menus, reactions and more. Building ways to reduce the barrier to customization has been a strong theme for Invision Community 5.
     
     
    Phew!
    We can all agree that we've showcased a lot of impressive functionality coming with Invision Community 5 already.
    But what does the future hold?
    Lots! We have a lot of new functionality that we're putting the finishing touches on, and we can't wait to show you more. These new features further help to reduce noise in topics, make the community feel alive and bring long-needed updates to core components such as the editor. Not to mention, there is a significant update to Pages underway.
    We also have a lot of less flashy updates, such as the new consolidated Feature/Our Picks feature, which is now a single feature.
     
    Feature-window.mp4
     
    An improved Moderators Control Panel brings a more uniform experience across deleted, hidden, and content waiting to be approved.
     

    We're still on course for a release of Invision Community in early 2024 and can't wait for you to experience the future of forums.
    What has been your favourite feature so far? I'd love to know; drop a comment below!
  38. Like
    Matt got a reaction from Cedric V for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: The story so far...   
    Just six short weeks ago, Ehren hit record on a video that changed everything for Invision Community.
    The blog was called "Introducing a fresh new vision for Invision Community 5," and it ripped up the rule book on what forums should look like and revealed a slick new look featuring a new forum home feed view and sidebar navigation.
    A lot has been discussed, but we're not even close to done!
    Before we bring you news of more features after Thanksgiving, I wanted to take a mid-season break to recap what we've seen so far.
    First up was the introduction video, which gave a broad overview of the new UI Invision Community 5 would be sporting. Ehren takes us through many new elements, including the sidebar navigation, forum feed view, simplified post view and more.
     
     
    Up next was a focus on dark mode, accessibility and mobile views. Invision Community 5 features the ability to have native dark mode without additional themes or complex variables to set up. Our aim with Invision Community 5 is to hide the complexities and technology and just let you focus on creating a great community experience for your audience.
     
     
    Bringing complex theming to everyone was the message in the blog talking about the new theme editor. Now, you can make wide-ranging changes to your theme without the need to edit CSS or manage HTML templates, all driven by a smart and simple interface.
     
     
    Next, it was my turn to talk about a new feature. I introduced two new features designed to help those who run support-based communities. Finding the most helpful answers and identifying community experts help your members do more with less time and frustration.
     
     
    Last week, Ehren demonstrated our new icon and badge builder, which is an amazingly powerful tool to produce slick and professional badges along with the ability to customize your community further with emojis and icons for menus, reactions and more. Building ways to reduce the barrier to customization has been a strong theme for Invision Community 5.
     
     
    Phew!
    We can all agree that we've showcased a lot of impressive functionality coming with Invision Community 5 already.
    But what does the future hold?
    Lots! We have a lot of new functionality that we're putting the finishing touches on, and we can't wait to show you more. These new features further help to reduce noise in topics, make the community feel alive and bring long-needed updates to core components such as the editor. Not to mention, there is a significant update to Pages underway.
    We also have a lot of less flashy updates, such as the new consolidated Feature/Our Picks feature, which is now a single feature.
     
    Feature-window.mp4
     
    An improved Moderators Control Panel brings a more uniform experience across deleted, hidden, and content waiting to be approved.
     

    We're still on course for a release of Invision Community in early 2024 and can't wait for you to experience the future of forums.
    What has been your favourite feature so far? I'd love to know; drop a comment below!
  39. Like
    Matt got a reaction from NZyan for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Finding community experts   
    Long ago, back in the dark ages, forums used the number of posts a member made and how long ago they joined to demonstrate trust and experience.
    Is simply posting a lot and being a member for a long time the best way to know which community members are experts?
    And is there a better way?
    We think so.
     
     
    What makes an expert, and why are they important?
    Community experts are the keystones to any thriving community. You probably recognise a handful in your community. They tend to be active regularly, are often the first to try and help others with their questions and help set a positive example within the community.
    Wouldn't it be great if newer community members could discover who these super users were a little easier? These members trying to find their feet in a new community could follow trustworthy individuals, absorb the positive tone of the community, and even get help a little quicker.
    In the past, forums have shown trust and experience through basic metrics like post count and the years since they joined. However, these metrics only show that the individual has been around a long time and posts a lot. It doesn't show that they are potential role models or helpful and trustworthy.
    Community Experts with Invision Community 5
    Invision Community 5 identifies these experts through metrics such as the number of solutions they have, the volume of 'helpful' votes on their replies, the speed of answers and more.
    Each forum will have its own experts, so if you have a very broad community, someone who is very helpful in a particular area will show as an expert in that area only.
    When a member has been picked as an expert, they'll receive an email thanking them, and they can then opt-in to be shown as an expert along with a regular notification or email with any unanswered questions in forums they are experts in.

    I'm absolutely killing it in the Test Forum
    Every few months, the experts are recalculated to reflect the organic way communities grow and change. After all, there's little point in showing that a non-active member is an expert. It might even encourage new community experts to keep up the great work and remain active longer.

    Community experts have a badge shown with their posts, along with the option to follow them. Encouraging new members to follow trusted community members should be a core part of any community strategy.
    Settings and control
    Of course, not everyone should be labelled as a community expert, and perhaps, in very rare circumstances, an existing community expert could have a bad day and not represent the community well.
    Invision Community 5 gives you the ability to set which groups experts can be picked from and offers you the opportunity to block existing experts, ensuring they won't be selected again in the future.

    Over to you
    All communities have to be purposeful and provide value. That value may be in close friendships, or it may be in getting answers for problems you have. Either way, locating the most helpful members will help develop trust, provide guidance and increase knowledge within your community.
    For transactional communities such as support-based communities, experts are vital in providing timely answers and demonstrating credibility and expertise to others.
    As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Please let us know in the comments.
     
  40. Like
    Matt got a reaction from mountaininteractive for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Finding community experts   
    Long ago, back in the dark ages, forums used the number of posts a member made and how long ago they joined to demonstrate trust and experience.
    Is simply posting a lot and being a member for a long time the best way to know which community members are experts?
    And is there a better way?
    We think so.
     
     
    What makes an expert, and why are they important?
    Community experts are the keystones to any thriving community. You probably recognise a handful in your community. They tend to be active regularly, are often the first to try and help others with their questions and help set a positive example within the community.
    Wouldn't it be great if newer community members could discover who these super users were a little easier? These members trying to find their feet in a new community could follow trustworthy individuals, absorb the positive tone of the community, and even get help a little quicker.
    In the past, forums have shown trust and experience through basic metrics like post count and the years since they joined. However, these metrics only show that the individual has been around a long time and posts a lot. It doesn't show that they are potential role models or helpful and trustworthy.
    Community Experts with Invision Community 5
    Invision Community 5 identifies these experts through metrics such as the number of solutions they have, the volume of 'helpful' votes on their replies, the speed of answers and more.
    Each forum will have its own experts, so if you have a very broad community, someone who is very helpful in a particular area will show as an expert in that area only.
    When a member has been picked as an expert, they'll receive an email thanking them, and they can then opt-in to be shown as an expert along with a regular notification or email with any unanswered questions in forums they are experts in.

    I'm absolutely killing it in the Test Forum
    Every few months, the experts are recalculated to reflect the organic way communities grow and change. After all, there's little point in showing that a non-active member is an expert. It might even encourage new community experts to keep up the great work and remain active longer.

    Community experts have a badge shown with their posts, along with the option to follow them. Encouraging new members to follow trusted community members should be a core part of any community strategy.
    Settings and control
    Of course, not everyone should be labelled as a community expert, and perhaps, in very rare circumstances, an existing community expert could have a bad day and not represent the community well.
    Invision Community 5 gives you the ability to set which groups experts can be picked from and offers you the opportunity to block existing experts, ensuring they won't be selected again in the future.

    Over to you
    All communities have to be purposeful and provide value. That value may be in close friendships, or it may be in getting answers for problems you have. Either way, locating the most helpful members will help develop trust, provide guidance and increase knowledge within your community.
    For transactional communities such as support-based communities, experts are vital in providing timely answers and demonstrating credibility and expertise to others.
    As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Please let us know in the comments.
     
  41. Like
    Matt got a reaction from ASTRAPI for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Finding community experts   
    Long ago, back in the dark ages, forums used the number of posts a member made and how long ago they joined to demonstrate trust and experience.
    Is simply posting a lot and being a member for a long time the best way to know which community members are experts?
    And is there a better way?
    We think so.
     
     
    What makes an expert, and why are they important?
    Community experts are the keystones to any thriving community. You probably recognise a handful in your community. They tend to be active regularly, are often the first to try and help others with their questions and help set a positive example within the community.
    Wouldn't it be great if newer community members could discover who these super users were a little easier? These members trying to find their feet in a new community could follow trustworthy individuals, absorb the positive tone of the community, and even get help a little quicker.
    In the past, forums have shown trust and experience through basic metrics like post count and the years since they joined. However, these metrics only show that the individual has been around a long time and posts a lot. It doesn't show that they are potential role models or helpful and trustworthy.
    Community Experts with Invision Community 5
    Invision Community 5 identifies these experts through metrics such as the number of solutions they have, the volume of 'helpful' votes on their replies, the speed of answers and more.
    Each forum will have its own experts, so if you have a very broad community, someone who is very helpful in a particular area will show as an expert in that area only.
    When a member has been picked as an expert, they'll receive an email thanking them, and they can then opt-in to be shown as an expert along with a regular notification or email with any unanswered questions in forums they are experts in.

    I'm absolutely killing it in the Test Forum
    Every few months, the experts are recalculated to reflect the organic way communities grow and change. After all, there's little point in showing that a non-active member is an expert. It might even encourage new community experts to keep up the great work and remain active longer.

    Community experts have a badge shown with their posts, along with the option to follow them. Encouraging new members to follow trusted community members should be a core part of any community strategy.
    Settings and control
    Of course, not everyone should be labelled as a community expert, and perhaps, in very rare circumstances, an existing community expert could have a bad day and not represent the community well.
    Invision Community 5 gives you the ability to set which groups experts can be picked from and offers you the opportunity to block existing experts, ensuring they won't be selected again in the future.

    Over to you
    All communities have to be purposeful and provide value. That value may be in close friendships, or it may be in getting answers for problems you have. Either way, locating the most helpful members will help develop trust, provide guidance and increase knowledge within your community.
    For transactional communities such as support-based communities, experts are vital in providing timely answers and demonstrating credibility and expertise to others.
    As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Please let us know in the comments.
     
  42. Like
    Matt got a reaction from Ramsesx for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Finding community experts   
    Long ago, back in the dark ages, forums used the number of posts a member made and how long ago they joined to demonstrate trust and experience.
    Is simply posting a lot and being a member for a long time the best way to know which community members are experts?
    And is there a better way?
    We think so.
     
     
    What makes an expert, and why are they important?
    Community experts are the keystones to any thriving community. You probably recognise a handful in your community. They tend to be active regularly, are often the first to try and help others with their questions and help set a positive example within the community.
    Wouldn't it be great if newer community members could discover who these super users were a little easier? These members trying to find their feet in a new community could follow trustworthy individuals, absorb the positive tone of the community, and even get help a little quicker.
    In the past, forums have shown trust and experience through basic metrics like post count and the years since they joined. However, these metrics only show that the individual has been around a long time and posts a lot. It doesn't show that they are potential role models or helpful and trustworthy.
    Community Experts with Invision Community 5
    Invision Community 5 identifies these experts through metrics such as the number of solutions they have, the volume of 'helpful' votes on their replies, the speed of answers and more.
    Each forum will have its own experts, so if you have a very broad community, someone who is very helpful in a particular area will show as an expert in that area only.
    When a member has been picked as an expert, they'll receive an email thanking them, and they can then opt-in to be shown as an expert along with a regular notification or email with any unanswered questions in forums they are experts in.

    I'm absolutely killing it in the Test Forum
    Every few months, the experts are recalculated to reflect the organic way communities grow and change. After all, there's little point in showing that a non-active member is an expert. It might even encourage new community experts to keep up the great work and remain active longer.

    Community experts have a badge shown with their posts, along with the option to follow them. Encouraging new members to follow trusted community members should be a core part of any community strategy.
    Settings and control
    Of course, not everyone should be labelled as a community expert, and perhaps, in very rare circumstances, an existing community expert could have a bad day and not represent the community well.
    Invision Community 5 gives you the ability to set which groups experts can be picked from and offers you the opportunity to block existing experts, ensuring they won't be selected again in the future.

    Over to you
    All communities have to be purposeful and provide value. That value may be in close friendships, or it may be in getting answers for problems you have. Either way, locating the most helpful members will help develop trust, provide guidance and increase knowledge within your community.
    For transactional communities such as support-based communities, experts are vital in providing timely answers and demonstrating credibility and expertise to others.
    As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Please let us know in the comments.
     
  43. Like
    Matt got a reaction from shahed for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Finding community experts   
    Long ago, back in the dark ages, forums used the number of posts a member made and how long ago they joined to demonstrate trust and experience.
    Is simply posting a lot and being a member for a long time the best way to know which community members are experts?
    And is there a better way?
    We think so.
     
     
    What makes an expert, and why are they important?
    Community experts are the keystones to any thriving community. You probably recognise a handful in your community. They tend to be active regularly, are often the first to try and help others with their questions and help set a positive example within the community.
    Wouldn't it be great if newer community members could discover who these super users were a little easier? These members trying to find their feet in a new community could follow trustworthy individuals, absorb the positive tone of the community, and even get help a little quicker.
    In the past, forums have shown trust and experience through basic metrics like post count and the years since they joined. However, these metrics only show that the individual has been around a long time and posts a lot. It doesn't show that they are potential role models or helpful and trustworthy.
    Community Experts with Invision Community 5
    Invision Community 5 identifies these experts through metrics such as the number of solutions they have, the volume of 'helpful' votes on their replies, the speed of answers and more.
    Each forum will have its own experts, so if you have a very broad community, someone who is very helpful in a particular area will show as an expert in that area only.
    When a member has been picked as an expert, they'll receive an email thanking them, and they can then opt-in to be shown as an expert along with a regular notification or email with any unanswered questions in forums they are experts in.

    I'm absolutely killing it in the Test Forum
    Every few months, the experts are recalculated to reflect the organic way communities grow and change. After all, there's little point in showing that a non-active member is an expert. It might even encourage new community experts to keep up the great work and remain active longer.

    Community experts have a badge shown with their posts, along with the option to follow them. Encouraging new members to follow trusted community members should be a core part of any community strategy.
    Settings and control
    Of course, not everyone should be labelled as a community expert, and perhaps, in very rare circumstances, an existing community expert could have a bad day and not represent the community well.
    Invision Community 5 gives you the ability to set which groups experts can be picked from and offers you the opportunity to block existing experts, ensuring they won't be selected again in the future.

    Over to you
    All communities have to be purposeful and provide value. That value may be in close friendships, or it may be in getting answers for problems you have. Either way, locating the most helpful members will help develop trust, provide guidance and increase knowledge within your community.
    For transactional communities such as support-based communities, experts are vital in providing timely answers and demonstrating credibility and expertise to others.
    As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Please let us know in the comments.
     
  44. Like
    Matt got a reaction from Silnei L Andrade for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Finding community experts   
    Long ago, back in the dark ages, forums used the number of posts a member made and how long ago they joined to demonstrate trust and experience.
    Is simply posting a lot and being a member for a long time the best way to know which community members are experts?
    And is there a better way?
    We think so.
     
     
    What makes an expert, and why are they important?
    Community experts are the keystones to any thriving community. You probably recognise a handful in your community. They tend to be active regularly, are often the first to try and help others with their questions and help set a positive example within the community.
    Wouldn't it be great if newer community members could discover who these super users were a little easier? These members trying to find their feet in a new community could follow trustworthy individuals, absorb the positive tone of the community, and even get help a little quicker.
    In the past, forums have shown trust and experience through basic metrics like post count and the years since they joined. However, these metrics only show that the individual has been around a long time and posts a lot. It doesn't show that they are potential role models or helpful and trustworthy.
    Community Experts with Invision Community 5
    Invision Community 5 identifies these experts through metrics such as the number of solutions they have, the volume of 'helpful' votes on their replies, the speed of answers and more.
    Each forum will have its own experts, so if you have a very broad community, someone who is very helpful in a particular area will show as an expert in that area only.
    When a member has been picked as an expert, they'll receive an email thanking them, and they can then opt-in to be shown as an expert along with a regular notification or email with any unanswered questions in forums they are experts in.

    I'm absolutely killing it in the Test Forum
    Every few months, the experts are recalculated to reflect the organic way communities grow and change. After all, there's little point in showing that a non-active member is an expert. It might even encourage new community experts to keep up the great work and remain active longer.

    Community experts have a badge shown with their posts, along with the option to follow them. Encouraging new members to follow trusted community members should be a core part of any community strategy.
    Settings and control
    Of course, not everyone should be labelled as a community expert, and perhaps, in very rare circumstances, an existing community expert could have a bad day and not represent the community well.
    Invision Community 5 gives you the ability to set which groups experts can be picked from and offers you the opportunity to block existing experts, ensuring they won't be selected again in the future.

    Over to you
    All communities have to be purposeful and provide value. That value may be in close friendships, or it may be in getting answers for problems you have. Either way, locating the most helpful members will help develop trust, provide guidance and increase knowledge within your community.
    For transactional communities such as support-based communities, experts are vital in providing timely answers and demonstrating credibility and expertise to others.
    As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Please let us know in the comments.
     
  45. Like
    Matt got a reaction from Maxxius for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Finding community experts   
    Long ago, back in the dark ages, forums used the number of posts a member made and how long ago they joined to demonstrate trust and experience.
    Is simply posting a lot and being a member for a long time the best way to know which community members are experts?
    And is there a better way?
    We think so.
     
     
    What makes an expert, and why are they important?
    Community experts are the keystones to any thriving community. You probably recognise a handful in your community. They tend to be active regularly, are often the first to try and help others with their questions and help set a positive example within the community.
    Wouldn't it be great if newer community members could discover who these super users were a little easier? These members trying to find their feet in a new community could follow trustworthy individuals, absorb the positive tone of the community, and even get help a little quicker.
    In the past, forums have shown trust and experience through basic metrics like post count and the years since they joined. However, these metrics only show that the individual has been around a long time and posts a lot. It doesn't show that they are potential role models or helpful and trustworthy.
    Community Experts with Invision Community 5
    Invision Community 5 identifies these experts through metrics such as the number of solutions they have, the volume of 'helpful' votes on their replies, the speed of answers and more.
    Each forum will have its own experts, so if you have a very broad community, someone who is very helpful in a particular area will show as an expert in that area only.
    When a member has been picked as an expert, they'll receive an email thanking them, and they can then opt-in to be shown as an expert along with a regular notification or email with any unanswered questions in forums they are experts in.

    I'm absolutely killing it in the Test Forum
    Every few months, the experts are recalculated to reflect the organic way communities grow and change. After all, there's little point in showing that a non-active member is an expert. It might even encourage new community experts to keep up the great work and remain active longer.

    Community experts have a badge shown with their posts, along with the option to follow them. Encouraging new members to follow trusted community members should be a core part of any community strategy.
    Settings and control
    Of course, not everyone should be labelled as a community expert, and perhaps, in very rare circumstances, an existing community expert could have a bad day and not represent the community well.
    Invision Community 5 gives you the ability to set which groups experts can be picked from and offers you the opportunity to block existing experts, ensuring they won't be selected again in the future.

    Over to you
    All communities have to be purposeful and provide value. That value may be in close friendships, or it may be in getting answers for problems you have. Either way, locating the most helpful members will help develop trust, provide guidance and increase knowledge within your community.
    For transactional communities such as support-based communities, experts are vital in providing timely answers and demonstrating credibility and expertise to others.
    As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Please let us know in the comments.
     
  46. Like
    Matt got a reaction from georgebkk for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Finding community experts   
    Long ago, back in the dark ages, forums used the number of posts a member made and how long ago they joined to demonstrate trust and experience.
    Is simply posting a lot and being a member for a long time the best way to know which community members are experts?
    And is there a better way?
    We think so.
     
     
    What makes an expert, and why are they important?
    Community experts are the keystones to any thriving community. You probably recognise a handful in your community. They tend to be active regularly, are often the first to try and help others with their questions and help set a positive example within the community.
    Wouldn't it be great if newer community members could discover who these super users were a little easier? These members trying to find their feet in a new community could follow trustworthy individuals, absorb the positive tone of the community, and even get help a little quicker.
    In the past, forums have shown trust and experience through basic metrics like post count and the years since they joined. However, these metrics only show that the individual has been around a long time and posts a lot. It doesn't show that they are potential role models or helpful and trustworthy.
    Community Experts with Invision Community 5
    Invision Community 5 identifies these experts through metrics such as the number of solutions they have, the volume of 'helpful' votes on their replies, the speed of answers and more.
    Each forum will have its own experts, so if you have a very broad community, someone who is very helpful in a particular area will show as an expert in that area only.
    When a member has been picked as an expert, they'll receive an email thanking them, and they can then opt-in to be shown as an expert along with a regular notification or email with any unanswered questions in forums they are experts in.

    I'm absolutely killing it in the Test Forum
    Every few months, the experts are recalculated to reflect the organic way communities grow and change. After all, there's little point in showing that a non-active member is an expert. It might even encourage new community experts to keep up the great work and remain active longer.

    Community experts have a badge shown with their posts, along with the option to follow them. Encouraging new members to follow trusted community members should be a core part of any community strategy.
    Settings and control
    Of course, not everyone should be labelled as a community expert, and perhaps, in very rare circumstances, an existing community expert could have a bad day and not represent the community well.
    Invision Community 5 gives you the ability to set which groups experts can be picked from and offers you the opportunity to block existing experts, ensuring they won't be selected again in the future.

    Over to you
    All communities have to be purposeful and provide value. That value may be in close friendships, or it may be in getting answers for problems you have. Either way, locating the most helpful members will help develop trust, provide guidance and increase knowledge within your community.
    For transactional communities such as support-based communities, experts are vital in providing timely answers and demonstrating credibility and expertise to others.
    As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Please let us know in the comments.
     
  47. Haha
    Matt got a reaction from Derzhis for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Finding community experts   
    Long ago, back in the dark ages, forums used the number of posts a member made and how long ago they joined to demonstrate trust and experience.
    Is simply posting a lot and being a member for a long time the best way to know which community members are experts?
    And is there a better way?
    We think so.
     
     
    What makes an expert, and why are they important?
    Community experts are the keystones to any thriving community. You probably recognise a handful in your community. They tend to be active regularly, are often the first to try and help others with their questions and help set a positive example within the community.
    Wouldn't it be great if newer community members could discover who these super users were a little easier? These members trying to find their feet in a new community could follow trustworthy individuals, absorb the positive tone of the community, and even get help a little quicker.
    In the past, forums have shown trust and experience through basic metrics like post count and the years since they joined. However, these metrics only show that the individual has been around a long time and posts a lot. It doesn't show that they are potential role models or helpful and trustworthy.
    Community Experts with Invision Community 5
    Invision Community 5 identifies these experts through metrics such as the number of solutions they have, the volume of 'helpful' votes on their replies, the speed of answers and more.
    Each forum will have its own experts, so if you have a very broad community, someone who is very helpful in a particular area will show as an expert in that area only.
    When a member has been picked as an expert, they'll receive an email thanking them, and they can then opt-in to be shown as an expert along with a regular notification or email with any unanswered questions in forums they are experts in.

    I'm absolutely killing it in the Test Forum
    Every few months, the experts are recalculated to reflect the organic way communities grow and change. After all, there's little point in showing that a non-active member is an expert. It might even encourage new community experts to keep up the great work and remain active longer.

    Community experts have a badge shown with their posts, along with the option to follow them. Encouraging new members to follow trusted community members should be a core part of any community strategy.
    Settings and control
    Of course, not everyone should be labelled as a community expert, and perhaps, in very rare circumstances, an existing community expert could have a bad day and not represent the community well.
    Invision Community 5 gives you the ability to set which groups experts can be picked from and offers you the opportunity to block existing experts, ensuring they won't be selected again in the future.

    Over to you
    All communities have to be purposeful and provide value. That value may be in close friendships, or it may be in getting answers for problems you have. Either way, locating the most helpful members will help develop trust, provide guidance and increase knowledge within your community.
    For transactional communities such as support-based communities, experts are vital in providing timely answers and demonstrating credibility and expertise to others.
    As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Please let us know in the comments.
     
  48. Like
    Matt got a reaction from Hisashi for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Finding community experts   
    Long ago, back in the dark ages, forums used the number of posts a member made and how long ago they joined to demonstrate trust and experience.
    Is simply posting a lot and being a member for a long time the best way to know which community members are experts?
    And is there a better way?
    We think so.
     
     
    What makes an expert, and why are they important?
    Community experts are the keystones to any thriving community. You probably recognise a handful in your community. They tend to be active regularly, are often the first to try and help others with their questions and help set a positive example within the community.
    Wouldn't it be great if newer community members could discover who these super users were a little easier? These members trying to find their feet in a new community could follow trustworthy individuals, absorb the positive tone of the community, and even get help a little quicker.
    In the past, forums have shown trust and experience through basic metrics like post count and the years since they joined. However, these metrics only show that the individual has been around a long time and posts a lot. It doesn't show that they are potential role models or helpful and trustworthy.
    Community Experts with Invision Community 5
    Invision Community 5 identifies these experts through metrics such as the number of solutions they have, the volume of 'helpful' votes on their replies, the speed of answers and more.
    Each forum will have its own experts, so if you have a very broad community, someone who is very helpful in a particular area will show as an expert in that area only.
    When a member has been picked as an expert, they'll receive an email thanking them, and they can then opt-in to be shown as an expert along with a regular notification or email with any unanswered questions in forums they are experts in.

    I'm absolutely killing it in the Test Forum
    Every few months, the experts are recalculated to reflect the organic way communities grow and change. After all, there's little point in showing that a non-active member is an expert. It might even encourage new community experts to keep up the great work and remain active longer.

    Community experts have a badge shown with their posts, along with the option to follow them. Encouraging new members to follow trusted community members should be a core part of any community strategy.
    Settings and control
    Of course, not everyone should be labelled as a community expert, and perhaps, in very rare circumstances, an existing community expert could have a bad day and not represent the community well.
    Invision Community 5 gives you the ability to set which groups experts can be picked from and offers you the opportunity to block existing experts, ensuring they won't be selected again in the future.

    Over to you
    All communities have to be purposeful and provide value. That value may be in close friendships, or it may be in getting answers for problems you have. Either way, locating the most helpful members will help develop trust, provide guidance and increase knowledge within your community.
    For transactional communities such as support-based communities, experts are vital in providing timely answers and demonstrating credibility and expertise to others.
    As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Please let us know in the comments.
     
  49. Like
    Matt got a reaction from Myr for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Finding community experts   
    Long ago, back in the dark ages, forums used the number of posts a member made and how long ago they joined to demonstrate trust and experience.
    Is simply posting a lot and being a member for a long time the best way to know which community members are experts?
    And is there a better way?
    We think so.
     
     
    What makes an expert, and why are they important?
    Community experts are the keystones to any thriving community. You probably recognise a handful in your community. They tend to be active regularly, are often the first to try and help others with their questions and help set a positive example within the community.
    Wouldn't it be great if newer community members could discover who these super users were a little easier? These members trying to find their feet in a new community could follow trustworthy individuals, absorb the positive tone of the community, and even get help a little quicker.
    In the past, forums have shown trust and experience through basic metrics like post count and the years since they joined. However, these metrics only show that the individual has been around a long time and posts a lot. It doesn't show that they are potential role models or helpful and trustworthy.
    Community Experts with Invision Community 5
    Invision Community 5 identifies these experts through metrics such as the number of solutions they have, the volume of 'helpful' votes on their replies, the speed of answers and more.
    Each forum will have its own experts, so if you have a very broad community, someone who is very helpful in a particular area will show as an expert in that area only.
    When a member has been picked as an expert, they'll receive an email thanking them, and they can then opt-in to be shown as an expert along with a regular notification or email with any unanswered questions in forums they are experts in.

    I'm absolutely killing it in the Test Forum
    Every few months, the experts are recalculated to reflect the organic way communities grow and change. After all, there's little point in showing that a non-active member is an expert. It might even encourage new community experts to keep up the great work and remain active longer.

    Community experts have a badge shown with their posts, along with the option to follow them. Encouraging new members to follow trusted community members should be a core part of any community strategy.
    Settings and control
    Of course, not everyone should be labelled as a community expert, and perhaps, in very rare circumstances, an existing community expert could have a bad day and not represent the community well.
    Invision Community 5 gives you the ability to set which groups experts can be picked from and offers you the opportunity to block existing experts, ensuring they won't be selected again in the future.

    Over to you
    All communities have to be purposeful and provide value. That value may be in close friendships, or it may be in getting answers for problems you have. Either way, locating the most helpful members will help develop trust, provide guidance and increase knowledge within your community.
    For transactional communities such as support-based communities, experts are vital in providing timely answers and demonstrating credibility and expertise to others.
    As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Please let us know in the comments.
     
  50. Like
    Matt got a reaction from Malcolm M for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Finding community experts   
    Long ago, back in the dark ages, forums used the number of posts a member made and how long ago they joined to demonstrate trust and experience.
    Is simply posting a lot and being a member for a long time the best way to know which community members are experts?
    And is there a better way?
    We think so.
     
     
    What makes an expert, and why are they important?
    Community experts are the keystones to any thriving community. You probably recognise a handful in your community. They tend to be active regularly, are often the first to try and help others with their questions and help set a positive example within the community.
    Wouldn't it be great if newer community members could discover who these super users were a little easier? These members trying to find their feet in a new community could follow trustworthy individuals, absorb the positive tone of the community, and even get help a little quicker.
    In the past, forums have shown trust and experience through basic metrics like post count and the years since they joined. However, these metrics only show that the individual has been around a long time and posts a lot. It doesn't show that they are potential role models or helpful and trustworthy.
    Community Experts with Invision Community 5
    Invision Community 5 identifies these experts through metrics such as the number of solutions they have, the volume of 'helpful' votes on their replies, the speed of answers and more.
    Each forum will have its own experts, so if you have a very broad community, someone who is very helpful in a particular area will show as an expert in that area only.
    When a member has been picked as an expert, they'll receive an email thanking them, and they can then opt-in to be shown as an expert along with a regular notification or email with any unanswered questions in forums they are experts in.

    I'm absolutely killing it in the Test Forum
    Every few months, the experts are recalculated to reflect the organic way communities grow and change. After all, there's little point in showing that a non-active member is an expert. It might even encourage new community experts to keep up the great work and remain active longer.

    Community experts have a badge shown with their posts, along with the option to follow them. Encouraging new members to follow trusted community members should be a core part of any community strategy.
    Settings and control
    Of course, not everyone should be labelled as a community expert, and perhaps, in very rare circumstances, an existing community expert could have a bad day and not represent the community well.
    Invision Community 5 gives you the ability to set which groups experts can be picked from and offers you the opportunity to block existing experts, ensuring they won't be selected again in the future.

    Over to you
    All communities have to be purposeful and provide value. That value may be in close friendships, or it may be in getting answers for problems you have. Either way, locating the most helpful members will help develop trust, provide guidance and increase knowledge within your community.
    For transactional communities such as support-based communities, experts are vital in providing timely answers and demonstrating credibility and expertise to others.
    As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Please let us know in the comments.
     
  51. Like
    Matt got a reaction from SeNioR- for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Finding community experts   
    Long ago, back in the dark ages, forums used the number of posts a member made and how long ago they joined to demonstrate trust and experience.
    Is simply posting a lot and being a member for a long time the best way to know which community members are experts?
    And is there a better way?
    We think so.
     
     
    What makes an expert, and why are they important?
    Community experts are the keystones to any thriving community. You probably recognise a handful in your community. They tend to be active regularly, are often the first to try and help others with their questions and help set a positive example within the community.
    Wouldn't it be great if newer community members could discover who these super users were a little easier? These members trying to find their feet in a new community could follow trustworthy individuals, absorb the positive tone of the community, and even get help a little quicker.
    In the past, forums have shown trust and experience through basic metrics like post count and the years since they joined. However, these metrics only show that the individual has been around a long time and posts a lot. It doesn't show that they are potential role models or helpful and trustworthy.
    Community Experts with Invision Community 5
    Invision Community 5 identifies these experts through metrics such as the number of solutions they have, the volume of 'helpful' votes on their replies, the speed of answers and more.
    Each forum will have its own experts, so if you have a very broad community, someone who is very helpful in a particular area will show as an expert in that area only.
    When a member has been picked as an expert, they'll receive an email thanking them, and they can then opt-in to be shown as an expert along with a regular notification or email with any unanswered questions in forums they are experts in.

    I'm absolutely killing it in the Test Forum
    Every few months, the experts are recalculated to reflect the organic way communities grow and change. After all, there's little point in showing that a non-active member is an expert. It might even encourage new community experts to keep up the great work and remain active longer.

    Community experts have a badge shown with their posts, along with the option to follow them. Encouraging new members to follow trusted community members should be a core part of any community strategy.
    Settings and control
    Of course, not everyone should be labelled as a community expert, and perhaps, in very rare circumstances, an existing community expert could have a bad day and not represent the community well.
    Invision Community 5 gives you the ability to set which groups experts can be picked from and offers you the opportunity to block existing experts, ensuring they won't be selected again in the future.

    Over to you
    All communities have to be purposeful and provide value. That value may be in close friendships, or it may be in getting answers for problems you have. Either way, locating the most helpful members will help develop trust, provide guidance and increase knowledge within your community.
    For transactional communities such as support-based communities, experts are vital in providing timely answers and demonstrating credibility and expertise to others.
    As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Please let us know in the comments.
     
  52. Thanks
    Matt got a reaction from vahid67 for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Finding community experts   
    Long ago, back in the dark ages, forums used the number of posts a member made and how long ago they joined to demonstrate trust and experience.
    Is simply posting a lot and being a member for a long time the best way to know which community members are experts?
    And is there a better way?
    We think so.
     
     
    What makes an expert, and why are they important?
    Community experts are the keystones to any thriving community. You probably recognise a handful in your community. They tend to be active regularly, are often the first to try and help others with their questions and help set a positive example within the community.
    Wouldn't it be great if newer community members could discover who these super users were a little easier? These members trying to find their feet in a new community could follow trustworthy individuals, absorb the positive tone of the community, and even get help a little quicker.
    In the past, forums have shown trust and experience through basic metrics like post count and the years since they joined. However, these metrics only show that the individual has been around a long time and posts a lot. It doesn't show that they are potential role models or helpful and trustworthy.
    Community Experts with Invision Community 5
    Invision Community 5 identifies these experts through metrics such as the number of solutions they have, the volume of 'helpful' votes on their replies, the speed of answers and more.
    Each forum will have its own experts, so if you have a very broad community, someone who is very helpful in a particular area will show as an expert in that area only.
    When a member has been picked as an expert, they'll receive an email thanking them, and they can then opt-in to be shown as an expert along with a regular notification or email with any unanswered questions in forums they are experts in.

    I'm absolutely killing it in the Test Forum
    Every few months, the experts are recalculated to reflect the organic way communities grow and change. After all, there's little point in showing that a non-active member is an expert. It might even encourage new community experts to keep up the great work and remain active longer.

    Community experts have a badge shown with their posts, along with the option to follow them. Encouraging new members to follow trusted community members should be a core part of any community strategy.
    Settings and control
    Of course, not everyone should be labelled as a community expert, and perhaps, in very rare circumstances, an existing community expert could have a bad day and not represent the community well.
    Invision Community 5 gives you the ability to set which groups experts can be picked from and offers you the opportunity to block existing experts, ensuring they won't be selected again in the future.

    Over to you
    All communities have to be purposeful and provide value. That value may be in close friendships, or it may be in getting answers for problems you have. Either way, locating the most helpful members will help develop trust, provide guidance and increase knowledge within your community.
    For transactional communities such as support-based communities, experts are vital in providing timely answers and demonstrating credibility and expertise to others.
    As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Please let us know in the comments.
     
  53. Like
    Matt got a reaction from Stuart Silvester for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Finding community experts   
    Long ago, back in the dark ages, forums used the number of posts a member made and how long ago they joined to demonstrate trust and experience.
    Is simply posting a lot and being a member for a long time the best way to know which community members are experts?
    And is there a better way?
    We think so.
     
     
    What makes an expert, and why are they important?
    Community experts are the keystones to any thriving community. You probably recognise a handful in your community. They tend to be active regularly, are often the first to try and help others with their questions and help set a positive example within the community.
    Wouldn't it be great if newer community members could discover who these super users were a little easier? These members trying to find their feet in a new community could follow trustworthy individuals, absorb the positive tone of the community, and even get help a little quicker.
    In the past, forums have shown trust and experience through basic metrics like post count and the years since they joined. However, these metrics only show that the individual has been around a long time and posts a lot. It doesn't show that they are potential role models or helpful and trustworthy.
    Community Experts with Invision Community 5
    Invision Community 5 identifies these experts through metrics such as the number of solutions they have, the volume of 'helpful' votes on their replies, the speed of answers and more.
    Each forum will have its own experts, so if you have a very broad community, someone who is very helpful in a particular area will show as an expert in that area only.
    When a member has been picked as an expert, they'll receive an email thanking them, and they can then opt-in to be shown as an expert along with a regular notification or email with any unanswered questions in forums they are experts in.

    I'm absolutely killing it in the Test Forum
    Every few months, the experts are recalculated to reflect the organic way communities grow and change. After all, there's little point in showing that a non-active member is an expert. It might even encourage new community experts to keep up the great work and remain active longer.

    Community experts have a badge shown with their posts, along with the option to follow them. Encouraging new members to follow trusted community members should be a core part of any community strategy.
    Settings and control
    Of course, not everyone should be labelled as a community expert, and perhaps, in very rare circumstances, an existing community expert could have a bad day and not represent the community well.
    Invision Community 5 gives you the ability to set which groups experts can be picked from and offers you the opportunity to block existing experts, ensuring they won't be selected again in the future.

    Over to you
    All communities have to be purposeful and provide value. That value may be in close friendships, or it may be in getting answers for problems you have. Either way, locating the most helpful members will help develop trust, provide guidance and increase knowledge within your community.
    For transactional communities such as support-based communities, experts are vital in providing timely answers and demonstrating credibility and expertise to others.
    As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Please let us know in the comments.
     
  54. Like
    Matt got a reaction from opentype for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Finding community experts   
    Long ago, back in the dark ages, forums used the number of posts a member made and how long ago they joined to demonstrate trust and experience.
    Is simply posting a lot and being a member for a long time the best way to know which community members are experts?
    And is there a better way?
    We think so.
     
     
    What makes an expert, and why are they important?
    Community experts are the keystones to any thriving community. You probably recognise a handful in your community. They tend to be active regularly, are often the first to try and help others with their questions and help set a positive example within the community.
    Wouldn't it be great if newer community members could discover who these super users were a little easier? These members trying to find their feet in a new community could follow trustworthy individuals, absorb the positive tone of the community, and even get help a little quicker.
    In the past, forums have shown trust and experience through basic metrics like post count and the years since they joined. However, these metrics only show that the individual has been around a long time and posts a lot. It doesn't show that they are potential role models or helpful and trustworthy.
    Community Experts with Invision Community 5
    Invision Community 5 identifies these experts through metrics such as the number of solutions they have, the volume of 'helpful' votes on their replies, the speed of answers and more.
    Each forum will have its own experts, so if you have a very broad community, someone who is very helpful in a particular area will show as an expert in that area only.
    When a member has been picked as an expert, they'll receive an email thanking them, and they can then opt-in to be shown as an expert along with a regular notification or email with any unanswered questions in forums they are experts in.

    I'm absolutely killing it in the Test Forum
    Every few months, the experts are recalculated to reflect the organic way communities grow and change. After all, there's little point in showing that a non-active member is an expert. It might even encourage new community experts to keep up the great work and remain active longer.

    Community experts have a badge shown with their posts, along with the option to follow them. Encouraging new members to follow trusted community members should be a core part of any community strategy.
    Settings and control
    Of course, not everyone should be labelled as a community expert, and perhaps, in very rare circumstances, an existing community expert could have a bad day and not represent the community well.
    Invision Community 5 gives you the ability to set which groups experts can be picked from and offers you the opportunity to block existing experts, ensuring they won't be selected again in the future.

    Over to you
    All communities have to be purposeful and provide value. That value may be in close friendships, or it may be in getting answers for problems you have. Either way, locating the most helpful members will help develop trust, provide guidance and increase knowledge within your community.
    For transactional communities such as support-based communities, experts are vital in providing timely answers and demonstrating credibility and expertise to others.
    As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Please let us know in the comments.
     
  55. Like
    Matt got a reaction from Real Hal9000 for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Finding community experts   
    Long ago, back in the dark ages, forums used the number of posts a member made and how long ago they joined to demonstrate trust and experience.
    Is simply posting a lot and being a member for a long time the best way to know which community members are experts?
    And is there a better way?
    We think so.
     
     
    What makes an expert, and why are they important?
    Community experts are the keystones to any thriving community. You probably recognise a handful in your community. They tend to be active regularly, are often the first to try and help others with their questions and help set a positive example within the community.
    Wouldn't it be great if newer community members could discover who these super users were a little easier? These members trying to find their feet in a new community could follow trustworthy individuals, absorb the positive tone of the community, and even get help a little quicker.
    In the past, forums have shown trust and experience through basic metrics like post count and the years since they joined. However, these metrics only show that the individual has been around a long time and posts a lot. It doesn't show that they are potential role models or helpful and trustworthy.
    Community Experts with Invision Community 5
    Invision Community 5 identifies these experts through metrics such as the number of solutions they have, the volume of 'helpful' votes on their replies, the speed of answers and more.
    Each forum will have its own experts, so if you have a very broad community, someone who is very helpful in a particular area will show as an expert in that area only.
    When a member has been picked as an expert, they'll receive an email thanking them, and they can then opt-in to be shown as an expert along with a regular notification or email with any unanswered questions in forums they are experts in.

    I'm absolutely killing it in the Test Forum
    Every few months, the experts are recalculated to reflect the organic way communities grow and change. After all, there's little point in showing that a non-active member is an expert. It might even encourage new community experts to keep up the great work and remain active longer.

    Community experts have a badge shown with their posts, along with the option to follow them. Encouraging new members to follow trusted community members should be a core part of any community strategy.
    Settings and control
    Of course, not everyone should be labelled as a community expert, and perhaps, in very rare circumstances, an existing community expert could have a bad day and not represent the community well.
    Invision Community 5 gives you the ability to set which groups experts can be picked from and offers you the opportunity to block existing experts, ensuring they won't be selected again in the future.

    Over to you
    All communities have to be purposeful and provide value. That value may be in close friendships, or it may be in getting answers for problems you have. Either way, locating the most helpful members will help develop trust, provide guidance and increase knowledge within your community.
    For transactional communities such as support-based communities, experts are vital in providing timely answers and demonstrating credibility and expertise to others.
    As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Please let us know in the comments.
     
  56. Like
    Matt got a reaction from Marc Stridgen for a blog entry, Invision Community 5: Finding community experts   
    Long ago, back in the dark ages, forums used the number of posts a member made and how long ago they joined to demonstrate trust and experience.
    Is simply posting a lot and being a member for a long time the best way to know which community members are experts?
    And is there a better way?
    We think so.
     
     
    What makes an expert, and why are they important?
    Community experts are the keystones to any thriving community. You probably recognise a handful in your community. They tend to be active regularly, are often the first to try and help others with their questions and help set a positive example within the community.
    Wouldn't it be great if newer community members could discover who these super users were a little easier? These members trying to find their feet in a new community could follow trustworthy individuals, absorb the positive tone of the community, and even get help a little quicker.
    In the past, forums have shown trust and experience through basic metrics like post count and the years since they joined. However, these metrics only show that the individual has been around a long time and posts a lot. It doesn't show that they are potential role models or helpful and trustworthy.
    Community Experts with Invision Community 5
    Invision Community 5 identifies these experts through metrics such as the number of solutions they have, the volume of 'helpful' votes on their replies, the speed of answers and more.
    Each forum will have its own experts, so if you have a very broad community, someone who is very helpful in a particular area will show as an expert in that area only.
    When a member has been picked as an expert, they'll receive an email thanking them, and they can then opt-in to be shown as an expert along with a regular notification or email with any unanswered questions in forums they are experts in.

    I'm absolutely killing it in the Test Forum
    Every few months, the experts are recalculated to reflect the organic way communities grow and change. After all, there's little point in showing that a non-active member is an expert. It might even encourage new community experts to keep up the great work and remain active longer.

    Community experts have a badge shown with their posts, along with the option to follow them. Encouraging new members to follow trusted community members should be a core part of any community strategy.
    Settings and control
    Of course, not everyone should be labelled as a community expert, and perhaps, in very rare circumstances, an existing community expert could have a bad day and not represent the community well.
    Invision Community 5 gives you the ability to set which groups experts can be picked from and offers you the opportunity to block existing experts, ensuring they won't be selected again in the future.

    Over to you
    All communities have to be purposeful and provide value. That value may be in close friendships, or it may be in getting answers for problems you have. Either way, locating the most helpful members will help develop trust, provide guidance and increase knowledge within your community.
    For transactional communities such as support-based communities, experts are vital in providing timely answers and demonstrating credibility and expertise to others.
    As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Please let us know in the comments.
     
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