Activity Incentive

[Joshy 4,364 / 44,945]

Is it possible and would you guys be interested in a type of point system?  I've seen other forums have stuff like Trophies for achievements aside from just post count and reputation.  Below is an example.  I would like to see something more rewarding than simply having a trophy though.  I think it would be a fun idea if we could have a monthly raffle for a prize like Supporter/VIP... admittedly struggling on another award for those who already have it, but I'm open to ideas or would at least like to see a soft start to something like this (maybe at the very least can choose to gift it if you already have it).

 

If you win a trophy that month it enters you into the raffle.  More trophies each month helps your odds.  Trophies from previous months do not enter you into future raffles, which will give new people a chance too.

 

 

People on that website they win trophies for all sorts of things.  Post count.  Reputation.  Featured threads.  Hosting an event.  Attending an event.  We can add all sorts of our own things like graphics contributed such as badges or banner; also contributions or milestones by developer, etc.  We can be flexible and tune it, and since it's a raffle it's not necessarily dishing out big bucks neither would it be unfair to the typical user who would want to contribute as well.

 

[Rhysin_ 540 / 13,182]

Sounds like it'd encourage spamming and reputation farming. 
I like the idea though, it'd definitely get the forums more active, if there's some way  to prevent the possible spamming then I'm for it.

[Joshy 4,364 / 44,945]

As a reminder almost anything with incentive will have the tradeoff and risk that someone will try to abuse it.  We'll have the rules in place and handle that case by case :).  I think the typical case is that the risk will be low maybe only 3-4 very "clever" people who will try to cheat.

[Liloz01 1,256 / 19,845]

To do this, we'd need to either transfer to a new rewards system entirely (...I don't know if I have that in me) or use two at once (oh god...).

 

Seems like a lot of work for very little reward. I don't personally have the time to work on this as I'm shifting full focus to the 4.5 transition for the forseeable future (Invision Community released a large update from version 4.4 to 4.5 and everything custom on the Forum breaks because of the update (so... basically everything, lol))... and sadly no other mr Forum man exists. If the graphics team in the interim wants to pick this up and create custom reward graphics for it and people as a community want to flesh out what exactly to include in the system... go for it. I'm not against this idea, just don't expect it to be implemented any time soon.

 

Keep in mind the following thread too: 

 

[Joshy 4,364 / 44,945]

We could try it without forum features at first maybe a trial 1 or 2 months just do it as a thread and have someone manual update the thread.  I've seen it done and working well.  The thread can describe how to earn points and the OP or moderators could verify and update the thread.  Since it's not raining 100's of posts and events everyday it wouldn't be terribly hard to maintain and try out for a few months if the community was interested and leadership was willing to support it (reward the winner(s) with Supporter or VIP).

 

edit:

 

Here's where I saw it before or how I am visioning it although this was for a RuneScape clan I was in.

 

Edited November 29, 2020 by Joshy

[Dale Gribble. 62 / 2,696]

i dont have much to say so +1

[Joshy 4,364 / 44,945]

I like the StoreTM thing Liloz brought up.  I think that sounds pretty good.  Is it hard to setup / will take a while or do you think we can gather support to start something by thread?  Thanks for sharing that!

 

6 hours ago, Liloz01 said:

To do this, we'd need to either transfer to a new rewards system entirely (...I don't know if I have that in me) or use two at once (oh god...).

 

Seems like a lot of work for very little reward. I don't personally have the time to work on this as I'm shifting full focus to the 4.5 transition for the forseeable future (Invision Community released a large update from version 4.4 to 4.5 and everything custom on the Forum breaks because of the update (so... basically everything, lol))... and sadly no other mr Forum man exists. If the graphics team in the interim wants to pick this up and create custom reward graphics for it and people as a community want to flesh out what exactly to include in the system... go for it. I'm not against this idea, just don't expect it to be implemented any time soon.

 

Keep in mind the following thread too: 

 

 

 

[Darkriser 0 / 115]

Ya know, instead of that, just have special pets and skin's that can only be used if you're there for holidays. I.E. a leprechaun for St Patty's day, or a Santa player (yes, even the thotty ones), and/or pets.

[Serenity 546 / 7,380]

4 minutes ago, Darkriser said:

Ya know, instead of that, just have special pets and skin's that can only be used if you're there for holidays. I.E. a leprechaun for St Patty's day, or a Santa player (yes, even the thotty ones), and/or pets.

 

From the rewards you are suggesting, are you confusing this with incentives for in-game? If so this is about rewards for the forums, but nonetheless I like your ideas haha. 

[Darkriser 0 / 115]

6 minutes ago, Serenity said:

 

From the rewards you are suggesting, are you confusing this with incentives for in-game? If so this is about rewards for the forums, but nonetheless I like your ideas haha. 

Well, the same could apply. Have frames for your picture, or have special tags that could be added to your profile that show up on posts. You just need to post/log in on the day of.

[Serenity 546 / 7,380]

11 minutes ago, Darkriser said:

Well, the same could apply. Have frames for your picture, or have special tags that could be added to your profile that show up on posts. You just need to post/log in on the day of.

I was thinking something like this, a border (like on some steam profiles) that has a light that is shown around your profile picture would be cool. Probably not for someone who just logs in or posts, there should be a bigger requirement like most posts or most likes in a day like state above. I don't know how much work it would take to implement this but just an idea. 

Edited November 30, 2020 by Serenity

[Rena 2,779 / 33,652]

Even if we were to implement this, I don't think the forums would be as active since everyone moves over to Discord.

[Joshy 4,364 / 44,945]

I wouldn't want to limit this to forums.  I would want this to include all sorts of activity including Discord, events, and contributions such as graphics and developing.  It's activity incentive not just forum incentive  hopefully StoreTM becomes a reality thanks to Liloz but I'd love to continue discussing it in anticipation or to see if we can get a thread version of it started while it's in the works (I'm not capable of giving out free supporter/VIP on my own without blessings).  I made the font big because that's the most important part of this response, but I might go off on a tangent here sorry if I take you all around the world 🤪

 

 

 

I will make a few comments about the forums because it has been a little shaky in my opinion.  Great thing about forums is people don't have to hover it all day to spark its activity.  You could easily visit the forums and post 2-3 times per day, which isn't a lot, and you would get up to 100 posts in a month.  If you kept up at it, then up to 1000 per year.  If nobody is posting anything just lurking then yes 2-3 posts seems like a lot.  If I post something... you respond... then I respond... they respond... I could go to work and respond later tonight...  they respond tomorrow... lalala, then 2-3 very legitimate posts is a cinch and we can have some interesting discussions.  If I were saying 2-3 posts back in 2014-2105 people would be thinking this thread is a joke why do we need more people to post, but now asking for 2-3 posts is like "How do you want me to spam?" because it looks so unacheivable.

 

I don't think detailed explanation as to why forum activity is good?  I mean an example is that Discord is mostly active chat meaning that if I wanted to talk to someone who is almost never online at the same time as me, then that's going to be very frustrating compared to the forums without extra coordination; this is especially true for a large group discussion (of course back and forth on DM with a few people is a piece of cake).  If I were to dabble on ideas and want some feedback I might discuss some ideas that exclude people who are not online at the same time as me... this is probably why we have some updates and promotions people are very polarized about it because an inner circle on Discord thinks that everyone agrees with it and it looks like a great idea, but people who not in the inner circle or online at the same time are going to be completely shock.

 

Another thing too is the sentiment of the forums, but not just from wanting it to be active.  I believe that people are more likely to invest more or care more about their posts that they make compared to a passive comment on Discord.  It's not that everybody does or that they have to do it, but I do think people really think a lot more about before posting.  I wouldn't be surprised if some people put more effort into than their classroom essays that likely have a larger impact on their life than here (I might be guilty of this yikes).

Edited November 30, 2020 by Joshy

[Waylon Smithers 267 / 3,849]

just pay me x3

[Omid 215 / 5,687]

money 

[Joshy 4,364 / 44,945]

Do you guys accept monopoly money  ?

 

Seriously speaking, though, I've heard a lot of people ask about some positions literally getting paid for their roles.  Personally: I've always been a supporter, but I can see how (very) difficult it would be to implement something like that.  It's going to take a lot of work to get there because it's not a simple checkbox and just giving money or a paycheck.  I'm not sure if I'm remembering right, but GFL might be considered an official non-profit?  I know having formerly been a contractor myself at a place there are a lot of rules and my taxes were also very frustrating. 

 

I had this money thing in mind when making this suggestion.  I felt like a suggestion like this is very very very advantageous for people who are in roles.  For example: Regular members can host events as they would like (and certainly participate in them), but you're more likely going to see it from event team members; therefore team members are more likely to earn points/benefit from this even though it's fair game for everyone.  I was hoping the idea could be a kind of proof of concept that stages the pathway for bigger and more aggressive ideas.  They might not get paid directly, but they have a chance to receive something that has some type of value.

[Waylon Smithers 267 / 3,849]

idgaf I was just buggin, I'm staff already for a reason.