Any smart ways to reward the habits you want?

[ArtG]

In today's environment, it is a fine line between staying authentic with your members and encouraging them to build habits that serve the community. We all believe that great content will, ultimately, result in a thriving community that people come back to again and again. The reality is that none of us can consistently create great content and, even if we do, most of our members are in the lurker category.

With this in mind, I'm trying to encourage the behavior that I believe benefits our community. For example, visiting frequently, engaging, bringing new members, etc.

Let's pick one - visiting frequently. Have any of you landed on a reward for your members that visit frequently that you feel encouraged them to do so? I mean a reward that they felt strong enough they wanted that they built the habit of checking in daily.

When I was younger, playing video games, like many of you, I would grind out hours/days to get enough honor to purchase the sword I wanted. After I finally got it, the habit of checking in daily was already built so I just kept doing it. Of course, because there was a bigger sword I could get and so on.

This is the type of pull I'm trying to see if it exists with the built in or add-on world for Xenforo. Would love to hear your stories.

Thanks,

Art

 

[CedricV]

I do wonder, what’s the value in having for example 50 daily log ins, when no engagement is happening?

There is none, imo. The only good question here is, how do we get lurkers to engage on content?

The answer is simple, you provide unique content that aligns within their interests and makes them engage with it.

The execution is a whole different story, though.

What I have learned is that lurkers will be hard to convert to engaging members. And overall, members don't like to do stuff that involve a lot of effort. Most are lazy and won't bother. I do my best to post quality content such as What kind of Content works on your forum? Or more in depth advice: Forum Budgets: Smart Spending for Lasting Success - Enhancing Your Community's Appeal: Part I - Design & Setup etc
Truth is, some won't bother to take the time and reply to the thread. Others will as it has been proven on many of our discussions before.

I also believe the stuff I post (most of the time) are discussions not found elsewhere, thus making it unique content. And most of the times, those discussions lead to some interesting points, but often, they are also ignored.

It depends on the current activity, the effort people want to invest, the experience they have, etc.

 

[ArtG]

Hey thanks. I agree with all your points. No question.

In my experience, simple gamification techniques layered on top of great content yields better results than just great content alone. The entire video game industry is based on this.

I too focus on producing as unique, interesting and compelling content as possible and it does get me a small group that gets involved. However, I ran a game where I would choose a member that lived in a location that was currently snowing (last winter) and snow would appear on the site until that member came in and posted on the thread. Engagement went through the roof while playing. People came to the site daily to see who it was and they were reaching out to the actual one to go and post.

There were great posts at the same time but people showed for the game. It's not mutually exclusive. To me, the first step in creating a habit of engagement is the habit of showing up to see what's on the site.

A small reward for showing up to the site with frequency so that they can see the great content created is a smart thing to do. The challenge, for me, is trying to figure out that small reward (carrot) and how to keep it dangling long enough until the user creates the habit of visiting frequently. That's the point of my question. Has anyone had success with any particular rewards?

Of course, this won't work long if the content isn't compelling and interesting. That's a given.

 

[Arantor]

Discourse tries to do this - if you browse around a Discourse forum, you'll get a little nudge at the bottom with something to the effect of 'hey, great, we noticed you'd been taking a look around, why not join the discussions?'

Though that is more aimed at getting over the registration hurdle than the lurker conversion.

 

[CedricV]

Hey thanks. I agree with all your points. No question.

In my experience, simple gamification techniques layered on top of great content yields better results than just great content alone. The entire video game industry is based on this.

I too focus on producing as unique, interesting and compelling content as possible and it does get me a small group that gets involved. However, I ran a game where I would choose a member that lived in a location that was currently snowing (last winter) and snow would appear on the site until that member came in and posted on the thread. Engagement went through the roof while playing. People came to the site daily to see who it was and they were reaching out to the actual one to go and post.

There were great posts at the same time but people showed for the game. It's not mutually exclusive. To me, the first step in creating a habit of engagement is the habit of showing up to see what's on the site.

A small reward for showing up to the site with frequency so that they can see the great content created is a smart thing to do. The challenge, for me, is trying to figure out that small reward (carrot) and how to keep it dangling long enough until the user creates the habit of visiting frequently. That's the point of my question. Has anyone had success with any particular rewards?

Of course, this won't work long if the content isn't compelling and interesting. That's a given.

The ONLY thing I can think of is, is the use of DB's credit system and having x amount of credits per logging in per day session. That way they can spend it to services or other shop items, or any other physical goods you can offer to them. Think: mugs, or anything else that you can slap your promotion on.

But then again, in the long run, it would cost you more money then it would probably return.

 

[Ricsca]

[DBTech] DragonByte Credits

DragonByte Credits is a highly advanced credits system for XenForo that offers advanced functionality suitable for casual activity and serious eCommerce engines alike. Uses DragonByte Credits allows you to create powerful "Events" that can...

xenforo.com

 

[ArtG]

But then again, in the long run, it would cost you more money then it would probably return.

Exactly! The cost associated with SWAG or real products is too high and not worth it unless you can get free stuff.

Ideally, the reward should be virtual and be scalable so it isn't a one and done. The user gets the first, then goes for second and third and so on.

I'm very familiar with the awesome DB credit system. The question is what has been working for others? There are a lot of options with DB. Any working well?

 

[Ricsca]

Users participate more if they can have rewards…
Then the type of rewards changes from community to commuity.

 

[CedricV]

Exactly! The cost associated with SWAG or real products is too high and not worth it unless you can get free stuff.

Ideally, the reward should be virtual and be scalable so it isn't a one and done. The user gets the first, then goes for second and third and so on.

I'm very familiar with the awesome DB credit system. The question is what has been working for others? There are a lot of options with DB. Any working well?

It's a decent question but a tough one. I'm interested in reading more replies. I think if you can find a way to offer cheap products but worthwhile for your members, then you've got a good formula.

 

[Gemma]

For virtual rewards, I use the Badges addon by OzzModz - it also has a built-in tier system and can be used quite well with the user criteria option to "reward" your members for activity.



I also the Content Badges addon, again by OzzModz, this allows members to show their appreciation and reward other members for posts they feel add value to the discussion and/or site



And another OzzModz addon we use is Thread Type Rating Competition - just now I'm only using it as a Recipe of the Month placeholder but I'm going to be starting competitions for photography, artwork and creative writing in the coing weeks/months.



We also run "silent competitions", where myself and the staff run competitions without telling the members - this may be when a new feature is added (ie referrals, arcade, articles etc) or it may be when a landmark is met (birthday, post count etc) or it could be totally random where "we pull a name from a hat". We have given away £1150 in cash prizes/digital vouchers running these silent competitions.

 

[CedricV]

For virtual rewards, I use the Badges addon by OzzModz - it also has a built-in tier system and can be used quite well with the user criteria option to "reward" your members for activity.

View attachment 288935 View attachment 288934

I also the Content Badges addon, again by OzzModz, this allows members to show their appreciation and reward other members for posts they feel add value to the discussion and/or site

View attachment 288936 View attachment 288937 View attachment 288938

And another OzzModz addon we use is Thread Type Rating Competition - just now I'm only using it as a Recipe of the Month placeholder but I'm going to be starting competitions for photography, artwork and creative writing in the coing weeks/months.

View attachment 288940 View attachment 288939

We also run "silent competitions", where myself and the staff run competitions without telling the members - this may be when a new feature is added (ie referrals, arcade, articles etc) or it may be when a landmark is met (birthday, post count etc) or it could be totally random where "we pull a name from a hat". We have given away £1150 in cash prizes/digital vouchers running these silent competitions.

View attachment 288941 View attachment 288942

That's truly amazing. You never cease to amaze me, Gemma. I love the cash prize incentive. I do wonder though, is that completely out of your own pocket or revenue from your community?

 

[Gemma]

I do wonder though, is that completely out of your own pocket or revenue from your community?

Out of my own pocket. We don't make any revenue from the site other than occasionally getting donations but those go towards add-ons and hosting costs. Besides, it seems a bit rude to me to potentially give someone back their donation as a competition reward

 

[CedricV]

Out of my own pocket. We don't make any revenue from the site other than occasionally getting donations but those go towards add-ons and hosting costs. Besides, it seems a bit rude to me to potentially give someone back their donation as a competition reward

That's true. Well, it's definitely one of a kind, keep it up.

 

[Kevin]

For virtual rewards, I use the Badges

If I may ask, are you using stock emoji images, creating your own, or hire a graphics artist to create them?

 

[Gemma]

If I may ask, are you using stock emoji images, creating your own, or hire a graphics artist to create them?

Hey Kevin, hope you're well

I get my images/icons for two sites - some are free, others you have to pay for.

Free Icons and Stickers - Millions of images to download

Download Free Icons and Stickers for your projects. Images made by and for designers in PNG, SVG, EPS, PSD and CSS formats

www.flaticon.com

Icon Archive - 800,000+ free icons & stickers, PNG, SVG Downloads

Discover 800,000+ free icons. Browse icons by category, artist, popularity, date. PNG, SVG, ICO files. Share your favorites via Twitter or WhatsApp.

www.iconarchive.com

 

[Forsaken]

The two best ways I see to encourage engagement that isn't just posting good content are gamification or focusing on user reputation.

User reputation can be done with just user titles, group promotions and positive reinforcement for posting good content. A reputation/prestige system would also be good, but there really isn't a good one and I won't be able to fund one until after all my medical stuff is dealt with later this year. The downside is you tend to get elitism from certain people, so it's something that you need to closely watch.

I generally go with the gamification route as this usually works for demographics under 45, and better depending on the community. I currently use this approach on two sites, one that is gaming related, and another that is still mostly invite only but has built up 4000 users within the last year.

Both sites heavily utilize DBTech Credits and DBTech Shop. Credits put a value to basic interactions, however you have to be careful which you use as certain Credit Events can be abused (we had one person who uploaded several thousand images to earn credits once). For the gaming site we have a freemium which can be earned and a premium currency that is purchased, both that can be redeemed to use in games. There is a bigger focus on evergreen content such as guides or informative posts, but daily login (as well as login streaks) and normal posting also get encouraged.

I also use Badges and Content Badges (and Credit Integration), though I am not really using badges much for the gaming site currently as the artists that work for us are busy with other tasks currently. Content Badges are widely used on the newer site, and we see a lot of premium tips being given out as we allow users to withdrawal money to Paypal.

I use User Title Unlock which replaces the current user title ladder with one that is criteria-based. This lets us give (or sell) users custom titles that they can switch in and out as if they were using titles in a video game which they have enjoyed so far.

User Reward Calendar is used for rewarding users for daily logins for things like Christmas (I need to see if it is possible to get it updated to be more flexible, but we were in a very short time crunch when it was made). I can't find the companion add-on that tracks daily logins (which is what I use for login streaks), so it may not be released or may be in the User Reward Calendar add-on.

We use User Onboarding as well, but that isn't specific to onboarding, but we do see about an 80% introduction rate on both sites.

I cannot write a full guide as I use a lot of custom add-ons that aren't released yet or won't be released. This is a fairly general guide to what I do though, and the goal is to feed one type of gamification into another type of gamification as much as possible

1. Figure out the baseline value of all content and exclude low value content areas (introduction post replies, forum games) and incentivize higher content areas (guides, resources or any longform or evergreen content).
   • If you're using daily logins (or login streaks) make sure to figure out how much users can earn per month.
2. Set up rewards in DBTech Shop that work with your community and will encourage posting.
   • "Premium Badges" and User Titles work well for most communities.
3. Set up Badges
   • Here is a spreadsheet you can look at using to plan out your Badges; I honestly suggest you do this as it can be time consuming to set them all up. I may release a base version at some point when I am not limited on time. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...3hUfDsi1caBFb4iklYXVLEJzs/edit#gid=2054032045
   • Also decide if Badges will reward credits or not.
4. Set up title unlocks
   • The same sheet as above can be used to unlock based off of Badges, which is the way I tend to do things. You can also make custom items in DBTech Shop to unlock badges to unlock titles.
5. Set up Content Badges
   • Decide if you're going to focus on free badges, or premium badges. Also decide if you're going to allow users to withdrawal money from content badges

Figuring out the baseline credits that users will earn will let you push specific content types that you are wanting people to focus on. It also lets you plan pricing around how quickly you want people to earn credit. Keep in mind that if you sell premium credits as well, that free credits will have an equivalent monetary value (depending on how you price things) so plan around that.

Badges are more a milestone reward, and I use them to give out currency and unlock titles. This encourages posting as a badge can reward more currency than posting other content depending on how you set it up.

A big part of making this successful is having things worth buying in DBTech Shop; a lot of the custom add-ons I have are for custom product types in DBTech Shop.

Meant to post this a while back, but been sick for the past week.

 

[Vercingetorix]

Well i'm sure people have already tried this, however as i am a,......"disabled"- "Digital Outcast" according to some scientific theories, please excuse my ahhhh, computardation and refrain from discrimination.
So, incase it's somehow been overlooked, here's a simple-generalized example of what i'm currently experimemting with - using the DBT Credz & monetization. (*among other tools i'll exclude from this example)

•First off, set up various "donation campaigns"-which aren't intended for typical "donation" purposes and rather serve more like community bank funds/and awards-(*in my case, which i personally finance(*obviously each forum owner's financial situation is different and this may not be viable))

•set forum Credits to match preferred real-world currency, ie: i use NZD so thanks to the assistance of Shortie, we have made 1Credit = $0.01nz (*1Cred = 1nz cent(*doesn't seem like much—but please do be aware it may be surprising how quickly this adds up × number of users))

•set the majority of Credit Events to earn users (*whether base Registered Group or perhaps an Upgraded Group, or other) a standard +1Credit for each interactivity trigger Event - (*including Events which might usually be expected to garner more, eg: daily activity/login, birthday, paycheck, etc..)

•(*now for a trickier part, which must be adapted accordingly for each forum's situation/circumstance and especially for what you are intending to achieve)-adjust any particular Events relevant to actions & behaviours intended to be encouraged by increasing them from (*eg: +1—to—+2(*or more)Credits. (*for example, in my case, all post Reactions earn +5Credits)

•additionally, adjust a very limited number of appropriate Events to charge, for example, between 1—to—5(*or more) Credits, eg: posting a Thread could charge 5—to—10 (*or more) Credits, perhaps similarly so for Credit Withdrawal's, Up/or Downloads, etc...

•also, regardless how silly this may seem, please DO MAKE SURE ABSOLUTELY NO ONE other than yourself (*&/or financially accountable partner) are able to 'ADJUST CREDITS'—i can confirm it is a hilariously absurd hassle waking up one morning to find out the "technician" you'd hired to install/set-up DBT Credz the previous day had ENABLED THE ADJUST FUNCTION FOR EVERYONE—inevitably over the subsequent 6-8hours — one or more mischievous members has discovered 'Adjust'—thusly leading to a goonish donation party erupting and now every member has suddenly become DBT multi–multi-billionaires.

Spoiler: 🤭

Good times!

•The overall idea here is simply to encourage preferred User Interactivity & General Social Behaviours via actually utilizing the fullest possible potentials enabled with the stock DBT Credz, by simply using a base standard 1Cred incentive applied to practically every possible action, with an additional +1Cred incentive applied to that which you intend to encourage moreso than base level and to balance/limit potential financial costs as well as to enable in-forum credit/cash circulation - a reasonable charge is applied for a very limited number of arguably more "privileged" actions-&/or to effect minimization of discouraged activities/behaviours.

•Now being as i am apparently regarded as a "Digital Outcast" and which supposedly equates as "disabled", i have hereby merely described the preceding general overview in very basic terms to share a constructively intended example which can hopefully be comprehensible for both the digital fiction realm's powerful sorcerers/sorceresses all the way through to those like me who are apparently far more knowledgeable of real-world actualities and therefore "disabled"...

Alrighty, The End.

 

[Suzanne O]

I create more usergroups and put people in them.
I do have to remember though that once they're in that usergroup that they don't need to be watched 24/7 like what others do

 

[ArtG]

Thanks. Definitely some good ideas to think about here.

I guess the answer is that there isn't an easy answer to the question. What I do tease out is that some sort of reward or achievement to gamify your forum can make a difference. If that gamification is designed to encourage users to build habits that you want from them, it's a win.

What works is different for everyone.

 

[Vercingetorix]

Thanks. Definitely some good ideas to think about here.

I guess the answer is that there isn't an easy answer to the question. What I do tease out is that some sort of reward or achievement to gamify your forum can make a difference. If that gamification is designed to encourage users to build habits that you want from them, it's a win.

What works is different for everyone.

Yeah i think this is a very reasonable summary and certainly do agree with you in that there is no easy answer to your question.

Perhaps it may be a case whereby the question itself would appear to seek a clearcut answer for a potential template drawn out of a vast composite of extraordinarily complex & ever changing subjects from which may likely be impossible to ever ascertain a definitive "one size fits all" control system.

One thing i am unsure of is whether the term "habit" is ideal, simply as it implies semi-conscious automated behavioural patterns of which may not be conducive to what i would think/or at least hope - may be the preferred result being sought, ie: self-responsible behaviours & conduct.

Although this is a core characteristic developed during childhood, without which can only develop irresponsible adults who more often aggressively reject self-responsibility.

These are referred to as 'Dysfunctional Adult Children'—each & every one of us is one of these to variable degrees.

The lesser developed of us can be encouraged to conduct theirselves pseudo-"responsibly"—to a limited degree via positive reinforcement, yet the very moment positive reinforcement ceases—the pseudo-"responsibility" facade vanishes.

If such individuals are the core of a social group, including a community forum, it is possible to maintain some deree of what appears to be "control" over this collective-but at great & ever compounded cost overall.
However the actuality is that the dysfunctional group is in control—yet neither the group nor the "controllers" really comprehend any of this.

A thriving constructive social collective is impossible without a core of individuals who demonstrably actualize self-responsible conduct of their own independent volition.

This is simply my current opinion.