Forum users have tunnel vision. They're not interested in extra features.

FaithFirst said:
My pages/member doubled once I started using @******* credits. It was like 1/10th away from a 100% increase in pages/user.
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I've seen this addon, but not figured out what it's for. We use trophy points to promote users through new usergroups and I have only had negative feedback over the aspect that members have to earn privileges.
I read through the ******* resource information and still couldn't figure out the benefits. And the currency element is confusing because it implies people are loading real currency into their accounts, and we have to pay them real money for posting etc. Which is scary.
 
Dakis said:
That's an interesting find - can your members "buy" something with their credits or use them elsewhere on the site?
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I bought the premium version, integrated it with resources and allow people to buy resources which are mostly in-game items sold by other players (the forum revolves around a game within a game).
 
ForestForTrees said:
In hindsight it just seems so obvious. Why would people go to a different tab when they already get the idea of subforums?
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This is a good point, and really so much of what add-ons attempt to "add"--review scripts, for-sale scripts, and more--can be done with a board or two, and the users will actually use the functionality that way because they know it.
 
karll said:
- QuoteME ! : before 1.3 this was crucial, but even now it's got a slight edge
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I agree. I actually dislike the new "quote" feature in 1.3 because it simply is not intuitive, at least for me, and because I was used to the superb functionality of QuoteME! beforehand. My users do love that one.
 
digitalpoint said:
Bottom line... If it doesn't solve a problem of some sort, it's not worth the effort.
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This is exactly what I have found.

Certain add-ons solve problems for the community...others solve problems for the admin.

If you are looking to create something new with a new add-on...then plan on doing it yourself. For example...if you want a link directory or a wiki as a great resource...then there are add-ons to help...but the content will most likely all be added by you or a few key members that are interested. In general...the community will not just build it for you.
 
@JBS I partly agree with that. The community will build it for you if you motivate them to do so and integrate it tightly into their experience. They are not going into a new application and build a directory of any kind. But if some smart functions are added that allows them to quickly add forum content to the application, they get rewarded for it, the new content enters their daily routine in many ways, then it becomes a different story.
Members are often motivated to help others, so if we make it easy for them to contribute in a useful way and make it to their benefit as well, then there is a good chance that users will do so.
 
Alfa1 said:
@JBS
Members are often motivated to help others, so if we make it easy for them to contribute in a useful way and make it to their benefit as well, then there is a good chance that users will do so.
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Yes...I am actually in the process of doing exactly what you say.

I run a gymnastics community...the coaches are asking for a "private" forum to discuss specific coaching concerns. Since there will be good information in the new "private" coaches forum that is hidden to the general public...I am going to ask them to "help others" by building a public skill directory for gymnastics. Not really sure if I will use an add-on or just have a "skill directory" forum.

OR...I may have them build the info in the forums and then I may just copy and paste it into an add-on.

It has to be really easy for them...but I believe you are right...members are motivated to help others.
 
Alfa1 said:
@JBS I partly agree with that. The community will build it for you if you motivate them to do so and integrate it tightly into their experience. They are not going into a new application and build a directory of any kind. But if some smart functions are added that allows them to quickly add forum content to the application, they get rewarded for it, the new content enters their daily routine in many ways, then it becomes a different story.
Members are often motivated to help others, so if we make it easy for them to contribute in a useful way and make it to their benefit as well, then there is a good chance that users will do so.[emphasis mine]
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Brilliant post, Alfa1. I totally agree with you that integration is where it is at.

Alfa1 already knows this, but the two auto-link replacer addons can really help with integrating some external resources with the forum. For example, my site has a wiki, and we're going to use these tools to link to wiki pages and XenTag tag pages:
http://xenforo.com/community/resources/*******-auto-link-replacer.1529/
http://xenforo.com/community/resources/keyword-replace-by-waindigo.635/
When people see links to the wiki pages and tag pages within posts, our hope is that they start using the resources more frequently. The more they use them, the more they care about them. The first step to contributing to a community resource is knowing about it and using it.

Regarding the last phrase that I bolded, the best analysis of the sociology of forums that I have ever come across was from Richard Millington. That guy really knows his sh**.
http://moz.com/webinars/how-to-drive-activity-in-your-online-community
http://xenforo.com/community/thread...-driving-traffic-to-online-communities.66270/

He advises that the strongest factors that will drive people to contribute to resources being status and bonding. I couldn't agree more. I just joined a community for a game I play (it's called SMITE and I play it very poorly). They have an addon that allows people to write god-guides, similar to tutorials in the xenforo.com resource manager. The response has been amazing given the size of the community. Between people loving to contribute to gaming and TV sites and the status/bonding thing, they have it all covered.
http://www.smitefire.com/smite/guides
 
Actually this thread has inspired me to add Question / Answer forums to my site. But I am doing it like this:
  1. add a multiview forum as a parent to each 'on topic' forum. This displays the content of child forums.
  2. rename the on topic forum so that its clear that its for discussions.
  3. add a Questions subforum to the multiview forum.
  4. add a 'ask a question' button to forum view and replace 'post new thread' button with 'post new discussion'
  5. add a popular questions widget that shows threads from question forum with most views.
I am already using the similar threads addon which prevents the same questions. And I will add a modification to have questions in the resource manager.

It solves the problem of the forever ongoing repetitive questions. It adds 150 new nodes to my forum index and we'll need to move several hundreds of thousands of threads, but I think its worth it.
 
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