Community Changes New WHMCS.Community Rank Structure Rolling Out!

[WHMCS ChrisD]

Hello Everyone,

Today, we've begun the process of overhauling our WHMCS.Community Rank Structure.  Previously, limited to Newbie, Member and Level 2 Member our new structure introduces a range of new ranks including Visitors, Members, Collectors, Advisors & Contributors. Over the next few days as users log onto the community they will be migrated over to their new WHMCS.Community Rank based on their activity to date on the community.

Where the pervious structure only took Post Counts into account the new structure takes into account a number of factors including time on community, reputation points, use of tags, best answers, trophies and more.  As you continue your journey along the new ranking structure you'll find that you gain new permissions from being able to search quicker, make use of signatures, edit your own content, larger PM boxes, and other tools that help you get more out of your community experience.

Over the coming weeks we'll be monitoring the way the new structure is working and make adjustments and tweaks to ensure it's working as we planned so you may find some minor adjustments to your rank as we stabilise and iron out the kinks.

As always, whilst we do not publish the exact criteria of the ranking structure, if you do have any questions or find something that's not quite working correctly, please open a thread in the WHMCS.Community Assistance Board and we'll be happy to help you. 

Thanks for being a part of WHMCS.Community!

[brian!]

FWIW, i'm not keen on the use of "Advisors" as one of the ranks - surely, the definition of an advisor is someone who is qualified to give advice???

users making a lot of posts ASKING questions, or replying to their own threads doesn't necessarily mean that they should be giving technical advice (which calling them advisors implies) - for some users, yes that's fine... but I would have thought not for the majority of users with Advisor type ranks... therefore, using the word "Advisor" in the ranks is potentially confusing... I appreciate that you like change for changes sake, and wanted to get away from the generic use of "Members" for everyone, but using advisor just seems silly to me.

and don't get me started on "Collectors" - what are they collecting ??? 🙄

btw - why the use of US English in the titles, e.g "Honored Contributor" ?? that looks plain wrong to me.

in the meantime, i've taken the liberty of blocking these rank titles in the browser with uBlock, so i'll never have to see them again. 😎

P.S - the search function is seemingly broken, e.g if I search for knowledgebase, it's returning 7 results! if I search my local backup of threads, I can find 96 posts with knowledgebase just in the title - that's not including posts where it might be mentioned in the body.

[bear]

Have to agree there, on pretty much all points. Must admit suddenly being labeled a "Super Advisor" was a bit weird and frankly misleading.
Not easy coming up with a lot of titles to hold/generate interest, but maybe this needs a bit more thought.

[brian!]

33 minutes ago, bear said:

Not easy coming up with a lot of titles to hold/generate interest, but maybe this needs a bit more thought.

I have to say, one of the pleasing aspects of this place is that the users are generally not bothered about ranks. 👏

if they're asking a question, that user's rank is irrelevant; and if you're answering a question, the OP won't care about the rank of the person replying, just whether their answer is correct or not.... nobody is going to ignore an answer because it came from a L1 member or newbie if it's the right answer.

to give a clear demonstration of this - outside of maybe 3 or 4 members of WHMCS staff, absolutely no-one here (especially me!) cares whether I have the GearHead or "Honoured Contributor" ranks - the rank is irrelevant to the posts - the vastly increased reputation points that i've gained since not being a GearHead show that to be the case. 🤣

[WHMCS ChrisD]

My refresh of the ranks is a genuine attempt to try and drive more engagement and I’m working hard to develop more ways of doing that. The rank titles are the start of a journey in the refresh.

I understand that you are not an immediate fan of the Advisor or Collector titles. Perhaps a more constructive approach to this thread would be to suggest some alternatives you'd prefer?

Please do share your suggestions.

[zitu4life]

Well   I have   read this threat   on morning   and   now   it looks   different, but anyway,   if my   comment    is worth something,   I kindly   think  new   rank   is appreciated and   it demonstrated   some  way to value   some   users   that daily makes   this community   a better   place   to  learn,    and   to stay...I am certainly very     few   community   out-there    is     amazing like  this.   New    rank   is very appreciate, but it certainly   needs   some improves   and  we all can   bring   some inputs   to improve  it   as   Chris   suggest. But  I have also  to agree   that   word   Advisor   should not be used   without   a better   regulations, because   rank   should   be used   to value   especially    those   who deserve it more   and also   to setup   a maximum   podium. I have learned   in this world   that "thank, gratefulness, rank, money"   are   very welcome   to  demonstrate   someone  value.  (personally  I prefer   money, because everything  is easy  with that in this planet).   Coming back,   it is not  fair   seeing   a lot of users   categorized as   Advisor,   regular advisor, SUPER   ADVISOR,   when   their posts    all   related   personal   interest, or   they  only   comes  to this community   when they need personal help  and  next   6 month  they comes again...it is  not fair   compared   to who   comes here   everyday, especially    on Sundays   and   holiday   to help others    and   make   this   community   a   better  place.

Special   users   should   definitely   be recognized.

 

 

[WHMCS ChrisD]

Thanks for your feedback @zitu4life I appreciate it.

As I mentioned in the announcement we are tweaking the ranking structure over the coming weeks, so just because someone shows as an advisor now does not mean that they will show as one once the structure is fully in place, in fact we have already removed the advisor ranks at this stage as I reassess a better formula for them because it did move quite a few people into those ranks so I am working to better categorise these ranks.

I'm sure you can appreciate that it's a big curve to go from the flat structure we had to the much larger structure we have now, I'm also needing to balance off permission that people had on their old ranks vs the new ranks as these ranks do impact every aspect of your experience with the community from Private Messages to Editing Posts to using reactions, post moderation.   

It's all a bit of a balancing act but we will get there!

[bear]

5 hours ago, WHMCS ChrisD said:

Perhaps a more constructive approach to this thread would be to suggest some alternatives you'd prefer?

I was about to do so when I came across another change that has me far less interested in helping with "engagement". 
My inbox: Used 1100% messenger storage. My new limit is 2 messages. Not only that, but I've had a post removed in this thread without notice or need. It wasn't rude, disruptive, arguing, negative, advertising or anything normal moderation of a community should have flagged. 

You're the moderator, you figure it out how to "engage" people. I'd suggest severely limiting inboxes and removing posts without cause isn't the way, but hey, you're in charge.

[WHMCS ChrisD]

@bear The posts have not been removed but hidden, and they where not removed by myself I'll check on your PM box now, that shouldn't be the case at your level the limit is 125 messages 

[WHMCS ChrisD]

Inbox should be fixed now apologies for that @bear looks like I muched up when setting up the Senior Member Rank i'll check thru the others now 

[bear]

8 minutes ago, WHMCS ChrisD said:

The posts have not been removed but hidden

That's exactly the same result. It's generally called a "soft delete", which removes it from public view. 
I'd love to know what the problem was with it, but maybe I broke some hidden rule? It sure wasn't any public one...

[brian!]

19 hours ago, WHMCS ChrisD said:

My refresh of the ranks is a genuine attempt to try and drive more engagement and I’m working hard to develop more ways of doing that. The rank titles are the start of a journey in the refresh.

it's only taken you a couple of years to get to this stage of changing the ranks... it's one hell of a long journey if it's only just beginning now.

19 hours ago, WHMCS ChrisD said:

I understand that you are not an immediate fan of the Advisor or Collector titles. Perhaps a more constructive approach to this thread would be to suggest some alternatives you'd prefer?

or perhaps a more constructive approach would have been to discuss it first before implementing it?? 🙄

if I believe users think ranks are unimportant, then why should I give you suggestions for alternatives when they don't matter ???

I even lost my sarcastic "Legendary Member" tag for 90 days ROFL. 🤣

you want a suggestion Chris - to a user, is my rank, "Senior/Legendary Member" or "Honorary Contributor" ?? Is Kian a "Senior Member" or a "GearHead" ?? a casual user is not going to know which is the rank - nor will they care.

i'd argue an Advisor should outrank a Contributor, but as I said, they're all meaningless... I told you years ago that you don't need to have both visible, there's an argument you don't need either.

12 hours ago, WHMCS ChrisD said:

The posts have not been removed but hidden, and they where not removed by myself

excellent - as a matter of regular routine, I have a screenshot of the entire original thread - I find that it's always good to keep a complete unadulterated record of these things for later use - consequences of actions can, and will, work in both directions. #KTTK 😉

13 hours ago, bear said:

You're the moderator, you figure it out how to "engage" people.

absolutely correct - ideally, you engage with them before making decisions.... if ranks matter, they will speak up - if they don't, then that proves my point.

as a demonstration of that Chris, when you start other community suggestion threads - how much response do they get?? exactly! nobody is interested - there's YOUR community Chris.

users come here for one of two reasons - either they have a technical problem and they want an answer, or they're a developer and only interested in checking for new threads in SO&R, or posting about their latest addon... neither group are going to be interested in the minutiae of these forums, e.g ranks, tags etc.

12 hours ago, WHMCS ChrisD said:

I'll check on your PM box now, that shouldn't be the case at your level the limit is 125 messages 

you might want to check mine too - i've gone from 6% to 95% used.

Edited November 6, 2019 by brian!

[xyzulu]

I personally think post count is enough of a "ranking" system.

As for people that are employed, by WHMCS, well.. they just need something to indicate that (as they already do). I give little attention to a rank under a persons name. I give plenty of attention to their meaningful posts. To be blunt, "we" (whoever you may choose to put into that group) help WHMCS a lot more than I think they realize. Reward "us" with better support, or tangible things other than a fancy tagline and you might just be on to something when it comes to encouraging contributions.

PS If you want to learn about how to engage people, you'll find much material on the subject online, including plenty of contradictions. I have quite a lot of experience managing a community many times larger than this, but it's a Open Source community.. and the reasons people are there are vastly different from the reasons they are here.