tomcat
12-19-2007, 10:24 PM
I'd like to gauge the communities interest on this project idea.
I've been to a few other forum communities that reward their members with "perks" for doing anything from posting (similar to our Newbie -> Senior Member thing) to registering new members.
A problem I've noticed with the forum community, and really with any internet community, is that it can be hard for members to do anything other that hover around reading posts, or post themselves. Things that require more effort, like projects, or welcoming and initiating newcomers, are hard to accomplish. For Ron Paul to succeed human interaction is required on a grassroots level, but the majority of internet junkies struggle with sociability and are intimidated to move in that direction.
I propose this: design a system that visibly rewards forum members for their actions.
Example: Joe Schmo joins his local Meetup group. Meetup group leader confirms this to RonPaulForums.com. A "medal" of some kind is then added under the avatar/name of this forum member for all to see, and for others to gawk at or feel guilty about not being in a Meetup group themselves.
Another example: Suzie Queue works very hard and becomes a Ron Paul delegate in her state! This gets confirmed by RonPaulForums. She gets the ability to have a graphic in her signiature/her posts are highlighted to stand out/her font is of a special color/she gets a rare "medal"
Honestly, one can think of many ways to reward a member. I find this has parallels to video games like World of Warcraft, where various "loot" is the reward for accomplishing a task. The rarer the loot (and the cooler it looks), the more you want to have it.
Here's a list of a few things to reward people for (there's more I'm sure):
*Referring new members to the forums
*Referring new people to Meetup groups
*Making a YouTube video
*Blogging about Ron
*Educating new members in the Issues section (new member could confirm)
Now that I've been thinking, some things like canvassing could maybe be tracked by participating Meetup groups. Hmm, some things would require real creativity to track.
What do you guys think? How realistic is it?
I've been to a few other forum communities that reward their members with "perks" for doing anything from posting (similar to our Newbie -> Senior Member thing) to registering new members.
A problem I've noticed with the forum community, and really with any internet community, is that it can be hard for members to do anything other that hover around reading posts, or post themselves. Things that require more effort, like projects, or welcoming and initiating newcomers, are hard to accomplish. For Ron Paul to succeed human interaction is required on a grassroots level, but the majority of internet junkies struggle with sociability and are intimidated to move in that direction.
I propose this: design a system that visibly rewards forum members for their actions.
Example: Joe Schmo joins his local Meetup group. Meetup group leader confirms this to RonPaulForums.com. A "medal" of some kind is then added under the avatar/name of this forum member for all to see, and for others to gawk at or feel guilty about not being in a Meetup group themselves.
Another example: Suzie Queue works very hard and becomes a Ron Paul delegate in her state! This gets confirmed by RonPaulForums. She gets the ability to have a graphic in her signiature/her posts are highlighted to stand out/her font is of a special color/she gets a rare "medal"
Honestly, one can think of many ways to reward a member. I find this has parallels to video games like World of Warcraft, where various "loot" is the reward for accomplishing a task. The rarer the loot (and the cooler it looks), the more you want to have it.
Here's a list of a few things to reward people for (there's more I'm sure):
*Referring new members to the forums
*Referring new people to Meetup groups
*Making a YouTube video
*Blogging about Ron
*Educating new members in the Issues section (new member could confirm)
Now that I've been thinking, some things like canvassing could maybe be tracked by participating Meetup groups. Hmm, some things would require real creativity to track.
What do you guys think? How realistic is it?