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Ranking system & beginner/advance forums: an idea
Hey guys,
I'm thinking of:
- a ranking system to introduce into the forum: as in "beginner / intermediate / expert"
- a beginner / advanced section: beginner-level question stay in the beginner forum, while more advanced
I still need to wrap my head around how that would work, and if it's worth implementing.
TO RETAIN ADVANCED MEMBERS & KEEP HIGH-QUALITY
This website is geared towards more advanced folks.
Power dynamics tend to be more for advanced folks.
However, more beginner-level like tyeps are bound to also read and, potentially, enter the forum.
If the forum then starts being populated with more beginner-level questions and threads, the more advanced will think "what's in it for me now?".
And they might leave.
That would keep the forum stuck at the "beginner" level, something I definitely want to avoid.
I think that ranking users and moving beginner threads into a separate big "beginner container" can fix that.
THE POLITICAL CHALLENGE OF RANKING SYSTEM
Ranking users might come as a political challenge since that affects status.
You're all here pretty much power-aware here, so you probably know that.
BEGINNER THREADS & EGO
Similar to the above.
It takes an antifragile ego to self-assess when we're asking or discussing something that's more beginner-like -or the ability to accept when one's own thread is moved into the beginner section-.
In this case, that's not even alway a reflection of one's own overall level.
It's possible to be an advanced member but have beginner questions.
For example, I know I'm a beginner when it comes to dealing with vulnerability, and discussing vulnerability-related topics.
As a type, I already thought of a potentially better approach: call it "basic" or "foundations", rather than "beginner".
Any opinions on this?
Really cool idea, Lucio.
INCREASED ENGAGEMENT - MORE INCLUSIVE ENVIRONMENT
Lucio: I remember when I privately replied to one guy and said "man, that's interesting, write it on the forum, I'll reply" and he said, "I'm not good enough for there".
While the cons are there in terms of ego, I think that there are also pros in terms of helping more members feel like they're able to become more involved. And, when more members step up with an antifragile ego—willing to admit they're beginners—hopefully, it will inspire more members to do the same and engage.
TWO FORUMS
Instead of separate sections or a ranking system, another way to go would be to simply have two forums:
And, for the "Start Here" tab, instead of saying, "What this forum is about," you can have something like this:
And, when they click "Start Here", they'll be directed to a post that has a few lines about how your choice of which forum to start in is not a reflection of your overall level, status, or social power. And, below that note is a quiz to help them decide for themself which forum they would like to start in.
MITIGATING RISKS, REDUCING NEGATIVES
Hard to tell whether or not it's worth the investment.
Perhaps, since this is to benefit the TPM community (both the advanced and the beginners alike), we can let the TPM community decide by doing a poll.
What do you think?
I like the idea
Maintaining High-Quality Posts Via Peer-Review
I'm thinking that it could be a good idea to segregate the forum based on posts rather than by online persona.
Certain posts are more value-giving by nature.
They generalise and apply across different social situations to many different types of people.
StackExchange manages to maintain a high quality of posts at scale because of the peer-review method on posts.
People downvote duplicate posts or unclear posts.
There's an Interpersonal Skills StackExchange.
Content-wise, ThePowerMoves is definitely more interesting because building a high-quality community on soft skills in my opinion is more challenging thans those for hard skills.
Think about random Joes giving advice on relationships at the bar.
I think making more use of the like/dislike, introducing a voting feature on posts could encourage higher-quality posts.
StackExchange punishes people who post a lot of value-taking posts as well.
I don't know the nuances because I don't post regularly on StackExchange.
Although I use StackOverflow a lot for technical issues.
StackExchange also prompts people to think about their posts.
With questions like "How do you think you should solve this issue?" in grey.
Maybe a feature like "Structured posts" Vs "Freestyle/blank posts" would help.
Structured posts could come in the form of a bullet-pointed header on top that the poster can delete
- Have you checked if this topic has been addressed before?
Or gone through the section on Power University and articles on this topic.- What are you trying to convey to the people on this forum?
- What feedback would you like to receive?
- Or are you looking to share an opinion?
- What is your opinion on this topic?
Type Your Post Here (Feel free to delete the bullet points above; they are just guiding points)
How To Keep Advanced Users Engaged?
I'm thinking if there could be a way to rank threads with the most upvotes would help.
Advanced users would go to these threads to gain high-quality information.
In a way, Lucio's Advanced Talks and Proven Principles sections of this forum help to filter down solid, high-quality content.
The summary of the best threads also helps to narrow down the golden content.
Why I Think A Discrete, Segregation of Beginner/Advanced Might Limit Social Mobility?
Sometimes discrete segregation would cause people to cluster around one another too much.
Then there is a spiral effect where the advanced people get more advanced while the beginners get "stuck".
A more continuous "ranking" system or method of encouragement of high-quality posts could streamline the transition from "beginner" to "advanced".
And this is what I suggest by the votes/likes.
As people naturally get better, they post higher quality content that people want to look at.
The segregation may be a good idea in terms of motivating people to start from beginner to move the advanced.
But I envision some people to get overly caught up in moving from beginner to advanced instead of learning power dynamics.
Thank you guys, much appreciated!
For now, I have taken the simplest step: created a subforum under social life for "beginner" questions / threads, and will be moving there everything that is "basic".
That should serve to keep the other boards more advanced.
Hello Lucio,
I think the decision you made is the right one. It gives the outlet for beginners (I consider myself one BTW) to write question we feel are basics. But to have introduced the beginner/intermediate/advanced classification is dangerous I think. It could promote social climbing and derails from the learner mindset. In pick-up there was the endless debate of who's intermediate and who's advanced. So it actually removes clarity.
I think it makes more sense to have beginner's questions for people beginning and then everything else, as you did.
My opinion as a forum member.
Cheers!
Thank you, John!
Yeah, I agree on the risks.
And thinking about it, the ranking might be useful for those who just landed on the forums, but would otherwise become quickly redundant to "what people already know".
If someone's posts or advice makes you nod your head, is useful, or is working, then you don't need a badge to know that person is advanced/value-adding.
Quote from Lucio Buffalmano on January 30, 2021, 2:46 pmIf someone's posts or advice makes you nod your head, is useful, or is working, then you don't need a badge to know that person is advanced/value-adding.
Exactly! +1
