Inactive members

[former_member184555]

Hi All,

I have been observing that, many valuable members are becoming inactive in the forums over a period of time. The participation of knowledgeable members is very important along with having good threads for the forums to increase their popularity. I visit the forum almost everyday with the intention of learning something which I don't know, not to forget concepts which I already know and to share my knowledge/experiences with others. Now a days, I don't feel interesting to spend time in forums. When the quality of threads and replies are coming down, members will not show interest in spending time in SDN forums.

I feel that, there should be a mechanism to trigger a mail automatically requesting the inactive members to be active in the forums, if the members are inactive for more than a specified number of days. This may motivate the members to become active in forums.

Regards,

Ravi

[ChrisPaine · Accepted solution]

Hi Ravi,

Perhaps you could submit this as an idea in Idea Place?

There is a special section for ideas about how to improve SCN.

[Idea Place - SAP Community Network|https://ideas.sap.com/community/community_and_services/sapcommunitynetwork]

I'm not sure a "you've been inactive" email would help, but perhaps an email that lists all the responses to any open questions the user has since the last time the user logged in, plus some of the SCN newsletter highlights, or even a link to a survey asking the user why they haven't been back???

But these are my thoughts - give Idea Place a go to see how you could share your ideas about how to deal with this issue with others.

Cheers,

Chris

[Lakshmipathi · Accepted solution]

I feel the issue is from both the sides. Till 2009, member who post a question would make us to think, test on our own and give suggestion through which, we also gain some knowledge in that area. Similarly, for quality suggestions, the member would acknowledge and indicate as to how best the suggestion has helped and update the forum. This way, one can easily take some useful inputs for that particular issue while searching.

Of late, the quality of this forum is deteriorated. Neither the member post such queries and update the forum when the issue is resolved nor others giving a practical solution instead; interested to copy paste some links. Just because they have to post a new query, they close their previous threads without even bothering to add an appropriate comments.

thanks

G. Lakshmipathi

[Former Member]

The best way to drive me away from SCN is by sending me spam e-mails when I'm not active (regardless of how that will be defined, e.g. I still might be actively reading, but not contributing). If I spend less time on SCN there will be a good reason for that. Maybe less time overall or simply being tired of reading too much junk (and I think many of us will agree that certain forums are full of it). Others might have different reasons, but it's hard to imagine that some magic e-mail should change their activity level.

Um, well, I take that back. Don't target specific people, because they seem inactive. However, there's still different channels that could be used. E.g. how about the newsletters? Those would in my opinion be a very good medium for posting some updates what interesting changes have been done, like new features, improvement of content, etc. So try to motivate people by showing how SCN has improved... (if it really has, the word should spread without having to send targeted e-mails to inactive members)

And as much as I hate to say it, but I do agree that points might be another way of motivation. It's not for me though and I'm not sure if this really helps SCN: I.e. I doubt that by awarding points we'll create more quality content and furthermore the accumulated points do not reflect any expertise level - so why bother with it?!

Well, unfortunately many people seem to love points and badges. Obviously SAP also attributes a certain motivational factor to it. Otherwise they wouldn't nag the members who've reached almost the active contributor status with an e-mail, introduce new badges, etc. I hope though, that we won't see anything soon like e-mails saying post three answers within the next week and we'll double any awarded points. Hopefully someday we'll return to what's really important - the quality of the posted content.

Cheers, harald

[former_member187989]

They(Valuable memebers) don't find time to due to important assignments with their client/company.

SAP is taking measures in improving participation,It should increase points(max points 10) to 20 points for good replies.

It can also awards diploma / certfication based on respective module total contributions.

Valuable members can mention email ids or linkedin ids in the personal profile so that it will be useful for others to

ask questions in case member is inactive.

[OttoGold]

SAP is taking measures in improving participation,It should increase po-ints(max points 10) to 20 po-ints for good replies.

Well that is a .... idea. We have less contributors receiving less points so we will give them more for less. Please come everybody and get your po-ints for free. Well, that will make me upset! It will!

Valuable members can mention email ids or linkedin ids in the personal profile so that it will be useful for others to ask questions in case member is inactive.

Another pearl! It is against the rules to ask the person directly. You´re supposed to provide the question and the answer to the community. I have my em-ail visible, but that is NOT to encourage any lazy guys to ask me to solve their problem. This is for important topics for people I know, not for strangers who are paid for my knowledge!

[martinlang]

Very much agree with Otto. While we are constantly thinking about potential improvements of the points re-ward system - any such system can hardly ever be totally fair, but I believe it needs a certain amount of adjustments to remain as fair as possible - the po-int is certainly not to re-ward more po-ints for the same or less content, if anything most of these thoughts are about rewarding po-ints for areas of significant valuable contributions, that are not rewarded today. That's how we e.g. got to award points for Inside Track presenters, also we are thinking about finding ways for the blog author to award po-ints to blog comments, which often are very valuable (might not happen with the current blog system, but hopefully with a future one.

The question why we have many more inactive members is an interesting one though, is there anything we could do to make contributing to SCN in whatever shape or form more fun? I believe fun is an essential element, in addition to value.

[Former Member]

What about the "value" of the points?

I may not have time for a lot of answers, but the majority of the ones I give are rewarded with 6 or 10 because I'm not repeating what the post before me suggested.

[Former Member]

> because I'm not repeating what the post before me suggested.

That has a value for sure. Actually, contradicting the post before is a major moderator activity...

Converting the 10 ponits to 20 will create 10 fold the amount of noise and deter double the amount of gurus away from SDN.

I know many people who do not contribute to SDN (or only very seldom and selectively) because of the ponitz system.

I also know too many people who have left SDN because of the ponitz system.

I also think it has (over time) become the lowest common denominator of SDN's problems.

Cheers,

Julius

[Lakshmipathi]

Valuable members can mention e-mail i-ds or linkedin ids in the 
  pe(r)sonal  profile so that it will be useful for others to ask 
    questions in case member is inactive

Definitely this is practically not possible. When someone (valuable members) finding it difficult to spare time to SDN, how come they respond to questions sent to p(e)rsonal m..ails. My personal experience is that when I had also disclosed my m(a)il address in Business card, I used to get 15 to 20 ma(i)ls every day and I could not respond to all those m(a)ils. That is why, I had changed my Profile settings to hide my ma(i)l id

thanks

G. Lakshmipathi

[OttoGold]

Hello folks,

I am not sure if should be happy, I am not the only one who spotted the possible "problem" (I would be happy if that would not be so said, because after some of the comments below the mentioned blog I was a little shaky, that the numbers do not support the message), or sad about the result: dropping quality, some really nice folks disappearing etc.

I wonder if you have any ideas about how to understand the reasons. Maybe we could create a set of questions and ask people to fill this up? Not me, but the SAP guys could reach the people, who were active but are not (they have some BW working with user data, including points and emails...) and ask them the questions?

Or any other ideas?

Regards Otto

[Former Member]

I have no ideas about inactive members - actually, after reading the blog, i find that I am an not anactive member. As i said earlier, i moved from It to operations, which is frustating and rewarding. I come to the forum searching for help in my new field (MM). But I always cruise the CO forum - that's my area. I don't have as much time anymore.

Today proved that inferior answers can be helpful.

I had previously posted on a thread that was followed up by 1 or 2 confusing posts and the moderator stepped in and said that I was right.(Thank you Youn Sun).

This morning there was a reply that indicated to me, in my pre-coffee coma, that I still had the wrong idea and it lead the questor down the worng path. So I went out looking for examples to prove what I said. I genty (i hope) blasted a response, edited it 3 times. Then it hit me - what I had been looking at in the tables I was searching was the answer to a top priority reporting question on my plate at my own job. I looked at the data differently today while writing my response and opened my own door. So - thank you to those who make us think a little more.

Althea

[Former Member]

Dear Ravi,

Otto has shared the same experience in his recent Blog regarding Losing Talent in SCN..

Please look into it and help us to think on the way how we can stop this loss of talent..

/people/otto.gold/blog/2010/08/21/losing-147talents148133but-why

Regards,

Pushkar

[Former Member]

I've noticed the same. Also, I visit less. My job changed from IT support to working for operations. I have much less time to visit and read. Recently I thought that I should read forum thread more often as a way to keep up my skills. Quality does seem to be down. I find one good answer and it is followed by many repeats of the answer from others - just collecting points - no additional value. Makes me feel that I am wasting my time.

Not sure how to encourage the knowledgeable inactive - but it would be good to see some of them back in action.

regards,

Althea