Jeff Westover
05-07-2008, 11:15 PM
In May 2008 the Merry Forums added a whole new system for tracking and awarding our users for their activity on the forums. With the additions of blogs, photo galleries, thread tagging and other new features we felt that it was important to re-work our user recognition program to reflect the great enhancements OUR USERS are to My Merry Christmas.
This will seem a little complex compared to our previous arrangement. We understand there will be a learning curve to this . But it is designed to help our users take full advantage of what we believe are state-of-the-art features not found on any other Christmas site out there. We believe the time you invest in using these features will help our community to grow and become stronger.
First of all, the beloved titles we all earn as we climb the post count ladder have not changed. You will still be identified as an Eggnog Chugger or Christmasologist or Mistletoe Hanger, etc. all the way up to Christmas Deity, just as it was before. All you have to do, as before, is increase your post count and your title will change as described here.
But there is a great deal more to using the Merry Forums and adding to the community beyond just posting. Many of us here have become good friends. A few of us have met. Together we share Christmas year round, we celebrate when babies are born, when weddings are held and when life’s big events happen to each other. For those who invest so much we want to do more than merely rank them. We want to reward folks for being here and for sharing with us.
Under the “Quick Links” menu on the red navigation bar is a link to something called “vbexperience”.
Clicking on this link will take you to a page showing collected points for our members. Points are given for all the activities you engage in on the Merry Forums. Our members with the highest points receive recognition for their contributions to the community with a special graphic shown next to their name wherever it is shown on the forums.
Your vbexperience points are also shown on your profile under a tab titled “vbexperience’.
Clicking on this tab will show you a quick summary of your activity.
The top line-- or red bar -- is your “level” -- basically, where you are at in a process of all the levels built into the system. Think of the red bar as a quality indicator of your activity.
The middle line -- or blue bar -- is how many more points you need to move up to the next level.
The bottom line -- or green bar -- is your rate of activity relative to all other users on the forums. Think of the green bar as the sheer amount of time you spend relative to most other users on the forums.
For convenience, we also show the red and green lines on the forums under your user name when you post.
Vbexperience is a system for tracking your contributions to the site over the course of the past three weeks. Your points, levels, and activities thus are rewarded not only for being here but for being here all the time. (Sneaky of us, eh?).
So seasonal users who come around just for the holiday season cannot collect points and awards and then bail without consequence. We want to make sure our year round participants are the most rewarded of all our site users.
We currently have set up awards for Activity, Social Engagement, Posting, and Picture Sharing. We are working on other awards and plan on adding silver and bronze recognition for those who are close.
How do you win these awards?
Just use the new features of the forum. Post and respond to posts. Tag your threads and the threads of others. Give reputation points. Create and vote on polls. Write in your blog. Comment on the profiles of others. Upload and share pictures. In general -- just be here and share Christmas with us!
This will seem a little complex compared to our previous arrangement. We understand there will be a learning curve to this . But it is designed to help our users take full advantage of what we believe are state-of-the-art features not found on any other Christmas site out there. We believe the time you invest in using these features will help our community to grow and become stronger.
First of all, the beloved titles we all earn as we climb the post count ladder have not changed. You will still be identified as an Eggnog Chugger or Christmasologist or Mistletoe Hanger, etc. all the way up to Christmas Deity, just as it was before. All you have to do, as before, is increase your post count and your title will change as described here.
But there is a great deal more to using the Merry Forums and adding to the community beyond just posting. Many of us here have become good friends. A few of us have met. Together we share Christmas year round, we celebrate when babies are born, when weddings are held and when life’s big events happen to each other. For those who invest so much we want to do more than merely rank them. We want to reward folks for being here and for sharing with us.
Under the “Quick Links” menu on the red navigation bar is a link to something called “vbexperience”.
Clicking on this link will take you to a page showing collected points for our members. Points are given for all the activities you engage in on the Merry Forums. Our members with the highest points receive recognition for their contributions to the community with a special graphic shown next to their name wherever it is shown on the forums.
Your vbexperience points are also shown on your profile under a tab titled “vbexperience’.
Clicking on this tab will show you a quick summary of your activity.
The top line-- or red bar -- is your “level” -- basically, where you are at in a process of all the levels built into the system. Think of the red bar as a quality indicator of your activity.
The middle line -- or blue bar -- is how many more points you need to move up to the next level.
The bottom line -- or green bar -- is your rate of activity relative to all other users on the forums. Think of the green bar as the sheer amount of time you spend relative to most other users on the forums.
For convenience, we also show the red and green lines on the forums under your user name when you post.
Vbexperience is a system for tracking your contributions to the site over the course of the past three weeks. Your points, levels, and activities thus are rewarded not only for being here but for being here all the time. (Sneaky of us, eh?).
So seasonal users who come around just for the holiday season cannot collect points and awards and then bail without consequence. We want to make sure our year round participants are the most rewarded of all our site users.
We currently have set up awards for Activity, Social Engagement, Posting, and Picture Sharing. We are working on other awards and plan on adding silver and bronze recognition for those who are close.
How do you win these awards?
Just use the new features of the forum. Post and respond to posts. Tag your threads and the threads of others. Give reputation points. Create and vote on polls. Write in your blog. Comment on the profiles of others. Upload and share pictures. In general -- just be here and share Christmas with us!