Your thoughts required (again!)

[Jessica Booker]

Yes, me again, asking for your thoughts on something else.....

As part of reviewing the content of TCLA so it works as best as it can for the community, Jaysen and I have discussed the best way we can reward members who are really helping to keep members informed.

You may see from your profile that you have acquired "credits" every time you post and that this can be seen comparatively against other members (see attached screenshot). We want to look into this credit system to see if this can provide a way of rewarding our members that contribute the most.

We are therefore considering how we can reward people for helping with content on the forums. We don't want to encourage spamming or for it to turn into a popularity contest, but we think there could be a way to ensure we recognise and reward members who are contributing useful content.

Given this I would really appreciate your thoughts on the following:

• What factors would you consider most appropriate if we were to recognise when someone is providing useful content?
• What can we reward people with (TCLA paid for subscription services/other products or gifts/gift vouchers)?
• Are there other ways in which members can be recognised (e.g. nominations on a regular basis from other members)?

I'd really appreciate any thoughts about rewards beyond these questions though. You are probably far more creative than I am and probably will anticipate many more things than I will if I tackle this alone.

In the first instance, if you could post in here so it creates discussion, that would be great - however feel free to PM me if you'd prefer to put your ideas/thoughts to me privately instead.

Look forward to hearing from you!

 

[Jaysen]

Just to add to this, we're looking into upgrading the TCLA forum very soon. When we do, it's likely that we'll start the TCLA Credits system from scratch, while implementing a proper ongoing system to reward users' contributions. At the moment, credits are awarded for everything from receiving ratings on your post to someone viewing your profile (with a cap).

Before the reset, we'll be rewarding users for the TCLA Credits they've accrued so far, so the points you have accrued to date won't be ignored. Input from anyone would be greatly appreciated!

Some ideas for rewards:

- Access to a one month free trial of premium
- Access to a six month subscription of TCLA Premium
- One free mock interview
- A one to one office hour booking
- An application or CV review
- Amazon Gift Cards
- A feature in our newsletter
- Customised username/badge styling

Edit: To say thank you for your help, we'll give one person who shares their thoughts in this thread a £5 Amazon Gift card

 

[Camilla]

I would personally find free access to premium or an application review the most useful. However, many of the contributors have TC's so would not need an app review. I don't know whether it would complicate things to vary the rewards depending on the member's status as a TC holder/non-TC holder...

 

[tractor12]

Yeah I agree with Camilla that access to premium/application review would be very useful but as mentioned this might not be appealing to those who already have premium/a TC. What is an office hour booking?

 

[Jaysen]

Yeah I agree with Camilla that access to premium/application review would be very useful but as mentioned this might not be appealing to those who already have premium/a TC. What is an office hour booking?

At the moment, I do 15 minute one-to-one consultations with Gold members on a Tuesday. Happy to offer this as a reward myself (or @Alice G/Jess may be able to assist with these calls).

Perhaps, for each level, we can offer two rewards - one suited to those without a TC, and one for those with a TC.

 

[Alice G]

At the moment, I do 15 minute one-to-one consultations with Gold members on a Tuesday. Happy to offer this as a reward myself (or @Alice G/Jess may be able to assist with these calls).

Perhaps, for each level, we can offer two rewards - one suited to those without a TC, and one for those with a TC.

100% would be more than happy to do calls!!

Do we think it would be complicated to have a range of options for people to use their credits? Rather than have a banded system where people have to use credits in line with a fixed system, I think it could be good to basically allow people to ‘cash in’ their credits for what they would like. So if people want to save their credits to get to a certain level to say purchase a mock interview or maybe people would rather cash theirs in for an app review. I don’t know if this makes sense but it might give some flexibility if we had a range of options with a credit cost alongside it and people can ‘cash in’ as they see fit?

 

[Jessica Booker]

Thanks for all the comments so far.

What is the best way for us to recognise valuable content? I think my concern at the moment is that rewarding on the current points based system it could just encourage people to respond to anything rather than providing quality content.

 

[D]

Custom Badge? Sign me up!

I agree with the point raised by @Camilla in that most of TCLA's content is there to assist people who are on their TC journey. Many of those answering questions and providing content are doing so from their own successful experience, so, TCLA rewards are less important.

It is definitely going to be hard to identify and implement a system that cannot be manipulated in some form. I don't think I necessarily have a good idea at the moment, outside of bespoke, commissioned work. This, of course, requires a manual intervention which I presume what the system is looking to steer away from. But, this ensures quality and stops any potential manipulation.

 

[Camilla]

Thanks for all the comments so far.

What is the best way for us to recognise valuable content? I think my concern at the moment is that rewarding on the current points based system it could just encourage people to respond to anything rather than providing quality content.

Is there some way of creating a system where authors of posts could mark their post as 'advice' or 'general conversation'?

Points could be awarded for 'advice' posts, but 'general conversational' posts would not attract points.

This puts the onus on the author to be sensible when categorising their post, and then a moderator could pick up any posts which have been categorised incorrectly and either amend the rating or send the author an automated message, or something along those lines.

I think some guidelines would need to be created to set out what counts as advice and what counts as general conversation - there could be some grey area too. And people could just give advice for the sake of giving advice, but I can't see a way around that.

Not sure if any of the above is possible!

 

[Jessica Booker]

Is there some way of creating a system where authors of posts could mark their post as 'advice' or 'general conversation'?

Points could be awarded for 'advice' posts, but 'general conversational' posts would not attract points.

This puts the onus on the author to be sensible when categorising their post, and then a moderator could pick up any posts which have been categorised incorrectly and either amend the rating or send the author an automated message, or something along those lines.

I think some guidelines would need to be created to set out what counts as advice and what counts as general conversation - there could be some grey area too. And people could just give advice for the sake of giving advice, but I can't see a way around that.

Not sure if any of the above is possible!

I think one way we can do this is with the rating system. We could potentially measure the “useful” rating (rather than the common like/winner ratings) to identify where content is not just general chat.

 

[Camilla]

I think one way we can do this is with the rating system. We could potentially measure the “useful” rating (rather than the common like/winner ratings) to identify where content is not just general chat.

That sounds like a great idea. Would this system rely on others finding the content 'useful' and then marking it as such? Or do you think the OP could vote their own post as 'useful' if they feel that they have tried to provide quality content?

 

[Jessica Booker]

That sounds like a great idea. Would this system rely on others finding the content 'useful' and then marking it as such? Or do you think the OP could vote their own post as 'useful' if they feel that they have tried to provide quality content?

Only problem is you can’t rate your own posts - so it would rely on others reading and then rating the posts.

 

[Daniel Boden]

Just thought I'd give my 2 cents. I think free access to premium would be great as that learning/information is beneficial to those with and without TC offers and as far as I can remember there's a specific module that is designed for future trainees isn't there?

Other than that, I think amazon gift cards are always welcomed but agree with Alice in that each user should be able to choose how they 'spend' their credits. I don't think it necessarily works to 'force' people to use them in a certain way.

Regarding the 'useful' and 'winner' points, I think if there was an option to give a justification as to why you have rated a post the way you have e.g. - winner; application advice or 'useful' - commercial awareness or something like that then that could be a good way of doing it?

 

[James Michael]

Hi all,

As somebody that is not a TC holder, I see the following ideas proposed as a fantastic idea. With education being expensive and especially with uncertainty around jobs in the current market, free trials of premium/applications reviews and mock interviews will be both incredibly helpful and useful to people.

Perhaps for another potential reward you could also contribute some credits to a charity instead of choosing for example, an Amazon gift card. When a certain threshold of overall credits has been given, money could be sent over to that charity. (I understand there may be some logistics behind that, which I appreciate) – however, with what is happening in the world at the moment with the pandemic, and of course what has tragically happened in Lebanon – Personally I think it would be nice to be able have the opportunity to help where possible. (This is just an early thought and appreciate this may be harder to accomplish) but thought I’d throw it out there - that’s not to say this would be for everyone, but I think having an option would be great.

Apologies this is only the ‘rewards’ themselves Jessica, I will sit down and have a think about the recognising point you raise.

I think this is overall a great idea from TCLA and will continue to bring the community even closer.

 

[Jaysen]

Just to add from a technical standpoint - I am speaking to a more 'specialist' developer tonight who works with this forum software, so I should have a better idea of what will be feasible to implement. As @D said, we ideally want this to be a 100% automatic system, so we don't have to rely on manual changes/updates to be made.

Feel free to keep your suggestions coming though as they sound great so far. We can then just work out what we can practically do.

Otherwise, we'll also be thinking about how to best reward you guys for the credits you have accumulated already!

 

[Alice G]

Hi all,

As somebody that is not a TC holder, I see the following ideas proposed as a fantastic idea. With education being expensive and especially with uncertainty around jobs in the current market, free trials of premium/applications reviews and mock interviews will be both incredibly helpful and useful to people.

Perhaps for another potential reward you could also contribute some credits to a charity instead of choosing for example, an Amazon gift card. When a certain threshold of overall credits has been given, money could be sent over to that charity. (I understand there may be some logistics behind that, which I appreciate) – however, with what is happening in the world at the moment with the pandemic, and of course what has tragically happened in Lebanon – Personally I think it would be nice to be able have the opportunity to help where possible. (This is just an early thought and appreciate this may be harder to accomplish) but thought I’d throw it out there - that’s not to say this would be for everyone, but I think having an option would be great.

Apologies this is only the ‘rewards’ themselves Jessica, I will sit down and have a think about the recognising point you raise.

I think this is overall a great idea from TCLA and will continue to bring the community even closer.

I think this is an incredible idea!

 

[Mohammed]

Hi,

I think points should be gained depending on how community members interact with the posts. So if someone marks it friendly, useful, or agree etc, the poster should get points for each rating and the points gained can be a different amount per the interaction (ie. 5 for friendly, 4 for agree or howsoever you decide to choose the points). This in itself shows the quality of the posts and will ensure people just don't post for the sake of gaining points. I think it will also be good in that it would encourage more people to use the rating system.

As for spending them I think a lot of great stuff has already been said but to add on, I also think it should be up to the person how to spend their points and a variety of rewards should be available at different price/point levels. This will also make it easier for implementation as you won't need to make the point spending based on what level someone is at, as whatever reward someone chooses would be based on whats most suitable or best for them anyway. I agree that the mock interviews, application reviews, or free premiums would be a great reward system.

Also, it may be a good idea to allow people to transfer points/buy gift cards for it so that people with points that have no use for it can share it if they want to help anyone, and so that law firm sponsers can gift them in the furure, if something like that is even a possibility.

 

[Zoo]

I really like the credits per rating system as @Mohammed has suggested. I think that’s a good way of allocating credits as it’s essentially the users themselves awarding the most useful content. I also agree with @Alice’s suggestion re saving up credits to ‘cash in’ rather than being limited by a ‘band’ system because this gives users the freedom to use credits in a way that’s most useful for them.

Another way of awarding credits could also be via monthly ‘credit prizes’ where moderators award posters who have been particularly helpful, similar to the free month of premium membership that is offered now. Perhaps that could be another way of encouraging quality contributions rather than users posting for the sake of it?

 

[Karin]

Yes, me again, asking for your thoughts on something else.....

As part of reviewing the content of TCLA so it works as best as it can for the community, Jaysen and I have discussed the best way we can reward members who are really helping to keep members informed.

You may see from your profile that you have acquired "credits" every time you post and that this can be seen comparatively against other members (see attached screenshot). We want to look into this credit system to see if this can provide a way of rewarding our members that contribute the most.

We are therefore considering how we can reward people for helping with content on the forums. We don't want to encourage spamming or for it to turn into a popularity contest, but we think there could be a way to ensure we recognise and reward members who are contributing useful content.

Given this I would really appreciate your thoughts on the following:

• What factors would you consider most appropriate if we were to recognise when someone is providing useful content?
• What can we reward people with (TCLA paid for subscription services/other products or gifts/gift vouchers)?
• Are there other ways in which members can be recognised (e.g. nominations on a regular basis from other members)?

I'd really appreciate any thoughts about rewards beyond these questions though. You are probably far more creative than I am and probably will anticipate many more things than I will if I tackle this alone.

In the first instance, if you could post in here so it creates discussion, that would be great - however feel free to PM me if you'd prefer to put your ideas/thoughts to me privately instead.

Look forward to hearing from you!

Such a great idea!

Ideas for Factors to consider

• How many times people found the given thread useful - i think there's difference between liking something and actually finding it useful (which suggests it helps you in development, career etc.)
• You could also see how often the member has positive ranking on posts - few times a week? once a month? - this would reveal the really active members and filter people who are in it for short term gain just to get the benefits (but not really sure whether it would actually work)
• Nomination system for the most helpful member - each member could have e.g. one nomination a week - this could then be looked at in conjunction with some other factors; similar to Alice/Jaysen nominating someone for free premium membership
• (I am pretty sure an algorithm could be set up so you wouldn't have to be weighting all these factors together, but maybe only review once the system generates it)

Rewards

• Premium Account or even Gold Account - having access to TCLA courses was invaluable in my application journey so I think this would be amazing
• Financial Times or the Economist subscription - for applicants and TC offer holders alike!
• Amazon Voucher which are in use now are good
• Gift voucher could be also interesting and maybe better for TCLA as you could get agreements with brands/vendors
• All the rewards Jaysen mentioned above seem great as well!

Realised I should have just reacted to what people said as some of the things have already been mentioned.. but here you go

 

[Karin]

100% would be more than happy to do calls!!

Do we think it would be complicated to have a range of options for people to use their credits? Rather than have a banded system where people have to use credits in line with a fixed system, I think it could be good to basically allow people to ‘cash in’ their credits for what they would like. So if people want to save their credits to get to a certain level to say purchase a mock interview or maybe people would rather cash theirs in for an app review. I don’t know if this makes sense but it might give some flexibility if we had a range of options with a credit cost alongside it and people can ‘cash in’ as they see fit?

I quite like the cashing in system, it is an interesting idea..