Lithosphere Feedback

[#1]

Hi All,

I notice that within the Lithosphere, that adding comments to Ideas, and creating new ideas, do not contribute towards your over all post count in your profile.

What is the think behind this? We plan on rolling out an Ideas Exchange pretty soon. I have little doubt that many of our community will be surprised that their input doesn't not add to their post count.

What are all your thoughts on this?

[EDIT:]

On closer inspection, I also notice that if I hover over my name on the left, the "posts" does include all comments, ideas, etc. So I am seeing a different number there to the one on my profile.

[#2]

Good catch, the posts in the profile note only forums posts, not comments or new ideas. We track those as separate metrics currently because the represent different types of behavior. So we are tracking them (we even use them differently in our rank formulas) but they do not currently appear on the profile page.

It does seem a little confusing that we use the same label of 'posts' for the pop-up window. What do you think would be a better name for everything? 'Contributions'? 'Posts' at least has the benefit of being short.

[#3]

I think "posts" is a pretty good catch all term.

Perhaps maintain the use of "posts" for catching everything, then break it down in the profile:

Something like, "Posts: 11 (4 forum, 2 ideas, 3 idea comments, 1 Blog, 1 Blog Comment)"

This way, the user still has their over all post count (which is depressingly important in Enthusiast communities) as well as the details, which can be used for rank calculations.

[#4]

I'm lurking on this thread in the hopes that more folks will comment on the terminology we use (that's my job). It's always good to hear what works and where we need to rethink what we call things.

[#5]

I did not notice that Idea posts were not in the total, I just assumed they would all add up.  I have a funny feeling my superusers will pick up on this right away and not be impressed with it.  It is very important to them that all of their work be properly attributed.

I will most likely have to do a workaround where I edit all of our (many) ranks to include Ideas threads and comments in the post count.

[#6]

I quite like the idea of the posts with a breakdown.

From a user point of view if I'm replying to a thread, creating an idea or adding a comment in my mind its a "post", but I also understand that you would want to distinguish between the different type of posts for metrics

[#7]

I agree with those here who say that all contributions should roll up into total post number on the profile page. For most of us, a comment on a blog is every bit as important as a reply in a board. 

Does everyone refer to "Ideas" as "Ideas" or "Suggestions"? We're using Ideas in a couple of different ways, neither of which classify easily as "ideas." They're really just messages, and (for us) feel like they should be part of a lump sum.