Community Updates - May 2020

[Tiana_V]

Hi Community, 

Recently we launched a small change on the Community that some of you might have noticed. You may have seen a couple of members around with a new title of “Retired Oracle”. Oracles are regular Public Mobile customers who have been on the Community for years and are well-versed in all things Public. They have built reputations for high-quality support and dedicate significant time and effort to provide help to their fellow customers. Over time, some Oracles have stepped down from the position, but we don't think that they should lose recognition for all the great contributions that they’ve made. We’ve introduced the “Retired Oracle” title to show thanks to Oracles for their past contributions and recognize the roles they’ve held within the Community. Retired Oracles will also maintain some capabilities to help keep the Community organized and clean. 

In addition to this new title, there are a few more changes coming to the Community this week. Tomorrow you may notice that the Bravo Leaderboard is no longer available on the homepage. The goal of the Community has always been to provide high quality support to our customers. Bravos are an important piece of this puzzle but they don’t capture everything. The removal of the Leaderboard will hopefully help to illustrate that bravos should not be the main goal of participating on the Community. We also want to continue to foster a welcoming, harmonious environment for all Community users, new and tenured. We are currently planning some exciting new ways to recognize our amazing Community users and their contributions. If you have any suggestions, please let us know below!

A final change you’ll notice tomorrow is that users will no longer be able to create macros (which act as response templates). As I mentioned earlier, the main goal of the Community is to provide quality support to our users and customers. This includes sharing answers that are specific and tailored to each users’ unique situations and questions. While macros can be convenient, more often than not they are resulting in less than full solutions. 

We’ve been asking for your feedback on how we can improve the Community for the past few months and we are actively working on bringing some of your suggestions to life. One specific area we’re working on is cleaning up the homepage - more on this and other Community updates in the near future!

- The Public Mobile Community Team

[Tiana_V]

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@gblackma wrote:

@Tiana_V 

1. By removing the Bravos board, you meant deleting it permanently from the forum and not hiding it from sight. Right?
2. Its great that Retired oracles are recognized for their previous  efforts. But why the almost Oracle controls?
3. And what constitutes a macro? Thanks. If I post an answer and keep linking to it. Is this a macro?

Thanks. Stay safe

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1. Once removed, the leaderboard will not be available at all. 

2. Retired Oracles are trusted to perform critical actions such as helping to remove private info or inappropriate content from posts so that the Community can be safe and enjoyable for all users.

3. Macros are a specific capability within the Community that allow users to save templates to use and reuse. Linking to other posts is still possible. 

[gblackma]

@Tiana_V 

1. By removing the Bravos board, you meant deleting it permanently from the forum and not hiding it from sight. Right?
2. Its great that Retired oracles are recognized for their previous  efforts. But why the almost Oracle controls?
3. And what constitutes a macro? Thanks. If I post an answer and keep linking to it. Is this a macro?

Thanks. Stay safe

[445935293]

good move

[computergeek541]

@dabr There are some behind-the-scenes differences, but most members would likely see the abilities among Oracles and Retired Oracles as largely the same.

[dabr]

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@Luddite wrote:

I love experiments. Let's see what happens, eh? 

Experiment! What could go wrong?

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@Luddite   Experiments are good as long as they don't involve medieval (or modern) day torture methods! 😊

Nice to hear that retired oracles will finally get recognition as to their former life on this community, that has probably been overdue.   But this announcement also says that retired oracles will "maintain some capabilities" can one of the Retired Oracles explain what those might be, unless, of course, you're all sworn to secrecy...😊

The changes definitely sound interesting.

[geopublic]

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@srlawren wrote:

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@geopublic wrote:

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Real Bravoes = Bravoes Received - Bravoes Given.

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@geopublic by your calculation, I'm at about -19,000 🤣

That said, I've never had a strategy involved.  I give out bravos when I like and/or agree with the majority of a post--NOT in hope of getting any back.

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@srlawren  Good for you!! 👍 You are the exception not the rule.

[pm-smayer97]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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... The private messaging is really a part of the community.

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Yes, that is where the REAL changes need to happen. It is a horrible system.

[srlawren]

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@geopublic wrote:

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Real Bravoes = Bravoes Received - Bravoes Given.

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@geopublic by your calculation, I'm at about -19,000 🤣

That said, I've never had a strategy involved.  I give out bravos when I like and/or agree with the majority of a post--NOT in hope of getting any back.

[Anonymous]

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@Kovaelin wrote:

Do we still have to juggle between the community site, the account site, and e-mail every time we talk to a mod or is everything still disconnected?

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Yes. But to be clearer...email is just notifications. The private messaging is really a part of the community.

[mpcdesign]

@Kovaelin, I would think so. Your self-serve account is totally different from the community/email side of things!

Let's be honest here, do you really want the community to know your credit card information, or where you live?

[Kovaelin]

Do we still have to juggle between the community site, the account site, and e-mail every time we talk to a mod or is everything still disconnected?

[geopublic]

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@will13am wrote:

The removal of the leaderboard could be a game changer.  No more mirror to look at.  

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Don't think it will change anything. The fix is easy just count Real Bravoes.

Real Bravoes = Bravoes Received - Bravoes Given.

It's no secret around here and has been mentioned in previous threads. Give out as many  bravoes as you can, hope to receive back 60 - 90% of them. Post to as many threads as possible even after the solution has been given and collect your awards.

Now if PM were to implement Real Bravoes the above strategy goes out the window.

[srlawren]

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@SD08 wrote:

Interesting changes.  Thanks for the update and for the new title, Tiana.

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^^^^^ .... what he said!  🙂

[mpcdesign]

This is welcome news, because the numbers on the leaderboard reflected how many bravoes were giving out, and on some posts that had one-word answers would get many bravos, while an Oracle who answers the post clearly gets one. 

Macros? People will find different ways to copy and paste the responses, I don't think that'll be a big difference-maker, but, it may slow them down by a few seconds. 

Looking forward to the changes! 

[Luddite]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I like the surprise early in the month. I used to be obsessed about trying to be sure I was in the top 1%...but not so much anymore.

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Hopefully, you are enjoying the new you. 🙏

[Anonymous]

I think the loss of macros makes it harder to bother with the constant, repetitive questions. I have a lost/stolen - $1 macro and APN gishan link / plain info. (and others that I have not used for a while...perhaps coinciding with my lower participation ).

I think the Retired Oracle moniker is great.

I don't mind the leaderboard not being easily available. I like the surprise early in the month. I used to be obsessed about trying to be sure I was in the top 1%...but not so much anymore.

[popping]

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@fujiyama wrote:

Interesting changes. Although I don't get much use out of macros (cause I don't post much), still sad to see it go... Where will we store the paragraph-long copy needed for explaining how to use SIMon properly to new comers now!!?!?? 😛

...but seriously, it has its uses...

Thanks for the update though 🙂

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You have the rest of today to save your macros to somewhere. 

Although I know about the macro at the beginning, I never use macro since I join this forum almost 2 years ago.  I don't miss this change.  This may explain why my posts are not the first reply to most of new threads. 

But we will still continue to see the same type of posts as before as members will cut and paste the same answer to this forum.

Have a better and better days!

[sa7375]

[Jb456]

@will13am 

Yes! I know it works on desktop.

However- I am sure there are many, like myself, that use mobile 99% of the time to post.

Reading the Khoros forums it appears theres a simple fix 🤔 Anyways it is what it is I guess....

[will13am]

The removal of the leaderboard could be a game changer.  No more mirror to look at.  

[will13am]

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@Jb456 wrote:

Please bring back the "quote" option for mobile users. Been a few months now. Thanks!

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It has only been lost on mobile browsers.  It works on desktop computers for sure.  I am sure the next software update will fix the bug.  

[fujiyama]

Interesting changes. Although I don't get much use out of macros (cause I don't post much), still sad to see it go... Where will we store the paragraph-long copy needed for explaining how to use SIMon properly to new comers now!!?!?? 😛

...but seriously, it has its uses...

Thanks for the update though 🙂

[Naepalm]

@Tiana_V awesome to hear! Cant wait to see the new changes! 

Thank you for listening to our input!

[SD08]

Interesting changes.  Thanks for the update and for the new title, Tiana.

[Jb456]

Please bring back the "quote" option for mobile users. Been a few months now. Thanks!

[ShawnC13]

Thanks for the update Tiana, some interesting changes.

Glad to hear about the Retired Oracle title and have those recognized that has been a big part of this community!!

[Luddite]

I love experiments. Let's see what happens, eh? 

Experiment! What could go wrong?

[NDesai]

Step forward to make the community a better place.

[Staliger]

@Tiana_V Great changes! Thank you for improving the forum and community! Live long PM😉