cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Proposals to reform the treatment of posts/replies/threads from administrative actions in the forum

Zyl
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

I have formally posted the following earlier today to the thread "Welcome to the New Community" as suggested to me for suggestions to the community forum but my post was removed and instead that thread is now pinned which I take is no longer allowing new replies to be posted with no explanation nor prior notice given.  So I am creating a new thread to address this issue.  Thank you.  Below is my original post. 

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

 

@J_PM, hope you are having a good morning. Can I ask you to take a look at some of the suggestions that I have raised in my previous thread titled "Disappearing Solutions" regarding the loss of bravo's/solutions due to the moving/merging of posts/replies/threads? Bottom line: I feel members shouldn't lose bravo's/solutions as a result of administrative actions. So I would like to propose the following:

 

Proposal 1: Most ideally, anything that is done in the forum aside from members' own action including but not limited to moving/merging of replies/threads/posts shouldn't have any impact on the bravo's/solutions earned by the members. This way I find would be a lot easier in that whoever needs to move/merge posts/replies/threads can freely do so and the bravo's/solutions are left untouched and our community rewards calculations are unimpacted. 

 

Proposal 2: If the above cannot be accommodated, is there any way that bravo's/solutions do not count towards the calculation of community rewards? So this way, community rewards are calculated purely on participation? And any removal and modification of replies/posts/threads are done by Public Mobile personnel only? This is a cop-out I find to my first proposal as it removes a form of sorta "quality control" in order to ensure the quality of the posts but it nevertheless removes the possibility of members' ability to earn community rewards impacted by a particular group of customers, the Oracles. And this will make it easier for everybody. And if one can go a step further, one can even eliminate the concept of "Solutions" and everybody will just get bravo's or at least not count solutions towards the calculation of the community reward. To me, all answers are really good and all can qualify as solutions so it's kind of redundant to pick one reply and designate it as "Solution" when it's just identical to the rest of the replies. Right now, the moving/merging of posts/replies/threads don't really affect bravo's; it's just the solutions that get impacted.

 

Proposal 3: This is the least favourite proposal perhaps, imo but I will throw it in here also as another alternative if the previous two proposals cannot be accommodated. That is we do not move/merge posts/replies/threads at all. With the elimination of categories in each board, there is really no need to move threads around. With labels there, people can see clearly the subject matter of the question being asked. As to the consolidation and merging of threads/posts/replies, although I understand that it does have some merit from an administrative point of view, in reality it doesn't really have any practical benefit imo. People who come onto the community to ask for help do not bother to search anyway because they see asking questions in the community as a way to log a ticket to get their issues resolved and many times they feel their issue is of an urgent nature and also that their problem/issue is an unique one so they really don't have the patience nor the desire to search through the forum to find similar threads to read through them to get a solution. So even with all the similar threads consolidated and merged, people are still going to be creating new threads for their issue.

 

Thank you for your attention and consideration in advance. Please keep us updated.

12 REPLIES 12

darlicious
Mayor / Maire

@Zyl 

Well you might find these an interesting read and give you some history on the subject.

 

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/The-Lounge/Discussions-vs-Lounge/m-p/423402#M2268

 

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Get-Support/Threads-going-off-topic/m-p/456654#M33390...

 

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Get-Support/Threads-going-off-topic/td-p/456654#M3339...

 

And for what can really go off the rails.....

 

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/The-Lounge/Humour-and-other-misc-stuff-TAKE-TWO/td-p/...

 

Happy reading up on recent history! There will be a pop quiz......

 

 

 

To contact customer support click below:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/22437

To pre-verify your account include your full name, address, email, phone # and 4 digit acct pin #.

Zyl
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

@darlicious wrote:

@Zyl 

You bring up some interesting possibilities especially with the idea of taking solutions out of the calculation. That would take some of the competition out of gaining the solution making it more of a high five for a job well done and if the chosen solution is correct but not necessarily on the best answer or just the last answer by way of the OP thinking they are closing the thread then the member should be less offended if the solution is changed as the goal should always be:

 

"The community is only as good as the information we provide."

 

It would also be nice if more members when given a solution they know full well should be given to another member would admit it and ask the OP to change it or after a day or two request that an Oracle choose the solution. The same goes for self solutions. Leave the thread without a solution and allow an oracle to choose the solution and explain why a self solution was chosen.

 

While I recieve criticism for my choices I do on a regular basis question the reasoning behind why an oracle has chosen a particular post. Especially in the beginning of my time here it was purely to learn but I nowadays when I question a solution its about why one reply is chosen over another when they appear to be the same and the time posted isn't a factor or if the chosen solution conflicts with confirmed information or new information. But I struggle to question a solution if my post is a factor as it is not the solution I seek for myself just the best solution for the OP and/or future members seeking their own solution.

 

But how do you weight solutions to how bravos or posts are weighted? This month revealed a member with highly suspect accounts bravoing their posts to the tune of 4 or 5 bravos on nearly every post regardless of the quality of the post. It's reminiscent of the issue created within the top contributors thread where a member could target their posts to achieve maximum pay off for their efforts (or lack there of) with one well placed post per month would guarantee a top 50% reward by garnering 25 or 30 bravos for posting "Congratulations! Keep up the good work."

 

Two or three posts in the right announcement threads would guarantee a top 25% reward...not bad for 5 minutes of work. Does a member deserve a reward for this kind of participation? Or does a member who posts 75 to 100 of somewhat helpful posts but with highly suspect bravos that put them in the top 5% badge level deserve to be there when another member who works diligently in helping an OP troubleshoot an unusual problem or whose well rounded knowledge allows them to post 600 posts per month but only garners a bravo 75% of the time putting them in a lower badge level deserve to be in a lower badge level because another is employing "gaming" techniques?

 

While redundant or obvious post padding can be dealt with by an oracle archiving posts they hold no power over questionable bravos. Other than moving the posts to the archive or to the lounge which does a disservice to the purpose of the lounge how does pm deal with these issues or direct the oracles to deal with these issues? Consolidating all the former boards into 3 has now compounded the issue by not offering a board that still has valid discussions about phones, public mobile and the community that pm could choose to weight the merit of the posts and bravos and possible solutions in that board in its calculation of the top secret formula for community rewards.

 

I have long advocated for the inclusion of all boards in the calculation of the community reward formula and that changing the weight of value put on each board on a regular basis be it monthly or quarterly or longer would encourage all around participation by all members. New members would feel less intimidated by lightning fingered regulars but still feel that they were able to contribute and possibly earn a reward even if it's just $1 or 1 point.

 

Part of the community's purpose should be encouraging participation. The more a new member comes to the community and feels welcomed  and comfortable the more they will eventually learn about how to manage their account and service and the less likely they will need to contact customer support unless absolutely necessary. This is what is commonly missed by members insisting on only direct support related posts being rewarded.

 

So many enthusiastic new members join the community and ask how to earn a community reward only to be told you would be better off collecting cans and bottles off the street....dont come here for the reward. Guess what happens? We see them a couple of years from now wondering why their autopay failed? What a way to lay out the welcome mat....to new members?!!🤔

 

 

 

 

To contact customer support click below:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/22437

To pre-verify your account include your full name, address, email, phone # and 4 digit acct pin #.


My purpose of taking the solutions out or not having it count towards the calculation of the community reward is that it would decouple the Oracle's administrative functions from potentially affecting negatively the amount of community rewards due to the fact that merging and moving of the threads and replies and posts erases Solutions given and that the software currently being used to maintain the Community is not able to preserve Solutions when threads are merged and moved. 

 

If the Solutions can be preserved when threads/posts/replies are merged, then I wouldn't mind having the Solutions there even given its subjective nature and its redundancy.   Unless Solutions do not count towards the calculation of our community rewards, having Oracles picking solutions only makes Solutions more subjective in nature and affects even our community reward even more so I don't agree with that.  

 

The bottom line is decoupling the Oracle's administrative functions from potentially affecting negatively the amount of community rewards earned by members.  We are Public Mobile's customers, not the Oracles' customers.  Oracle's are there to administrate the community site but they shouldn't be touching our community rewards.  Community rewards should only be taken away or given by Public Mobile directly and not through another group of customers like the Oracles.  This is stated nowhere in their terms and conditions.  That's all I know that's all I want to advocate.  Everything else is way above my pay grade. LOL 

 

And again, @J_PM, can you advise why this thread is moved to The Lounge when it's related to Public Mobile.  I wanted to create the post originally in the "Welcome To The New Community" but the Oracles pinned it so I had no choice but to create in "Get Support".  I thought "The Lounge" is supposed to be for anything that is not related to Public Mobile or phones; it's suppsed to be for our personal hobbies and etc.  "Proposals to reform the treatment of posts/replies/threads from administrative actions in the forum" is not my hobby.  LOL   And I saw another thread discussing the points reward system titled "Public Points AKA Bait and Switch" was also moved to The Lounge, so as a result, I lost at least 2 bravo's earned along with everyone who posted in the two threads and got bravo'ed.  This is why I proposed earlier that moving threads to The Lounge should only be done by Public Mobile personnel only or at least with Public Mobile's personnel's approval.  

 

Thank you 

 

darlicious
Mayor / Maire

@Zyl 

You bring up some interesting possibilities especially with the idea of taking solutions out of the calculation. That would take some of the competition out of gaining the solution making it more of a high five for a job well done and if the chosen solution is correct but not necessarily on the best answer or just the last answer by way of the OP thinking they are closing the thread then the member should be less offended if the solution is changed as the goal should always be:

 

"The community is only as good as the information we provide."

 

It would also be nice if more members when given a solution they know full well should be given to another member would admit it and ask the OP to change it or after a day or two request that an Oracle choose the solution. The same goes for self solutions. Leave the thread without a solution and allow an oracle to choose the solution and explain why a self solution was chosen.

 

While I recieve criticism for my choices I do on a regular basis question the reasoning behind why an oracle has chosen a particular post. Especially in the beginning of my time here it was purely to learn but I nowadays when I question a solution its about why one reply is chosen over another when they appear to be the same and the time posted isn't a factor or if the chosen solution conflicts with confirmed information or new information. But I struggle to question a solution if my post is a factor as it is not the solution I seek for myself just the best solution for the OP and/or future members seeking their own solution.

 

But how do you weight solutions to how bravos or posts are weighted? This month revealed a member with highly suspect accounts bravoing their posts to the tune of 4 or 5 bravos on nearly every post regardless of the quality of the post. It's reminiscent of the issue created within the top contributors thread where a member could target their posts to achieve maximum pay off for their efforts (or lack there of) with one well placed post per month would guarantee a top 50% reward by garnering 25 or 30 bravos for posting "Congratulations! Keep up the good work."

 

Two or three posts in the right announcement threads would guarantee a top 25% reward...not bad for 5 minutes of work. Does a member deserve a reward for this kind of participation? Or does a member who posts 75 to 100 of somewhat helpful posts but with highly suspect bravos that put them in the top 5% badge level deserve to be there when another member who works diligently in helping an OP troubleshoot an unusual problem or whose well rounded knowledge allows them to post 600 posts per month but only garners a bravo 75% of the time putting them in a lower badge level deserve to be in a lower badge level because another is employing "gaming" techniques?

 

While redundant or obvious post padding can be dealt with by an oracle archiving posts they hold no power over questionable bravos. Other than moving the posts to the archive or to the lounge which does a disservice to the purpose of the lounge how does pm deal with these issues or direct the oracles to deal with these issues? Consolidating all the former boards into 3 has now compounded the issue by not offering a board that still has valid discussions about phones, public mobile and the community that pm could choose to weight the merit of the posts and bravos and possible solutions in that board in its calculation of the top secret formula for community rewards.

 

I have long advocated for the inclusion of all boards in the calculation of the community reward formula and that changing the weight of value put on each board on a regular basis be it monthly or quarterly or longer would encourage all around participation by all members. New members would feel less intimidated by lightning fingered regulars but still feel that they were able to contribute and possibly earn a reward even if it's just $1 or 1 point.

 

Part of the community's purpose should be encouraging participation. The more a new member comes to the community and feels welcomed  and comfortable the more they will eventually learn about how to manage their account and service and the less likely they will need to contact customer support unless absolutely necessary. This is what is commonly missed by members insisting on only direct support related posts being rewarded.

 

So many enthusiastic new members join the community and ask how to earn a community reward only to be told you would be better off collecting cans and bottles off the street....dont come here for the reward. Guess what happens? We see them a couple of years from now wondering why their autopay failed? What a way to lay out the welcome mat....to new members?!!🤔

 

 

 

 

To contact customer support click below:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/22437

To pre-verify your account include your full name, address, email, phone # and 4 digit acct pin #.

Zyl
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

@Community_QA wrote:

@Zyl   "purely on participation".. how to quantify this?  I see my profile page has these:

Total Signins          Total Minutes Online

should we use this?

 

or by posts?  Just this week we "finished" a case of a troublemaker.  He just keep copy and paste non-sense without even reading the post question.    So, would posts count be fair?

 

not by Accepted Solutions?  then that will encourage more people like whom i just talked about to do the same.  Even now, I see another person keep posting one line asking any OP to message CS Agent.  Yes, that fellow is like another S--S in the beginning.  just send everyone to CS Agent.  , since he asks nothing and he not care to help, he always the first post and earned the Solution.  You think this is fair?

 

So, so far we learned,

1. count by posts is not good, because people posting garbage

2. count by bravos is not good because people bravos friends and create fake account

3. you don't want to count accepted solution because you think you got taken away

 

Why not just give a flat rate of $1 to everyone just participate?

 


@Community_QA   This is what we are earning anyway with Oracles moving posts to The Lounge just because they judge that they are not support-related and merging threads all over the place erasing Solutions that people have given. Our earning of community rewards are essentially dictated and capped by Oracles who really customers just like us and not by Public Mobile.  We signed up to be customers of Public Mobile and instead we became customers of the Oracles.  LOL   

Community_QA
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

@Zyl   "purely on participation".. how to quantify this?  I see my profile page has these:

Total Signins          Total Minutes Online

should we use this?

 

or by posts?  Just this week we "finished" a case of a troublemaker.  He just keep copy and paste non-sense without even reading the post question.    So, would posts count be fair?

 

not by Accepted Solutions?  then that will encourage more people like whom i just talked about to do the same.  Even now, I see another person keep posting one line asking any OP to message CS Agent.  Yes, that fellow is like another S--S in the beginning.  just send everyone to CS Agent.  , since he asks nothing and he not care to help, he always the first post and earned the Solution.  You think this is fair?

 

So, so far we learned,

1. count by posts is not good, because people posting garbage

2. count by bravos is not good because people bravos friends and create fake account

3. you don't want to count accepted solution because you think you got taken away

 

Why not just give a flat rate of $1 to everyone just participate?

 

Zyl
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

@ShawnC13 wrote:

@Zyl threads without solutions really doesn't make sense. It helps people funds it what worked to solve the issue they may have.  Yes sometimes the wind solution is chosen and if brought to my attention I will correct it. As you said you have seen better replies that don't get the solution, so should it be removed from what the person who started the thread chose?  Sometimes it should and sometimes not.  Some replies come in hours later when the issue was resolved. So if I was to remove it and put it to the one with more info is that beneficial?  Yes it is more complete but if it comes way later than the post that was chosen and helped the person I won't change it.  


Yeah but all of the replies to the questions are really identical and would all work to resolve the issue.  So to have one marked as Solutions might sound good in theory but in practical terms really are unnecessary.  I am not proposing to remove a solution that's already given.  I am proposing to not have Solutions at all or to not have Solutions to be counted as part of the community rewards if Public Mobile absolutely wants the OP to be able to mark a reply as the Solution just to show that that's the reply that works the best for the issue. 

 

The goal here is not have any administrative actions undertaken to impact the calculations of members' community rewards.  I am NOT having my $$ that I earned, no matter how trivial it may be taken away by what a group of customers does as part of their administrative tasks.  That's the bottom line.  By removing Solutions from the calculations of community rewards from this point on, we would be able to decouple the administrative duties from the calculations of our community reward.  If Public Mobile is committed in rewardingly community members fairly for their efforts and not to see it being eroded by administrative duties that needed to be done, then this is a pretty fair resolution that I have come up with.  I hope @J_PM from Public Mobile can see this. 

 

Thank you      

@Zyl threads without solutions really doesn't make sense. It helps people funds it what worked to solve the issue they may have.  Yes sometimes the wind solution is chosen and if brought to my attention I will correct it. As you said you have seen better replies that don't get the solution, so should it be removed from what the person who started the thread chose?  Sometimes it should and sometimes not.  Some replies come in hours later when the issue was resolved. So if I was to remove it and put it to the one with more info is that beneficial?  Yes it is more complete but if it comes way later than the post that was chosen and helped the person I won't change it.  

 


I am happy to help, but I am not a Customer Support Agent please do not include any personal info in a message to me. Click HERE to create a trouble ticket through SIMon the Chatbot *

Zyl
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle


@ShawnC13   Ok then perhaps Public Mobile can consider eliminating Solutions or removing Solutions from the calculation of the community rewards.  That way we still have the bravo's in place to ensure some quality control (if the creator of the thread can be reminded in some way to give bravo's when they are due) of the replies and they do not actually get removed when posts/replies/threads are moved/merged.  So that way whatever the administrative duties that need to be performed will not impact members' community reward calculations which is the goal that I am looking to see being achieved.  Right now, it's only the solutions that are getting impacted when a thread/post/reply is moved/merged and from my observations, solutions are really not that needed.  People are motivated enough with bravo's to give quality answers and solutions are a bit of an overkill and many times are not even an accurate indication of really the best answer provided.  So many times I see a reply that is far superior than others and yet it's not chosen as the Solution.  So if solution is not implemented at all or if it's not included in the calculation of the community rewards, then I would think it would make it easier for everybody.  All administrative actions can be freely carried out and members' community rewards are not affected. 

 

Hope this helps. 

ShawnC13
Oracle
Oracle

@Zyl  it is great to see your interest and passion in helping customers and coming up with ideas to possibly improve things around here.

 

1. I don't think there is a way for the software to capture any solutions that may be lost in threads that are combined, but PM might be able to look into it.

2. Having a purely participation-based reward has no incentive to have people make quality posts. If it is purely only by the number of posts why would anyone put thought and effort into a post when someone can just post a random thing and earn the same reward.  (We basically have just gone through this and it was not a very happy community with what was going on) To me this proposal would be the end of the community as we came close to that recently.  I have always said the community is only as good as the information provided,  If the rewards get based on quantity instead of quality we are in for some serious trouble.

 

3.  Just this past week we would have had like 45 threads about "I received an email about joining the new rewards program and I didn't do that"  That wouldn't help anyone as the community could get flooded with potentially 100's of the same threads.  People need to do a better job informing the people they refer as to how Public Mobile works.  I would say most people are here because they are referred.  People just looking for the quick $1/ 1pt are doing a disservice to their referral and PM if they don't fully explain how PM works including the community and how they are to access support from the agents.

 


I am happy to help, but I am not a Customer Support Agent please do not include any personal info in a message to me. Click HERE to create a trouble ticket through SIMon the Chatbot *

Zyl
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

@benfatto   It's ok.  I won't.  As a participating member of the community, I thought I put it out there when I see something that can be changed for the better.  It is for the benefit of all.   

benfatto
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

Don't hold your breath waiting for changes. The idea to create the Lounge for discussions unrelated to customer support took about 3 years. 

0PX9O4
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

Some great ideas there @Zyl 👍🏼

Need Help? Let's chat.