I am not sure if these forums are administered by paid staff moderators or volunteer moderators from the community but I had an idea that I'd like to share with hopes of generating more community involvement from a volunteer perspective. If these forums are moderated and supported by paid staff, then I realize that they are getting a monetary incentive to by doing their job as a support technician. However, if these forums are moderated by volunteers of loyal Blackberry users, it would be great to reward them for their efforts and help grow peer support amongst one another. There are a lot of members who offer plenty of comments and solutions and that kind of thing takes effort, persistence, loyalty, patience and knowledge. It would be nice to acknowledge and reward such effort.
Basically, my thoughts were to take the current like system and turn it into a type of reward/point system for those who take the time to help one another answering others technical suport issues. Liked posts could be rewarded by app promo codes and possibly even giveaways of promotional Blackberry accessories at certain predetermined point thresholds. Top monthly advisors could also be recognized for their involvement.
I'd also like to see a dislike button added beside the like button so the community themselves could determine the ratings an answer receives to the questions posed. Highly disliked rated posts would be ignored and have a visual flag as something to skip over. The real forum moderators would also be able to see at a glance which posts needed proper administration (delete/ban/edit/etc).
By empowering us to "earn your keep" around here so to speak, you will generate quality positive interaction among the Blackberry community and police the negative and distracting complaints. It would also be nice to have a forum where the community could give suggestions and ideas to help RIM improve their products and service. Adding polls would be fun and interesting also. I think you'd find that your community wants to help YOU help US. We bought a Blackberry device because we're not happy with market alternatives. We're loyal and engaged customers who have invested in the hardware and software from your company and we want RIM to succeed. Let us help improve the products and services so everybody wins. Reward those who are interested in your success.
Thoughts?
