Communities in Need of Additional Forum Leaders
I've noticed that there are certain communities that seem like they would benefit from recruiting additional forum leaders.
List of communities with a high need for more forum leaders:
List of communities with a moderate need for more forum leaders:
Recommended action:
- Create a thread that identifies specific communities in need of forum support, invites interested/eligible users to apply for forum roles, and provides a link for applying to forum roles
- Create an announcement/alert for this thread, either weekly or bi-weekly
- Update the list of communities in that thread periodically as things evolve
How I identified these communities
1) Most active communities
Based on pulling all forum threads created over a 1-month period (8/26/21 - 9/25/21), these are the top 10 most active communities.
2) Communities where total forum activity exceeds the combined quota for all forum leaders
Based on the fact that all forum leaders have a quota of 10 posts/month, it's possible to estimate how many forum leaders a community would need in order to ensure that they stay afloat in responding to threads.
There are currently 12 communities where forum activity exceeds what forum leaders can reasonably be expected to handle.
Using the Relationship & Friendship Support community as an example:
- This community currently receives 290 threads/month.
- If each forum leader is meeting their quota and replying to 10 threads/month, there would need to be 29 forum leaders in order for the community to stay afloat.
- However, there are currently only 5 forum leaders. So there is a shortage of 24 leaders, and in actual practice each forum leader would need to reply to 58 threads/month on average in order to meet the community's needs. (I'm a Forum Supporter for this community and I'm on pace for 105 posts this month.)
3) Biggest Needs Reply queue
These are all communities where the Needs Reply queue is currently 5 or more. (The site-wide Needs Reply queue was 247 at the time that I looked.)
Tagging 1) CML's for the Sub-Communities Center and 2) CML's & CM's for the seven communities identified as "high need":
@CheeryMango @Mel @tami150 @Eudaimonia99 @bookworm274 @mamtasha22 @shiningSky3745 @starryskies108 @milkoreos @ouiCherie @PeaceLoveandPaws @pamharley003 @optimisticMagic0014 @EmmaE @blitheEmbrace27 @SnailPurple @lucy2 @cuteOrange213
@QuietMagic
Im not sure if this helps Any of these communities out, but Im a forum supporter for Support plus and also I’ve been replying to the needs reply queue. Please let me know where else I can be of help💜 I’d be glad to give an extra hand.
@sunshinegiraffe123
Hi--that's really kind of you to be interested in helping and it sounds like you're already doing a lot. 💜
If you feel like you have extra time/energy to give, then the communities listed at the top of my initial post are the ones that need the most help. If you feel comfortable and interested in responding to posts in need of reply in one or more of those communities, that would have a big impact.
I'd emphasize the "if you have extra time/energy to give" part. 😊 This issue is too big for any one person (or even a few people) to tackle on their own, which was what motivated me to create this thread. Having a small number of people trying to be superheroes, making extraordinary efforts to carry everything on their shoulders, and then burning themselves out after a few months isn't sustainable. In the long-term, it just leaves the site in the same predicament where it started. My dream scenario would be a high-level response at the subcommunity/site-wide level that 1) activates a large number of small contributions, and 2) helps steer those contributions toward the parts of the site that have the greatest need.
@QuietMagic
Great observation Magic! Depression Support, Anxiety Support and RF Support are always high in the NR queue.
We tried with the extra space and time we have. You've been a great help on RF 💜
We Will discuss this further and circle back with you.
@ouiCherie
Thanks for the support and validation! 💜
@QuietMagic I love these kind of posts! Thank you for really looking into it and problem solving what you see. This is really helpful!
@Mel
Thank you! I appreciate your considering my feedback. 💜
@QuietMagic
Thank you for making this post! I completely agree that the General Support forums need help. We have had a lot of changes in leadership over the past month, so things have been getting a little out of hand if I'm being honest. If anyone is interested in joining the team as a forum supporter, Teen Community Star, or Community Mod then please apply! We would love to have you onboarded :D
@SnailPurple
I'm glad that I wasn't completely off the mark. 😊 I hope that GS and the other communities are able to get more support. 💜
