Member signatures provide context, bragging rights for TechRepublic community

by Beth Blakely | Dec 20, 2004 9:30:00 PM

Tags: Beth Blakely, member signature

Takeaway: Check out the latest improvement to TechRepublic's Discussions and Technical Q & A.

Member signatures provide context, bragging rights for TechRepublic community

TechRepublic has recently embarked on a mission to improve its community features. You may have already noticed the first of these planned enhancements, the member signature. The new signature feature provides detailed information about our members within their posts. Figure A shows the member signature of BFilmFan.

Figure A

TechRepublic's new member signature feature

This signature element provides information like the posting members' job role, location, and their length of membership. You may also link to see all posts made by that member, view their complete profile, or send a private message (if the member has elected to allow that service in their Peer Directory Listing). This background information provides context to member's postings and, hopefully, will allow you to make better decisions about which member solutions to try first.

TechRepublic's Top 100

TechRepublic signatures also allow you to see the member's level of participation, or Site Activity Rating. The Rating, which is represented by a status meter, shows how active the member has been within the TechRepublic Discussion Forums and Technical Q&A over the past 30 days. If applicable, the member is also ranked as part of TechRepublic's Top 100 Members. BFilmFan is currently number one on the Top 100, as shown in Figure B. To see the rest of the top 100, simply click the link on the member signature or go directly to the Top 100 page.

Figure B

TechRepublic's Top 100 Members

Future plans for TechRepublic community

We're planning a phased rollout of new community features in the coming year and are bouncing those ideas around with an elite group of "TR Insiders," who've proven themselves as loyal active members.

We don't want to give too much away, but we've got dozens of new features in the works. However, we'd love to get your take.

If you have an idea for improving TechRepublic's community, don't hesitate to let us know. We're listening.

Print/View all Posts Comments on this article

Very NiceAcesKaraoke  | 12/20/04

not in the top 100 yetapotheon  | 12/20/04

Thank youAcesKaraoke  | 12/21/04

quite welcomeapotheon  | 12/21/04

Had a good day...AcesKaraoke  | 12/21/04

hehapotheon  | 12/21/04