What does engaged mean in your community?

community
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For those people that track monthly metrics, what constitutes an engaged member?
Someone that has made at least one post in the timeframe?
Or does a like count as an engagement?

2 Likes
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At minimum they have to visit as a logged in user, of course. That is a prerequisite to everything else.

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3

I would think the following metrics for a given time period can help:

  • Percentage of topics read vs total topics created
  • Percentage of posts read vs total posts created
  • Average time spent per session
  • Number of replies (Should be given more weight since contributing a post helps build content in a community)
  • Number of likes
4

Thatā€™s what I classify as an ā€˜activeā€™ user.

In the case of most communities Iā€™d say that an ā€˜engagedā€™ user was someone that had made at least one post but Iā€™m wondering if there are people that would consider a ā€˜likeā€™ (or some other type of engagement) as enough.

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Read time is unique to Discourse, since we track actual screen time per second per post, so we can actually distinguish between ā€œvisitedā€ and ā€œread a bunch of stuffā€.

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So maybe a more accurate description of ā€˜activeā€™ in a Discourse community is ā€˜has read stuffā€™.

Still interested in what the consensus on ā€˜engagedā€™ is.

7
  • read time, as mentioned by Jeff.
  • number of times logged in during the past month (usual returning a user to the forum); as sometimes users are engaged but they donā€™t find stuff to read.

p.s.: these two can easily lead to creation of topics or replies or likes or ā€¦ . so the rest behaviors can be considered as the consequences of reading.

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But if people are just logging in and reading, theyā€™re not engaging, right?

For the purpose of this discussion, it is safe to assume that logged in users and active users (who are reading stuff) are already covered.

What Iā€™m asking now is what qualifies as engaging ā€“ i.e. the next step ā€“ in your community.

3 Likes
9

if they are not engaged, why do they continue reading?

they have the choice to leave, but they donā€™t.

Iā€™m afraid writing needs some external motivation rather than engagement to the community, e.g. Iā€™ve problem and I post it to the forum just to get the helps, does it mean Iā€™m engaged to the forum?

p.s.: I agree the without definitions the discussion will not proceed well. so far my definition of active is the ones who posts and gets like, and engaged the one who listens & talk the time needed. I canā€™t measure posting in the needed time, so I just measure read time!

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I think weā€™re arguing semantics rather than the concept here.

You use different terminology and thatā€™s cool.

Youā€™ve answered my question inadvertently ā€“ you consider a like to be what I call an engagement.

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11

So ā€œactiveā€ but not engaged = ā€œlurkingā€?

I guess engaging could be stuff like changing Preference settings and tracking levels. But to me thatā€™s more like being involved with the forum than engagement with the community.

Starting a topic and posting a reply are ways to engage as are messaging.

@ mentions happen within posts. Then there are Likes, Shares, and Flags. I think Likes and Flags count as engaging, but Iā€™m not sure if sharing is more like promoting.

4 Likes
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Doesnā€™t every community have its committed members who contribute for the sake of contributing to the community?

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yes they have. anyway, I think the question is more about a good metric for measuring engaged users. and the comparison between

  • getting likes,
  • posting topics/replies,
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There isnā€™t a unique engaged level. Choosing 1 month as a good timeframe, we have to split into

  • passive (read a lot, no post)
  • sligtly active (read a lot, 1-2 post or % )
  • active (read a lot, at least 10 posts and 20 visits)
  • power user (regular)

If we wanna talk about just one metric, posting at least 1 time in the last month is ā€œengagedā€ for me.

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Rather than specific metrics, Iā€™m trying to clarify whether people consider a ā€˜likeā€™ to quantify a member as engaged, or whether they have to actually post.

I didnā€™t realise I was going to be opening such a can of worms!

This is exactly what I needed.

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Ironically, for some people posting seems to be much ā€œeasierā€ than liking. One of my most active users is still TL1 because he hasnā€™t liked a single postā€¦

To answer your question: I would not consider a like enough but would require a post for the user to qualify as engaged.

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I forgot to mention Invites. I think I would consider an invite to someone that wasnā€™t a forum member to be more promotion, but inviting a forum member into a topic could be considered to be community engagement.

I guess my razor is whether a member ā€œtouchesā€ another member in some way or if they are ā€œtouchingā€ the impersonal forum.

1 Like