GovLoop Suggestions and Wishlist

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Darren Buck on March 19, 2009 at 12:13pm

How about adding a field to our profiles, and maybe a matching search function, for occupational series? For us Feds, we have these four-digit codes for our career fields, defined by OPM -- acquisition people are 1102, public affairs are 1035, etc etc. This may sound dopy and bureaucratic, but many feds identify themselves and find commonality with others based on their occupational series.

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Permalink Reply by Victor Koo on March 19, 2009 at 3:40pm

I signed up earlier in the week and am very impressed with the site. I have already referred all my colleagues to the site. One thing that is unique is the ranking system which encourages active participation. However, I think the scoring should be modified to only reward successful referrals instead of invites. This way people with a collection of 500+ email addresses cannot be easily rewarded by sending a mass email. Just a suggestion.

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Permalink Reply by Jeffrey Levy on September 30, 2009 at 12:21pm

I'd suggest polling people to see whether the points system matters to them. It doesn't to me, and it actually strikes me as a bit silly. I don't participate so I can see my name on a leaderboard.

If you find out most people don't care, I'd drop it entirely.

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Permalink Reply by Lynn Maker on October 8, 2009 at 4:32pm

I agree with Jeffrey, it's rather juvenile.

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Permalink Reply by April E. on November 20, 2009 at 10:27am

Ditto!

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Krzmarzick on February 19, 2010 at 10:31am

Good suggestion, Jeffrey. Human psychology seems to suggest that people like that...there's something about the "competition" of it that has an allure. It definitely gets a significant number of clicks.

But it's probably worth asking what people think of it to get some more feedback...

Regardless of your rank on that list, you are a Top 10 Gov Rockstar in my mind. And others seem to agree: Top 10 Government Twitters. Sshhhh...don't tell anyone, but I voted for you! :-)

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Permalink Reply by Chris Poirier on July 18, 2011 at 8:20am

This is certainly the case, Human Psychology that is, as most websites and gaming content have gone towards this model and for good reason.  It's why there are "badges", "awards", "achievements", etc in all things electonric these days. (Xbox even keeps track of how many years you've belonged to their Gold Service like its some type of achievement..lol.) The lack of these things really does result in a great deal of people just "passing through" instead of slowing down to check things out. 

 

I think the main issue here is that not EVERYONE really cares that much about it.  Maybe if there is a way to toggle such things on and off for profiles??

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Krzmarzick on February 19, 2010 at 10:33am

Thanks, Victor - and we're glad you joined! Appreciate the feedback, too.

I noticed that about the scoring...that you get points just for inviting...which we want, but it does skew the scoring a bit. We'll look into it.

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Permalink Reply by GovLoop on March 20, 2009 at 1:15pm

Thanks Darren for the suggestion. Occupational series is a little tough as we have a lot of state and local folks and I don't want to ask too many questions (I hate when people ask me to fill out like 50 questions to join something).

But I get what you are stating - it would be nice to search by type of work. I'm working on this and have a couple work-arounds right now - you can search by keywords so if you are looking for "HR" "Human Resources" you will find all those people. Also, I have featured a few groups by type - Gov 2.0 (tech folks), Comm (PA/PR folks), HR, and GovLeaders (leadership). And will start to feature the other major groups that exist like acq professionals, etc.

Thanks Victor. I'll see what I can do. Good suggestion. Minimally I may lower the points for inviting compared with participating (although you should still invite your friends :)

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Permalink Reply by Amanda Blount on August 15, 2009 at 1:47pm

Humm.. I suggested this to someone when I worked for them, and maybe it may work for you. You are right, No one likes to fill out 50 questions when joining something, especially if they join and realize they don't like it. But, once someone feels at home, they start decorating and making it their own. Maybe the profile could have a place to put job series. (of course you may already have this and I missed it). But, as people feel at home, they will update their profiles little by little. And this is one place they could choose to fill out, or not.

BTW - love the site!

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Permalink Reply by Melissa Merrell on May 12, 2009 at 9:53am

Hi Steve - I just thought of another suggestion for improving the group sites. Is there anyway to get a group badge - like I can get a personal one for my own website. I'd love to post a govloop "budgeteers" badge on the AABPA site.

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Permalink Reply by David Harrity on May 12, 2009 at 4:18pm

Suggestion (that people can do now). I've added a bit o' HTML to My Page.

Under My Page > Profile Information section I've linked to my Twitter, blog and other accounts.

For example:

< a target="blank" href="http://twitter.com/davidharrity">twitter.com/davidharrity< / a >

(NOTE: remove the spaces between the "<" ">" and the "a".

Not only does it allow a person to link to your Twitter page, but if you have things link Twirl installed on your PC, it will open a small Twirl window and you'll see the Tweets directly while still on Govloop.

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