KUDOS - Giving and Recieving

[GailL1]

I assume the AARP community definition for KUDOS is still the same?  But I question how this rank - up or down - is being currently used especially in combination with other type participant rankings.

Kudos

What are Kudos?

Kudos is a content rating system that lets you vote for the messages you think are the most useful or important.

When you give kudos to a message, you are giving a thumbs-up for good content and a pat on the back to its author. Your kudos help to boost the value of certain messages and enhance the reputation of their authors.

Giving kudos is as easy as a single click, but the impact of kudos ripples across the community.

more about AARP Kudos at:

AARP Community: HELP - Kudos 

[fffred]

@GailL1 

I'm not certain if there have been changes to the Kudos feature recently that I haven't read up on. I'll have to check that out.

Some forums are very popular and Kudos seem to rain down from the heavens, without much regard for quality, thought, and effort. Other forums aren't trafficked as much yet the posts cry out for some hard effort to reply.

That "effort" might be emotional as, for example, of wading through the forum on grief and loss (I can't recall at the moment the actual name, but it pertains to people who have lost a loved one to death... a spouse, child, friend, parent, etc) This can be very difficult to  read and to try to cobble together a worthy reply. Specifically for the grief/loss forum I have on occasion traversed through there and tried to provide some helpful comments even though I am not terribly experienced in this area....it just bothers me to see people having pored their hearts out and be left with crickets. So when I see posts in this forum I am generous with Kudos.

Other forums are more technical and good replies can require a great deal of research, prior knowledge, and time in writing this all out and describing it. Such forums include the various ones for Social Security, Medicare, insurance, etc. Some posters must spend dozens of hours a week researching issues and providing exceptional help. Often these posts are not shown much appreciation in the form of Kudos. So, again, I am generous in these forums with my Kudos because I know from first hand experience that crafting these replies can be a lot of work, and the wisdom passed on is to be much appreciated. 

[GailL1]

@fffred and other responders -

Actually I brought this up because there seems to be a difference in the use description of the Kudos or thumbs up indicator.

• They count in giving people their ACE badge.  

https://community.aarp.org/t5/About-Our-Community/How-to-Become-an-Online-Community-ACE/td-p/2217254 

• They count in giving people their Posting ranking.  

https://community.aarp.org/t5/About-Our-Community/Community-Ranking-Structure/td-p/2262473 

• Then they made a change, I think 10/2020, and the KUDO meaning changed -

https://community.aarp.org/t5/About-Our-Community/How-to-Use-the-Icons/td-p/2334978 

from the link:

👍    This is a thumbs-up gesture. This emoji is used to express approval, praise, or like. The number next to the icon represents the number of people who have liked that post. On the previous version of the site, we used the word ''Kudos". The thumbs-up icon now takes the place of ''Kudos".

In my initial post that started this thread - I linked and copied what the AARP Help page says about them.

Kudos is a content rating system that lets you vote for the messages you think are the most useful or important.

No wonder there is confusion as to what they represent - I am confused 

Are Kudos for messages that are based on approval, praise or like ?

Are Kudos for messages that are the most useful of important?

Either way - if you want to improve your ranking or get and keep your ACE - rack them up - one way or the other, I guess.

[fffred]

@GailL1 

I read through the linked pages you included. I no longer seem to see "Kudos" mentioned on pages with posted threads. It seems that "Kudos" have been replaced by "Thumbs Up" but are equivalent and likely treated the same way. From the linked pages it seems that Kudos/Thumbs Up are used for several measurements in forum standing.

I agree with the customary usage of the thumbs up as "used to express approval, praise, or like " and that is how I use it. I may like based on some primal emotion (maybe the post is talking about The Dandy Warhols in the music forum) or I may be showing appreciation for the effort involved in putting together a post explaining complex matters about Medicare, Social Security, Insurance, etc. 

I think that people who gain the benefit of the hard-won wisdom on those technical issues should be more generous with "thumbs up" than seems to be the case. I do understand, the original poster may have just been "passing through" with a specific issue they needed help with and aren't really viewing this as a "community".

[GailL1]

@fffred -

Right, kudos are now changed to 👍 - seems the definition has also been modified -

I don't care which way but it does need to be clear, especially since the ACE Badge and the Community Ranking having a part in this.  

I know, I know . . . . what does it really matter???  So why have it at all ??

Here I will give you several (different post)  😋

[fffred]

@GailL1 

Gail... it's always something, isn't it?    :- )

Okay, I'll study this issue later. right now I'm on 7-8 minute hold for the "Marketplace" (healthcare.gov). I made the mistake of clicking on a link in my wife's health insurance account. Now I fully understand the lesson of "click bait", because that's all that link at Blue Cross was... click bait. It has led me into hours of wasted time and great annoyance. And I think it was meaningless anyway! well, I am just ranting now, a way to spend time while on hold.

It's always something, isn't it!

[Rhymesometimes]

@fffred We definitely need more people posting and responding.  Continue to see a small core group of people who do the majority of posts.  Surely, there are many that read these post daily and don't respond or post their own topics.  Wish we could have more join the ranks and put quality content out there. Whether it is informational, educational, to build community, or just entertaining, we can do better.   

[GailL1]

@Rhymesometimes 

We could all register and re-register using different screen names and we could multiply, at least to the newbies.  (Just Joking - )

[Rhymesometimes]

@GailL1 Kudo for creativity and humor.   ---  Rhymes

[nctarheel]

These forums are poorly operated.

Moderators mete out disciplinary actions in an inconsistent manner.

The subject outlines for the forums are boring to say the least. My God.... how's the weather where you are.... you can look that up on weather.com.

If the forums were of more interest and not meant to put one to sleep, then there would be more participants.

After all, doesn't AARP tout that it has 38,000,000 members. If that is so, then if only one hundredth of one percent responded, we'd have 3800 respondents.

[Rhymesometimes]

@nctarheel Wow, with those stats, we should definitely have more participating! 

As far as quality of content, I guess it would be helpful to know what people are looking for when they come in to the on-line community.  Are they looking to connect with other people on a personal level, sharing a cause or topic, intelligent dialogue about a wide circle of interest , for information, for entertainment, to be encouraged or other reasons? Then it ( the community) could build around that.  What I find heart-breaking are newbies that aren't being welcomed and encouraged to actively join in.

As far as the "Kudo Conundrum" ( sounds very official! ) I probably give kudos out pretty lavishly to those who post and for those who respond to my posts.  The reason . . . because there seems to be such low participation in general on the forums. ( There are a few that have lots of traffic, and I say awesome!  They have found one of the sweet demographic spots. )

I plan on continuing to post in my little niche that has happed in the last two weeks. In Entertainment on the Leisure & Lifestyle forum with "Start A Story" that is a collaborative on-going story, and "Writing Rhymes" with fun limericks or silly short poems in general. Participation on both welcomed. You can PM with questions. I'll also flit around now and then to other forums occasionally.