Snapzu Barrier to Adoption
"Possible" Barrier to Adoption is what the title should have been... Sorry.
--Edit--
I've posted this elsewhere, but I wanted to try and see if I could get some traction on this thread while the flocks of Redditors are headed over here.
One of the big problems I've had with Snapzu, and why my community didn't adopt it for our "Forums", is the whole leveling bit. As a community leader, I'd have to go out and spend tons of time trying to level up just so I can start branding my "Snapzu" in order to get started using it. This really doesn't make a whole lot of sense IMHO.
You want Community Leaders to be able to instantly adopt and grow and build their group without having to dangle superficial carrots like "You can theme your Snapzu when you reach level 6!!". This to me is a cheap ploy to try and get folks hooked on a leveling system.
It may be fun and cute and great for some, but it's a huge barrier to entry for those of us that have communities that want to dive in and get started. But we can't because we have to "Level up".
http://exinferno.com/ <-- Our Community. I would love nothing more than to be able to migrate us to the Snapzu platform, but it sucks having to do so much work to even get started doing the work of branding your snapzu site.
sigh
Here's hoping that Snapzu takes a serious look at this and considers doing something to fix this problem.
Edit: I think it's awesome that people are upvoting and providing positive feedback about this post that is somewhat critical of Snapzu. Not really "Critical" but... Thanks Snapzu community!
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The leveling system has really been a massive success with users here. It prevents new members from spamming the site while not restricting you to the level that Voat does with their no downvotes until 100 upvotes policy (or something like that, I don't use voat). What improvements could you see for the system? Or do you just want it repealed?
It's also really fun and exciting!
Do you think they will look into "adding levels"? We're maxed out at level 50 at the moment right? It would be nice to add a couple of levels :) (although I am far from there, I think it must be a bit boring being level 50 and not getting those level ups anymore). Having a few more achievements would be cool too.
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I think you are underestimating the amount of activity required for level 50 haha. But still, I'm sure that they will tack on a couple of levels as more and more people reach it.
Not OP, but as a lowly user I definitely don't want to see it repealed. Does a community really need the bells and whistles of higher levels to be effective? I don't think so. Just bring the content and discussions.
It may be hard for folks who aren't already indoctrinated in the ways of Snapzu to understand my point. I'm simply trying to highlight what I see is a potential barrier to adoption for some folks. I know it was for me when I signed up on Snapzu however long ago. Our community probably would be 100% here now had I not felt like I needed to go crazy trying to "XP" whore myself to get to be able to use some of the very basic tools such as "Tribe Branding" for my community.
Well, I get that. I get that you only let people who are dedicated to your thing to make changes and do stuff, but on the other side of that coin, people are less likely to adopt something they can't make their own.
Imagine you've just bought a house (yes yes, I know I didn't purchase anything), but I wasn't able to paint my house or do anything until I had greased the local politicians and went down and picked up trash in the park for a few weeks, or whatever. It's going to be a lot less sexy for me to want to move to a place where I can't immediately start doing things to my plot of land without having to jump through hoops.
I don't know, perhaps that's the price you pay for a better system. I'm just saying what I've felt in the past, and still do at this point. (And hoping I can get some damned points so I can level up or something LOL -- so I CAN adopt Snapzu.)
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I actually kind of like the leveling up system myself! Provides a level of incentive to use the site more.