YouView's first Champion
Tanja
Member Posts: 251
We here at YouView are very happy to introduce our first Champion to our forum. We have chosen Keith to be our first Champion and I am sure you will all agree that this is well deserved on his behalf. Keith has been incredibly helpful since day 1 of the forum, always trying to solve other people’s problems with the YouView box, guiding them to discussions or threads where they can find a solution to their problem and is overall a very active and respected member of this community.
YouView is more than happy to give Keith its first Champions badge.
We will also look to introduce some more champions gradually over next year and will be getting in touch with more outstanding community members that like sharing their knowledge of the YouView box, help new community members finding their way around our forum and perhaps remind members of our community guidelines if needed, to make this a great place for people to exchange their experiences with regards to YouView.
What’s in it for you we hear you ask? YouView will make sure there are some perks as a thank you for all your help.
YouView is more than happy to give Keith its first Champions badge.
We will also look to introduce some more champions gradually over next year and will be getting in touch with more outstanding community members that like sharing their knowledge of the YouView box, help new community members finding their way around our forum and perhaps remind members of our community guidelines if needed, to make this a great place for people to exchange their experiences with regards to YouView.
What’s in it for you we hear you ask? YouView will make sure there are some perks as a thank you for all your help.
0
Comments
well done Keith
I knew you would get the reward and recognition you deserve, who says hard work doesn't pay?
Well Done Keith and Seasons Greetings!
I would like to understand this Champion status, so have a couple of questions:
1) Tanja, have you provided a definition of what a champion is, or what the role involves?
I have searched throughout the forum, and surprise, surprise, the only description of the role i could find was provided by... er, well of course by Keith.
In a previous thread about the forum, Keith wrote:
' The Get Satisfaction system has the concept of a champerator which is a champion moderator. A champion status is something YouView bestow (or revoke) 'to acknowledge users who make a large contribution to the community and who fill an informal leadership role' and one may consider that they also need to see such people as universally respected etc. A champerator is a champion who also has customer moderator/administrator status.'
2) So is Keith a champerator and will he have moderator/administrator status?.
I'd like to say thank you to YouView for asking me to be the first YouView champion. Also thank you to everyone else who has posted congratulations above
To (partially) answer petkol's questions above:
1) Are there any guidelines for champions - yes YouView have drawn up some initial guidelines - you could say they broadly fit with what I have been doing anyway to date. YouView will perhaps publish the guidance going forwards although in effect they may still be shaping/polishing the champions program/process. Note the Get Satisfaction system and documentation in general has guidance on what a champion is and the YouView specific guidelines will be based upon that etc.
2) Am I a champerator - no I'm just a champion. YouView have an employee moderator and I see it as important that YouView continue to take an active part in moderating the forum, to manage any issues (e.g. bad language or inappropriate behaviour) and to manage certain stock answers and requests to contact YouView support direct etc.
If YouView were to create a champerator I would initially see that additional privilege as a tool to carefully and gently further help keep the forum running smoothly (e.g. minor corrections or improvements to topic titles, potentially changing the flags and categories on some topics (e.g. perhaps removing the answered flag from the manual padding topic and changing it to an idea or problem topic), merging duplicate topics). As such the role would be much more about curation rather than moderation.
So as a champion I will continue to do what I have been doing all along and the main obvious difference is that on posts my avatar has the blue champ border, label and badge (so a little bit like the YouView staff avatars have a green employee border and label). I still have no avatar although maybe I'll give some thought to creating one at some point to be even more recognisable
On the issue of moderation raised by petkol and picked up on by Keith, I'd like to repeat the sentiment I expressed in our earlier discussion about forum moderation.
There's clearly merit in having one or more forum members act as welcoming 'hosts' to help new members find their way around and show people where they can find answers to their queries.
This is what I understand the 'Champion' role to be.
But, and for me it's a big but, I'd find it unwelcome for any customer of YouView, no matter how widely respected, to gain the powers to actively moderate other customers.
Only a paid employee should have the ability - and in my opinion has the unchallenged authority - to tell posters that behaviour is inappropriate or unwelcome or to issue sanctions.
So the 'champerator' role isn't something I'd like to see adopted.
But, I would warn against him taking on moderator duties too (other than maybe keeping topics tidy and de-duplicated) as I have seen things turn nasty on other forums where a user-mod has been accused and abused of all sorts.
Like Martin and Gomez, I think the moderator duties should be left to employees of Youview - it is an official Youview forum after all.
As an aside, I had hoped that Tanja or another Youview employee might answer. I also hope that their intended announcement of more champions does not mean that they will give less input to the forum themselves.
John.
FWIW, we did have a second Champion, but his Championship was somewhat short-lived :-(