Specialized User Groups

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Digital

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So this is something VPL had, and I hadn't really thought about it here, but it got a vote in our what we could do topic so wanted to explore it more.

What I would like to avoid:

What I seen at VPL with it was a lot of people with titles for things they no longer really participated in. As members came and went they kept titles that no longer indicated what they really offered to the site. There were artists that really never posted in the art sections, and game owners with defunct games that never posted about game design or development.

Does having a title that points you out as an artist or programmer offer value in a marketplace?

I ask this question, do you feel this offers value to you as a person looking for work? I feel that a strong thread on the marketplace is more valuable then being part of a user group. What are your guys thoughts?

 
I definitely think having a title Artist / Programmer definitely adds value in the marketplace. I would often receive a message on VPL for programming related stuff purely based on the fact I was around/online and had a programmer title on my profile/posts, but I also agree that a strong thread is just as effective.

Could it be possible that they only keep their title if posted say in the last 30 days, otherwise they default back to Member?

 
PaulSonny brings up some points worth looking into. If it is true that titles help get attention, then I think they're helpful for both those looking for services and those that are offering theirs. I also think the title removal idea after thirty days of not posting will help reduce the amount of outdated titles. Maybe people can reapply in a simple way when they are active again? 

The other thing I would suggest is having a standard for those with titles. You need to hit certain criteria to get the title (basically anyone could get a writer's title on that other forum, for example). I would ideally like to see a page built for these title holders that showed reviews from users and allowed me to easily look through all the programmers or artists.

Would it be helpful to have two types of titles for each category (one that reflected that the user was open to work and one that showed they were not)? This way, users can know who to send a request or not, it would help give validity to users' posts in the forum if they had a title in the respective field, and users would not need to remove their titles if they were no longer interested in selling services. 

 
Agreed that titles seemed to have value in the marketplace. I don't mind titles being outdated personally, since it doesn't hurt to have them (not sure if impacts anything in a negative way). You can usually tell when someone's open for work because they'll post about it, and you can tell if someone is still active (so having the title removed doesn't seem like it would make any difference to me, it would just be something you have to hassle with to keep up).  I'm not totally sure though, that's just been my experience. =D

 
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Before VPL went down, I had begun combing through the approved artists and there were a lot of really old accounts, or ones with only a post or so. I had spent maybe 3 hours purging and I had only just gotten through a couple of letters with the usernames organized alphabetically. (I think to H)

So just as a tip, you'd want to keep on top of that! 

But I agree with Hare in the sense that it was usually pretty easy to find out who was active and looking for work anyway.

 
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