Support AI Skill

Community Forum Support

Enable peer-to-peer customer support through moderated community forums, including gamification, expert identification, question routing, and content promotion to knowledge base. Use when launching a support community, designing forum moderation workflows,...

Community Forum & Peer Support

Enable customers to help each other through moderated community forums.

Workflow

Community Forum Setup

Trigger: New community launch; quarterly content review; forum optimization:

  1. Platform selection: Choose forum platform (Discourse, Vanilla Forums, Circle, or custom); configure branding, categories, permissions; set up SSO integration with product accounts.
  2. Category structure design: Define forum categories aligned with product areas and support types (Getting Started, Technical Help, Feature Requests, Announcements, Best Practices); create sub-categories as needed.
  3. Moderation framework: Define community guidelines; set up auto-moderation (spam filter, profanity filter); configure approval workflow for new users; establish moderator team (support agents + community managers).
  4. Gamification design: Create point/badge system (Badges: Helpful Answer, Expert, New Contributor, Top 10%); define leaderboard criteria; set up recognition program (monthly featured member, annual awards).
  5. Expert onboarding: Identify power users (high usage, engaged customers); invite to community with "Founding Member" badge; provide expert training (how to write helpful answers, community etiquette).
  6. Seed content: Pre-populate with 20–30 high-quality articles from knowledge base; pin important announcements; create "Welcome" and "How to use this forum" sticky posts.
  7. Launch: Soft launch to engaged customer segment (10–20%); monitor activity, content quality, sentiment; iterate on categories and guidelines; full launch to all users.
  8. Continuous moderation: Daily spam review; weekly quality audit; monthly content promotion (community answers → knowledge base); quarterly expert recognition.

Forum Category Structure

FORUM CATEGORY STRUCTURE — TEMPLATE
======================================

Category 1: Getting Started
  - Welcome & Introductions
  - Setup & Installation
  - First Steps Guide
  - FAQ: Getting Started

Category 2: Technical Help
  - General Questions
  - API & Integrations
  - Troubleshooting
  - Feature-Specific Help (sub-category per major feature)
  - Mobile App Issues

Category 3: Product Feedback
  - Feature Requests (with voting)
  - Bug Reports
  - Usability Feedback
  - Enhancement Ideas

Category 4: Best Practices & Tips
  - User Tips & Tricks
  - Use Case Sharing
  - Industry-Specific Solutions
  - Integration Examples

Category 5: Announcements
  - Product Updates
  - Maintenance Notices
  - Company News
  - Event Announcements

Category 6: Off-Topic
  - General Discussion
  - Events & Meetups
  - Introductions

Category Rules:
  - Max 8 top-level categories (cognitive overload above 8)
  - Sub-categories only when 50+ threads exist in parent
  - Quarterly review of category usage (merge/retire low-activity categories)

Gamification & Recognition

COMMUNITY GAMIFICATION — POINT SYSTEM
=======================================

Points Earned:
  Post a question:               5 points
  Answer a question:            10 points
  Answer marked as "Best":      25 points
  Answer gets 5+ upvotes:       15 points
  Share a tip/best practice:    20 points
  Report spam (verified):        2 points
  Complete profile:              10 points (one-time)
  Login streak (7 days):         5 points (weekly)

Badges:
  🌟 New Contributor:        First post
  💬 Active Member:          10 posts
  🏆 Helpful Expert:          50 "Best Answer" marks
  🔥 Hot Streak:              5 answers in one week
  📚 Knowledge Sharer:        100 posts total
  🎯 Top 10%:                 Top 10% by points (monthly)
  🛡️ Community Guardian:      20 spam reports
  👑 Hall of Fame:            1,000+ points (lifetime)

Leaderboards:
  Weekly Top 10 (reset every Monday)
  Monthly Top 10 (reset 1st of month)
  All-Time Top 50 (permanent)
  Category-specific leaders

Anti-Gaming Rules:
  Self-upvoting blocked
  Max 10 points per day from answering (encourages quality over quantity)
  Points from spam/violation posts revoked
  Minimum 24 hours between posting and self-answering
  Moderator can revoke points/badges for guideline violations

Recognition Program:
  Monthly: "Community Champion" email to Top 10 members + newsletter feature
  Quarterly: Webinar invitation for Top 20 members
  Annual: "Community Awards" ceremony (virtual or at customer conference)
  Perks: Early access to features, direct Slack access to product team, swag

Edge Cases

Integration Points