​🧠​ Dopamine = User Engagement ​ 👍 ❤️💭💡 ​

[[Je...]]

 

Hello Zeiss Forum Moderators,

I want to personally thank you for launching this new centralized format. Great job! There are many strong advancements, including the improved search 🔎 functionality.

This is, however, an opportunity to acknowledge a real potential failure point—and an opportunity for improvement.

 

:: Where's the "Love"? ::    👍 ❤️💭💡  

Modern online communities live or die by one critical metric: engagement. No matter how valuable the content, the ecosystem thrives only when users are actively participating—reading, posting, and returning regularly. These behaviors are deeply tied to neurobiology and psychology. The major social platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram know this well; they are engineered around principles of reward-based behavior.

The current centralized format is sterile and nearly absent of the modern, proven engagement tools.

When users receive feedback, whether through likes, reactions, or notifications, their brain releases dopamine, reinforcing neural pathways and making repeat actions more likely.

Also known as the Loop of Reciprocity, acknowledgment mechanisms such as “likes” or upvotes generate a virtuous cycle: users who post receive validation, and those engaging feel connected and valued. This reciprocity strengthens community bonds and increases participation over time.

It boils down to whether we want this forum to serve as a static repository of information or an active, thriving hub.  I vote for the latter.
 

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Actionable Suggestions to Improve Engagement:

1. Improved Reaction System
   Introduce a simple reaction system allowing users to acknowledge posts quickly—upvotes, likes, loves, reposts on other platforms, shares, emojis. Bottom line: immediate validation for contributions.

2. Dynamic Notifications
   The current notification bell should be updated to support visual cues, such as a colored icon or number badge, to indicate activity. If I have to click on the bell to find out if I have a notification, the tool is dead in the water.

3. Gamification
   Notice how platforms like Facebook have incorporated achievements and status markers such as “Top Contributor” or “Question Solver”? These work. That’s why their presence is expanding.

Other Possible Engagement Improvements:

• Reward actions like starting a thread, replying to posts, or receiving positive reactions.
• Automated summaries (metrologists love stats).
• Restore direct messaging.
• Remove the time limit for editing posts.
• Create a “Featured Measuring Hero”: a basic, low-maintenance rolling bio carousel of users with profile headers such as main software (Calypso, Zeiss Inspect, etc.), industries served, and favorite metrology quotes.
• Add a “Welcome Back” banner summarizing recent activity or notifying users about responses they’ve received. Personalized touchpoints help users feel seen and valued.
  
  
  Let's use this transition to the new centralized format as an opportunity to create a community.  

[[Ya...]]

❤️Sounds Great!!

Edited November 18, 2024

[[Ch...]]

Yes Got my vote, I was surprised with the clean new look of the forums, but seemingly reduced functionality.

Also, seems we can't add 'friends' only 'follow' users, can we PM people ??

[[To...]]

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Don't forget the ability to show you what I'm eating for lunch...smh

[[Ja...]]

Hi Jeff, I like what you've said a lot and I hope it gets taken to heart. I spend some time on /r/metrology on reddit, but it is a large mixture of what content you might see. Being primarily focused in Zeiss equipment for CMMs (and yes, while Metrology/CMMs/Calypso etc., aren't exactly "hobby" levels of excitement or interest for most people) it is not easy sometimes to get that level of engagement in the day to day without resorting to an online forum. 

I spent a lot of time lurking on the old forum, and while there wasn't necessarily an exceptionally high level of functionality there either (Although I never made an account, so I speak from my little experience. Actually this is my first post ever on this forum also while I wait for my calibration to finish), echoing a bit of what you said: the importance of having a common hub or gathering point for Zeiss/Calypso/etc. users is really important in my mind, not just to ask questions we could maybe work out on our own with the Help function or a manual but to raise the general knowledge base and interest of all users, current and new. New tricks, tips, or even just what other people are getting up to etc...  I know a easy response would be regarding resources necessary, and also is it really necessary/a goal to make "a new social media platform" but it doesn't need to go to that level, improvements can start small like Jeff has suggested and there could even be a strong business case for more substantive improvements; increasing the engagement and knowledge of your userbase could lead to more programmers and when new programmers start a new jobs (or recommend more equipment due to volume increases) they know what equipment they want to use because they have a satisfying online community to engage with at their job where they are the only programmer... (definitely not speaking from experience... 🙃... it is why I am here now!)

[[Je...]]

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[[Ja...]]

I fully endorse everything Jeff stated. 

The forum is already an amazing tool and knowledge base but with his suggestions it could become a community as well.

Although we can't like each other's posts (yet) I will give you this crisp high five in a .gif format.

[[Na...]]

Hello Jeff (and others in this thread),

thanks a lot for taking your time to create this feedback thread, which is also visually pleasing 🙂

This forum started as a gom forum some years ago, became the Zeiss quality forum and grew even further through the forum migration. At launch we went for a more or less clean look and feel, but this was of course with much less contributors than now. Users from the migrated forums are used to PMs, likes etc. and we didn't even have an off topic forum, so I think we have to adapt the forum at some places to the new user base. There is also an interesting difference in topics from launch to now - I think I never saw threads with job opportunities or discussions about the business, when the forum was launched for example 🙂 

We will meet soon with the forum team and discuss what is technically possible and at some point you have to draw a line between a forum and a social media platform (as

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 pointed out). But so far I think a bit of fresh air in the form of new users and their input can only make the forum better and we will take the feedback into account, also from other threads.

 

Thanks again for the feedback and have a nice weekend,
Nanno

 

[[Je...]]

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It's a pleasure to meet you.  Thank you, sincerely, for your response and helping to narrate the history of this forum.

Thank you for welcoming us here.  I recognize that I am a guest in your space.  The culture and history of GOM is a unique story that existed long before the acquisition by Zeiss.

I value the specific strengths of the GOM family, which still exists post-integration.  You have excelled at modeling a welcoming, customer-centric business model that empowers the user.  Your software is brilliant and progressive.  Your designers seem willing to consider new ideas and adapt to an evolving world. Regardless of the branding change, the innovation and creative power of GOM is vital, and I hope that those within Zeiss have an open ear to your voice.

Thank you for your thoughts on forum integration and the infrastructure challenges of accommodating new features.  I recognize this limit, and I appreciate your willingness to consider improvements.

As your team meets and reviews the structure of this forum, please do indeed keep the users involved.  You're welcome to contact me anytime, and I am sure that myself and/or other users would gladly participate as an ad-hoc committee member or other form of intentional participation.

Thank you, sincerely.

[[Ja...]]

When I find an answer to my questions or I am able to help someone else, that is all the reward I need. I would like to see this remain professional. If it became more like Facebook I would probably not use it when I am at work.

[[Je...]]

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Thanks, Jason, for your very valid thoughts on this.  I agree that professionalism is a desirable theme on forum such as this one.

I think both engagement and professionalism can occur in the same space.  LinkedIn is a great example.  We can leverage technology and science to make this forum a vibrant community that welcomes experimentation and growth.

[[Je...]]

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Thank you.  The styling, functionality, effectiveness of the new reaction system is A+ work.  I love the sleek and responsive left-vectoring flyout, the size and spacing of icons, and the mouseover text.

Perfect.

Perhaps this system will evolve over time by modifying the types of reactions, but its current state is outstanding.

Thank you.

PS  The design of this reaction system is a template that would work well in your metrology software 💡.

Edited April 28

[[Cl...]]

I'm down.

[[Je...]]

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Follow-up Suggestions:
=================================
 

Hello.  I’d like to politely request a few additional refinements to the forum UI:

1.  Reaction Visibility for OPs
   
   The topic creator should be able to see the reaction count on their original post. This is vital for encouraging engagement—it gives the user a shot of dopamine and reinforces the behavior of returning to the site.
    
2. Notification Persistence
   
   The notification bell should only clear bold "new notification" formatting after the user has clicked on the specific notification. Currently, all notifications clear the moment the bell is clicked, making it hard to track which ones have actually been addressed.
    
3. Post Editing Rights
   
   Allow users to edit or delete their own posts indefinitely. No time limits. This is arguably the most common user request on the forum. If an edit occurs, simply note it with the word "edited," or a last-edited timestamp—avoid displaying the total number of edits.
    
4. Multiple User Tagging
   
   Enable tagging of multiple users in a single post (e.g., @user1, @user2). Currently, it seems only one user can be tagged per comment.
    
5. Streamlined Categories + Hashtags
   
   Reduce the number of topic categories—less than half the current number would improve usability. Specialized topics simply don't receive much traffic but those requests still deserve the attention of this community. Instead, enable hashtags for posts and comments to allow flexible, user-driven organization.
    

Thanks again for continuing to make this a better space for all of us.

[[Je...]]

Good morning Mr Frodermann,

Thank you for your continued feedback and suggestions.  These will be reviewed and considered for future feature enhancements.

 

[[Ch...]]

Yes, Moar Dopamine !!   😃

 

Jeff F : Can you make your post larger please, Im having a tough time reading it...    😃😃

 

Just kidding fellas, all good points, I agree with Jeff F, it will not only make the forums a helpful place but also will make it more functional and social as well.

 

Can we possibly add the option for some of us guys who have been around a while to possibly be admins at some level as well? or no ??

Thanks everyone !

 

 

[[To...]]

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Do you take advantage of stream settings?  For example, I select each forum that I want to follow. Then, I only want to see the "unread" posts in those forums.  Then, save that as my stream setting.  Does a great job of not showing things I'm really not interested in.   I can also use the dropdowns and temporality change the filters to re-view something that I've posted in or already read.

 

Edited May 1

[[Je...]]

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I do indeed.  They're useful.

My goal is to maximize engagement by users both new and existing.  To to this, we can leverage the behavioral programming that has already been installed in us by other modernized social media platforms.

Without knowing the traffic metrics to this forum, I surmise that they look similar to a medium-sized Facebook group.  Because of this, I think a better engagement tool would be to have users "join" groups and then have a feed present that would populate based on algorithms that weight towards the  joined groups but also splash in recent content and unanswered topics.  I don't think I would eliminate the current category-based system, but I would give it less real estate on the page.  Make the feed the focal point.  Just an idea.

[[Ro...]]

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 can be tagged and

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 also. I dont think this is a todo 🙂

[[Je...]]

Thanks,

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  You're right.

I'd update that post and remove that item but... you know 😄