iModeler update – New user profiles, engagement insights
I am thrilled to announce another big update to iModeler. This time, it is all about enhancing your community experience by following your engagement and the response you receive on our platform.
Here's what's new:
User Profile Rework
We've undertaken a major redesign of the user profiles. They are not just more visually engaging but will also dynamically evolve as you expand your activities on iModeler. As you continue and expand your activities on iModeler, your profile will visually grow to become a compelling reflection of your journey with us.
Check MY STUFF section to appreciate your updated profile, or fell free to check mine: @editor.
And while being at it, why not make sure to update your avatar, set background picture or add a bio for everyone's enjoyment? Thank you.
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- 1. Your avatar
- 2. Your cover picture
- 3. Sections of your profile. Use them to track particular previous postings or activity
- 4. Your Private messages and Mentions
- 5. Gallery of 4 recent articles
- 6. Your engagement statistics
- 7. "About me"
- 8. Your latest article
- 9. Your popular articles
- 10. Use these links to edit profile information or change pictures
Engagement insights
Transparency is key to community growth, and with this in mind, the new profile will show your engagement statistics. Now, you can easily track the impact of your participation at iModeler!
Again, check MY STUFF section to see how you've been doing, or you can see my profile: @editor.
New Stats Engine
Behind these updates is our new statistics engine. We've built it from the ground up and with respect to your privacy. All published stats that are traceable to a user are just a reflection of your visible community activity. Other stats such as post views are collected and handled anonymously. The data is kept exclusively on our own servers and is only displayed to other logged-in members.
To see example stats, check my profile: @editor. Or yours.
Article Views and Popular Articles Metrics (BETA)
Wondering how popular your posts are? Now you can see the number of views in articles! Following this feature may bring new insights to your writing, such as how quickly the readership for new articles builds up, or how to make your postings even more interesting for the readers. This feature is still in beta.
Article views are marked with an eye symbol: 👁︎
For the readers, there are now Popular Articles widgets at the recent headlines, user profiles, and across various database categories. It is a very efficient way of quickly getting to the best bits!
Example of this: check our P-40 Warhawk Database, or anything else in the Database section.
Summary
These updates aim to help you draw satisfaction from your iModeler experience and to inspire meaningful participation in the community. I'm excited to share these changes with you and look forward to seeing all the incredible ways you'll leverage these new features.
Thank you for being part of the iModeler journey. Your passion, creativity, and engagement drive our growth. Here's to the many shared experiences and conversations ahead!
Happy modeling!
/Martin
Thanks for all the behind the scenes "fun" to keep us all having fun out front.
Hello @gwskat, actually it is a lot of fun, albeit translates to fewer completed models from this source 😎. But hopefully all the more from everyone else… 😇
Looks like some cool improvements!
I sincerely hope so!
Excellent update, Martin! The changes are really exciting, our platform getting better in numerous ways.
Thanks so much for your constant commitment!
Excellent work, I really like the whole layout!
Thank you for this input, much appreciated @v1pro
Editor (@editor)
Hello Martin,
I just took a look at my profile and made a few small changes. I like the new layout.
Thank you for all of your hard work that keeps this the BEST place hands down.
Thanks @lgardner. That's a happy feedback indeed 🙂
This is really nice Martin. You've done a great job here. I was fascinated to discover what are my most popular articles - not what I would have thought they were!
It's stuff like this that is why I tell every modeler I meet that iModeler is the best modeling club in the universe.
@tcinla. Thank you for the input and for being the ambassador of this platform...
Yes, sometimes it's funny/surprising to see that the articles that attract views over time are not the ones you'd be expecting. I've had the same impression about mine!
This is how it seems to work. Directly after publishing, articles draw most views from our community members. This is also where the comments and reactions come from, but the number of views you will see directly after posting may be somewhat testing for one's patience 🙂 lol. Then there will be a period when an article gains attention from guest (non-registered) visitors of iModeler, which are many. Then, in the long run, an article drops down from the front page(s) but will continue to attract additional views via Google searches and via our Database, by means of people looking for info on something they're interested in. Indeed, the older the post, the more the relevance of its content on Google will weigh in to keep it evergreen.
That's why you will see that some articles continue to amass many views over time, and this process never stops.
Then there is a possibility to amplify the whole process by sharing articles on social media / other forums, which some of our authors do.
Very interesting! I'm curious about what criteria is used to determine the "most popular"articles, it's certainly not the comment count. Keep up the good work, Martin @editor!
@garybrantley - it's likely based on the number of views. There are always more views than comments. I was astounded to find last month in the analysis the statement that there are 12,000+ members here now! You'd never know it from the comments, right?
That's certainly so!
@garybrantley Right now it is only the total number of article views over its lifetime. No other aspects weighted in.
That way, "popular" means "one that attracts viewers/readers".
PS. Page views are not the ultimate (or very reliable) measure of success, but, well, have always been something of a general currency on the web. Consider this: it is generally useful to know if your post has been noticed by dozens, hundreds, or thousands, and post views will provide you with an indication towards that.
Having tested these features extensively for a long time, I believe that number of post views on an individual article may not be very indicative for its long-term success. But putting together many articles in a ranked list ("most popular") brings value, definitely not always, but often. Then, putting together the summary statistics for all of one's postings is a good indication of your footprint in the community (comments reactions etc) and the open web (views)
@editor, Thanks so much for explaining that, Martin. 🍻
Great news, thank you for all the time and effort put in to keep iModeler ahead of the other modelling sites.
I appreciate this feedback, @chinesegeorge
A big improvement,Martin @editor
Appreciating a lot what you are doing to keep this website up and running and implement lots of improvements.
Thanks a lot for that.
Thank you, @johnb
Great work Martin @editor!
Thank you for all your efforts behind the scenes!
Thank you 😎
Thank you Martin for your continuing work improving this wonderful site.
Happy to be of service, @kalamazoo.
I don't like that my gallery has been reduced to four images, and that there are no images associated with my list of articles. This lowers iModeler's value as an easily viewed visual archive.
I have to say, being new here to iModeler. I don't belong to any other sights so I don't know what it's like to publish an article anywhere else, but I'm amazed at how user friendly it is to post here on this sight. I'm definitely not a tech savvy guy, and until I became a member, i have never written an article about anything. I'm enjoying the process.You have definitely build a great sight here. The members are outstanding and friendly and they are awesome modelers, and historians in there own rights in many cases. Thank you, Editor @editor, for all your hard work, and thank you to the whole iModeler community for all the information, inspiration, and kind words I've received. I've really been enjoying surfing the sight and I'm blown away by the quality and craftsmanship of the builds here. It gives me a bar to try to measure up to in my own work and I like that.