Increasing engagement

[gnunicorn]

Note: this is a meta discussion with specific ideas being discussed in their relevant issues.

We have seen several people using the app now and trying to engage their communities on it but only a few have picked it up thus far. As we have intentionally taken the approach to have fewer notifications rather than more, we are not pushing the user into the app unless their is something of note for them. That, however, means the other way round that if there isn't much happening, they are also not reminded to open the app and engage.

Before thinking about this further, we have to acknowledge, while our technology can lower the barrier - the app can be more engaging - we can't be engaging on its own: this requires activity from the users to either engage or something to engage with.

So, how do we get more people to actually engage with the app? There are a few perspective to take into account here:

1. the community building side: we can and probably should push the community leaders into more of a online community builder role, educate them more about what it needs from their end to engage people (spoiler: it is them talking to the void for a very looooong time)
2. the individual person engagement: we can look at how we can increase engagement for users from first time use or to engage within a space they have joined.
3. There are also some things that fall in between the two, like offering features that allow community builders to engage their members better and easier - for example the discussed stories and check-ins. These make it easier for the individual to engage with a specific space but still required the community builder to first engage (by activating them) or we risk them becoming just noise.

As for the planning now, we are planning several things already to work on either side of these problems:

• Stories for spaces (as per 3)
• Activity Screen with Recent activities (as per 2), maybe with daily-push reminders
• Inviting to Tasks (as per 1)
• Sharing Events, Tasks, etc to chat (as per 1)
• @room-support in chat (as per 1)
• Task due push notifications (as per 2)

That said, this is a discussion topic for now. Please bring your thoughts.