Automated gamification is a fantastic way to engage and incentivize users in your advocacy community. However, there may be occasions where admins need to manually award points to users. This article outlines the steps admins can follow to manually award points through the space or advocacy site. 

Why Manually Award Points? 

• Unique Contributions: Sometimes, community members make one-of-a-kind contributions that aren’t captured by automated systems. Manually awarding points allows you to acknowledge these efforts. 

• Correcting Errors: Automated systems aren't perfect. If there's an error in point allocation, admins can manually adjust points to ensure fairness. 

• Special Incentives: Admins may choose to award points for special initiatives or challenges that aren’t part of the regular point system. 

Manually Award Points 

Step 1: Create an Engagement Column 

The first step is for the admin to create an engagement column specifically for community users. This is done in the engagement dashboard, allowing admins to track or modify user status  

Step 2: Select the User

Once the engagement column is set up, you can find the list of community users here. Double-click on the user to whom you want to assign points. This will open their specific profile or third pane. 

Step 3: Assign Points

In the third pane that appears, look for the option labelled "+Give points". Click on it, and you will be prompted to enter the number of points you wish to award, mentioning event and description for points. Confirm the action, and the points will be manually added to the user's total.         

Tips: 

• Transparency: Always make sure that the criteria for manually awarding points are clear and transparent to avoid any confusion or feelings of unfairness within the community. 

• Documentation: Keep records of all manual point allocations. This is important for auditing purposes and for maintaining a fair system. 

• Communication: It is a promising idea to notify the user when they have been awarded points manually by adding reason for the points. A simple message as site notification explaining why they have received the points can go a long way in building goodwill.