Integrating Tribe.so, a community-based software

— Juliet Edjere

A product manager spends a significant working time communicating why customers need a product in their lives - akin to the 'job-to-be-done theory. The process and learnings from building Senskill ) has always been documented as it goes from zero to a platform to better prepare individuals for the tech industry. Read about the Idea Generation and the preliminary steps HERE.

We learnt that people who want to learn also want to stay informed with credible information, connecting, sharing ideas and practicing while they learn. We decided to incorporate a community learning platform.

Here’s how it works

Finding your ground in an unfamiliar industry is never easy. Senskill is an aggregator that features a growing collection of learning resources. Our goal is to make upskilling work for everyone and help you better understand which tech role might fit your interest. Especially now that information is so easily accessible and available, navigating through information can be overwhelming. People need guidance. Leveraging a community of digital enthusiasts willing to share resources and experiences as they navigate the future of work, career ‘transitioners’ can evaluate where their interests could lead them and maximize their potential to have a high chance of success.

One of the top problems with MOOCs is accountability and lack of community. Our goal is to nurture a social platform and professional community

  • Where individuals can direct career-related questions to industry professionals,
  • Mentorship pipeline with tech insiders/experts who can give actionable steps, strategies and tactics, access personalised tips, coaching on career development and personal branding
  • Support needed to find a great job and kick-off a meaningful career regardless of institution attended, course of study, and who you know. We are aware that there are a number of challenges toward building a community-driven system - from making it resistant to manipulation attempts to ensuring it isn’t dominated by a majority or biased.

The Battle of Community Platforms

Choosing a platform for Senskill was fairly easy with only one consideration to get past: the Pricing. While considering the validation of the Senskill idea HERE, lean startup methodology, no-code and low cost MVP while delivering premium value were the key strategies. The platform battle was between Circle and Tribe.

Circle starts at $39/mo with a free 14-day trial. Tribe is a fully customizable cloud-based community platform powered by modern social features, API and webhooks, widgets, and native app store. Tribe has a free plan for individuals and small communities capped at 500 members. The downside compared to Circle was the more expensive Plus and Premium plan at $85 and $249/mo respectively. Here's all you need to know about Tribe.

The pick? Tribe

Onboarding with Tribe was a painless process. A Tribe.so community subdomain is assigned and automatically redirected upon completion. The activity stream is prepopulated with community content, some helpful sample content and a short overview of Tribe.

What I loved about Tribe:

  • Gamification

  • Moving your community to your own domain (this wasn't entirely intuitive so it fell into what I did and didn't like about Tribe)

  • Notification tools across various platforms

  • Customize your brand elements

  • Track metrics

  • Direct third-party integrations with marketing automation apps - The apps that can be integrated on the free plan are limited but sufficient depending on intended use. On the free plan, you can install:

    • Welcome Email - Send an automatic customized welcome email to new users.
    • Social Login - Allow members to login with popular social accounts like Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, Slack, and Twitter.
    • Groups - Create public, private, or secret groups in your community.
    • Google Analytics - Track community users via Google Analytics. Record community activities as Google Analytics events.
    • Virtual Currency - Reward members, increase engagement, and influence user behavior by defining a virtual currency.
    • Moderation - Moderate content inside the community
    • reCAPTCHA - Protect your community from malicious sign ups with a form captcha.
    • Messages - Messages introduces private text messaging between your community members.
    • Reputation - Boost engagement by scoring members based on community participation
    • Signup Wall - Ask users to signup with your community before accessing full content
    • Translation - Translate content posted in other languages to the primary language of the community
    • Telegram - Receive notifications, keep users engaged, and manage your community with two-way integration

Tribe's Userfriendly Admin Panel

What I didn't like: The documentation for moving a custom community subdomain

The process of adding or updating DNS with A or CNAME records for a domain host was unclear. Previous interactions with other platforms had step by step direction for integration, at least for GoDaddy. If you are facing this problem, here is a way out:

A Canonical Name (CNAME) Record is used in the Domain Name System (DNS) to create an alias from one domain name to another domain name.

Tribe recommends some ideas for the subdomain name:community.yourdomain.comdiscuss.yourdomain.comtalk.yourdomain.comask.yourdomain.comI settled with “community” as the subdomain for the domain as it encompasses discussing, talking, asking and the sense of identity.

How to correctly add or update DNS with A or CNAME records using the subdomain

If you are using the subdomain as your community address (e.g. community.senskill.com), you only need to set a CNAME record from community.senskill.com that points to domains.tribe.so.

  • Log in to your domain host. Senskill is hosted on Namecheap.
  • Locate the host's domain settings, CNAME settings, or DNS management.
  • Navigate to where you are able you to add CNAME records or aliases.
  • Enter your subdomain (subdomain.yourdomain.com) as the host or alias.
  • Enter domains.tribe.so as the value destination or points to link.

Host/Alias:         community.senskill.com Value Destination/Points To:     domains.tribe.so

For GoDaddy and Namecheap users, the CNAME record Host/Alias should be the subdomain only (e.g. community.

How to correctly add or update DNS with A or CNAME records using the main domain

If you are using the main domain as your community address (e.g. www.senskill.com), replace steps 4 and 5 above with the following steps:

A CNAME from www to domains.tribe.soHost/Alias:         www Value Destination/Points To:     domains.tribe.so

An A Record from @ (root) to 159.203.158.141Host/Alias:         @ Value Destination/Points To:     159.203.158.141

After the setup, the process may take up to 2 business days to complete.

Moving a custom community subdomain

What's Next

We will be focused on growing a helpful community of career 'transitioners' and focus on moderating the community throughout the growth based on its distribution of contributors.


ABOUT ME

I'm Juliet 'Hiri' Edjere, a no-code expert focused on design, business development, and building scalable solutions with minimal coding knowledge.

I document all things product stories, MVP validation, and how designs, data, and market trends connect to one another.

In our world where innovation knows no boundaries, and creativity reigns supreme, no-code is a game-changer in today's tech landscape. Whether you're a developer looking to expand your skill set or a beginner curious about creating without writing a single line of code, you will learn from practical examples, and explore the possibilities of no-code technology. Together, we'll navigate the tools, platforms, and strategies – one blog post at a time!

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