Communities: Trending Posts

The Trending Posts feature enables both learners and creators to find the posts that are exciting and gaining traction in their community. Read on to learn more about how this feature works!

About This Feature

The trending posts feature allows anyone within a Community to view the latest and most popular posts, right from their Community home page!

How It Works

Available to all community participants (Students, Site Owners, and Admins), the trending posts panel is conveniently located directly on the right-hand side of the home page of your Community.

Upon logging in to a community, users will be able to instantly preview the latest posts with the most engagement - providing you with a great way to track what's trending in your community, and providing your students with real-time visibility on the top-rated topics!

How Post Engagement is Determined

A post's engagement score is calculated by the number of comments, likes, and replies to comments it contains. Different interactions are weighted differently: For example, a like on a post has a smaller point value than a user's comments.

Additionally, as posts age, their scores will decline. This ensures only the newest, active posts are visible from the Trending Posts panel!

Where the Trending Posts Panel Pulls From

Currently, the panel will pull the most popular posts from all spaces within a community.

We’re always working behind the scenes on improvements and if you would like to add your vote to be able to choose which spaces to display trending posts from, we want to know. Get in contact with us and let us know if this functionality would be valuable to you!

Important Considerations

Commenting on your own post will not contribute to the post engagement score.
Up to five posts can be listed as trending.
If there are no posts that are trending in a community, the panel will not appear.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take for a post to show up if it is trending?

The Trending Posts cache will refresh one minute after an interaction on a post.

For example, if a user makes several comments on a post, and that post results as trending, it will appear on the trending posts panel after one minute. You will need to refresh your browser to view changes.

Can I edit or modify the posts in the Trending Posts panel?

Yes. Creators and learners can edit their original posts in the community, which will in turn modify how they appear in the trending posts block. This will not affect the engagement score of the post (it will not affect the ranking for how the post appears in the Trending Posts panel, it will only show the edited version of the post).

I clicked the "x" in the corner of the trending posts panel and it closed. How do I reopen it?

If you've closed the trending posts panel, it will remain closed indefinitely on your browser.

To re-open the panel in your community on the same browser, you will need to clear your cache and cookies, and log back in to your account/community for the panel to re-populate.

Are profiles and mentions available on the mobile app?

The Thinkific Mobile App allows your students to access their learning content on the go, including their communities, all on their devices using a native app. With access to courses and communities, and features like push notifications, activity feeds, and more directly in your students' pocket - it’s easy to drive engagement while keeping your content and learning products top of mind.

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At the moment, trending posts are not available on the mobile app. Learn more about features supported on mobile here: Supported Community Features.

As the Mobile App is regularly being updated, features that are currently unavailable may become available down the line. Keep checking back for the latest updates on what is available!

To learn how you can use other community features in the Mobile App, see: Communities in the Mobile App (Student Resource).