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#TipTuesday: Help Your AI Replicator Build Better Vanilla Widgets
You ask the computer for something simple. “Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.” And instead of a perfectly reasonable cup of tea, you get… a lukewarm smoothie in a soup bowl with a garnish of CSS errors. That is sometimes what it feels like to ask AI for “a quick widget.” You might give it what sounds like an easy request: “Make me a…
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Share: How Is Everyone Using AI with Vanilla Communities?
I joined the AI Study group call with @Nicole and @MariusCiortea yesterday (future events here https://success.vanillaforums.com/search?domain=event&query=study%20group&scope=site&source=community) ) Marius introduced the group to MCPs and we talked about how people are using AI with their Vanilla communities. I wanted to…
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🚀 Introducing a new series: AI Study Group for Community Managers
Hey Vanilla friends 👋 We're very excited to you all to a great webinar series that our own @Nicole has been running. This interactive session is open to everyone — whether you're a Vanilla customer or just part of the broader community world. Curious how other community pros are actually using AI? Wondering what’s working,…
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#TipTuesday – Cute, But Clear? Rethinking Community Rank Names for AI
Many communities use fun, branded rank names. These are great for personality and engagement, but here’s something to consider, especially if you have or are considering open community spaces: AI doesn’t understand “cute.” It understands clarity. As AI-powered search and answer engines increasingly pull from community…
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#TipTuesday You will read this first.
In today's #TipTuesday I would like to focus our attention on something no one is talking about these days: AI. Wait, what? You have heard about it? I've been designing and building web-based software for a long time. As in, there was only one "CSI" when I started. A long time ago. I'm talking "Gladiator", "Cast Away",…
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How Are You Safeguarding Your Community's Content in the Age of AI?
With the rise of AI tools that can scrape, summarize, and repurpose public content, protecting the value and integrity of our community conversations has become more important than ever. In a recent post, I shared a few practical steps we can take to reduce the risk of our content being lifted without credit or context:…
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Can your content be summarized away?
This line stopped me in my tracks. If AI is getting better at summarizing everything, maybe our job is to create content it can’t flatten into bullet points. Think about it—what kind of content resists being distilled into a one-liner? ✨ Personal stories that add depth and relatability ✨ Emotionally resonant perspectives…
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Search Is Shifting. Are You Seeing the Drop Too?
I've noticed a significant decrease in page views across several communities, and I’m not the only one. The reason? AI-powered search. Traditionally, search worked like this: You type in a question Get a list of links Click into one Explore until you find your answer Each of those clicks = traffic to your community. But…
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Want AI to Quote You? Make Your Content the Source
We’re all watching how AI summarization is reshaping content discovery. Tools are now pulling answers from across the web in seconds, but here’s the big question: How do you become the source that AI summarizes, quotes, or links to? Lately, I’ve been experimenting with ways to position content for higher visibility…not…
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AIgents: What They Are, and Why Community Pros Should Care
As I dig deeper into the impact of AI summaries on community engagement and site traffic, I’ve been exploring a term that’s quickly gaining traction: AIgents (AI agents). These tools don’t just surface information—they act on behalf of users. Think: summarizing content, answering questions, and recommending next steps...…