The Opportunity
Online community managers are able add value to their communities by providing their members with direct communication with ChatGPT while ensuring that conversations stay focused around specific topics.
The Ask
To create a commercial plugin that allows online community managers to add an AI chatbot to their communities. Users in the community would then have the ability to converse directly with the chatbot and ask questions focused around specific topics.
The Challenge
Two big hurdles were encountered during this project, one was to hook into existing plugins using their native APIs to avoid reinventing their functionality. The other was to keep members' conversations focused around specific topics to avoid random conversations that would quickly consume ChatGPT API budgets.
The Solution
The solution I developed not only gave users the ability to interact with ChatGPT about specific subjects within their community forums but also significantly boosted user engagement. Community managers reported an immediate increase in activity post-installation, with some even looking to moderate the time spent by users conversing with the bot due to custs. The plugin was a resounding success, sparking demand for even more features.
Overcoming Challenges
The biggest challenge in building this plugin was learning the inner working of the two plugins I worked with. Poor documentation and support by one of the of the plugin developers delayed the completion and launch of the plugin. As a result I had to dig into the plugin's code to figure out how to integrate into its functionalities.
Valuable Lessons
During this project I learned a bit more about how to integrate with commercial plugins but most importantly, how to code for longevity when interfacing with existing commercial plugins.