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Could points for Helpful and Likes be Driving Wrong Behaviors?

Sean_Miller

I often am happy to see my inbox summary showing a lot of messages available to read, but then I often get disappointed because the majority of them are folks marking "helpful" in discussions I was part of. 

The reason its disappointing is that it looks like they are nuking the entire discussion.  Every single person that commented is tagged with a like and helpful.  Even posts that are just saying "thanks for posting" are tagged as helpful or liked.  Total dilution of the purpose of the button.

 

At first, I thought - well that's super friendly.  Then I dug a little further and looked at profiles of the users doing the nuking and I saw that what is happening is they are scoring 10 points per click.

 

To me, this seems like the points rewards are driving the wrong behavior here.  A behavior that actually doesn't boost one's reputation in the real world - particularly, because it clutters my inbox with bogus helpful tags. Also, the person that took 3 hours to blog on something is getting less points than the guy nuking every comment as helpful.

 

So, my feedback is, do we really need to reward for clicking like or helpful?  When someone is helpful, I'm compelled to click it anyway without the expectation of getting rewarded.  I know they'll get points and its a good virtual way to express thanks.

 

Or, best yet, can I suppress the "helpful" notifications from my inbox?

 

-Sean

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  • Hi Sean,

     

    I hope (guessing) the abuse of people over-clicking so frequently is tiny, it is likely just a handful of people, so I agree with there's limited harm, it seems not worthwhile to expend much effort, except the minor tweak here or there, like altering number of points etc. Also, I wonder if changing stuff could cause more harm than good, because maybe new multiple-clickers are just dipping their toe to get to do some interaction, and they are just waiting to take the next step and participate in discussions in written form. Some people might be auto-translating into their language or are for other reasons uncomfortable replying (e.g. kids), or may not have enough time, but still want to participate perhaps. I only suggest this because sometimes I may need some tech information from China sites, using auto-translate, but I never respond (and I couldn't even if I wanted too, since I do not have accounts with those sites). Anyway I'm only speculating : (

    You're right it would be good to suppress it if it is getting in the way. So far it has not got in the way for me, it could be my settings (I see it in the 'Inbox' but I think I don't see Helpful's in my e-mails, I think I only see comments in the e-mails but I could be wrong).

     

    On the site I don't mind seeing likes or helpful because it is feedback to me what to read when I've not had a chance to go through everything. I can't say that I have set criteria for deciding when to click like or helpful, sometimes I'll do it when I like what I'm seeing but don't have anything immediately to add that is extra to the blog or discussion or if I might come back later to read it more fully (the bookmark is used for this, but if I'm going to click bookmark then I'm going to also click Like, it wouldn't make sense for me to bookmark stuff I hate).

     

    I am conscious that Helpful's will push stuff to the top, which sometimes has positives but also has negatives - a hard balance I guess : (

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  • Hi Sean,

     

    I hope (guessing) the abuse of people over-clicking so frequently is tiny, it is likely just a handful of people, so I agree with there's limited harm, it seems not worthwhile to expend much effort, except the minor tweak here or there, like altering number of points etc. Also, I wonder if changing stuff could cause more harm than good, because maybe new multiple-clickers are just dipping their toe to get to do some interaction, and they are just waiting to take the next step and participate in discussions in written form. Some people might be auto-translating into their language or are for other reasons uncomfortable replying (e.g. kids), or may not have enough time, but still want to participate perhaps. I only suggest this because sometimes I may need some tech information from China sites, using auto-translate, but I never respond (and I couldn't even if I wanted too, since I do not have accounts with those sites). Anyway I'm only speculating : (

    You're right it would be good to suppress it if it is getting in the way. So far it has not got in the way for me, it could be my settings (I see it in the 'Inbox' but I think I don't see Helpful's in my e-mails, I think I only see comments in the e-mails but I could be wrong).

     

    On the site I don't mind seeing likes or helpful because it is feedback to me what to read when I've not had a chance to go through everything. I can't say that I have set criteria for deciding when to click like or helpful, sometimes I'll do it when I like what I'm seeing but don't have anything immediately to add that is extra to the blog or discussion or if I might come back later to read it more fully (the bookmark is used for this, but if I'm going to click bookmark then I'm going to also click Like, it wouldn't make sense for me to bookmark stuff I hate).

     

    I am conscious that Helpful's will push stuff to the top, which sometimes has positives but also has negatives - a hard balance I guess : (

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  • in reply to shabaz

    For me the harm is to all the people following good posts that every couple of hours have to clear the carpet bombing from their inbox.  It's essentially spam.  More than I get in email.

     

    I do like to know when I have a post of mine marked helpful, but I don't need to know about other people's posts being marked helpful in my inbox.  I'd prefer that stay between that poster and the person marking it.

     

    I did see "rules" in my profile, but no buttons around it.  I wonder if it possible to set up a rule to suppress them as neuromodulator suggests above.

     

    -Sean