Could points for Helpful and Likes be Driving Wrong Behaviors?

Give comments to those you think deserve the credit... That will help them know you care.

Sometimes I make a no helpful for those...

As far as I can tell, if you like/helpful a conversation you get all activity on that thread. I ignore all helpful remarks in my in box. I also use the activity in top right corner to see new items. Sorry if I like or mark a few occasional items that I am interested in. Find a theme that makes sense to you. The rest is extra's...

My two cents worth,

Clem

One thing that annoys me is the number of people who tend to find their own comments helpful - probably because they couldn't like their own comments because the system prevents them from doing so.

At the least, finding your own comment helpful should not be allowed ...

- Gough

The points system has issues with not reflecting effort or merit etc. which many of us have lamented on and proposed alternatives, but even with its downsides it is still a pretty positive aspect of the forum.

I never used to click on "like" at all, and I don't on other forums.

But on element14, I now click on a "like" a lot. I do this to encourage participation by indicating I appreciate the effort involved in making comments and participating.

I definitely do not need more points and they don't lead to anything if I do get more points. I wouldn't change my behavior if clicking on "Like" resulted in 1 point, 10 points or no points. I might change if someone proved that clicking was detrimental to the forum.

It takes effort to read all the comments and click on a lot of "Like" buttons and deal with tons of email notifications, but if it helps to keep participation levels up and keep the forum vibrant, I think it is worth the effort. I get a lot out of the forum.

I think I've possibly got the same settings as you. I too have lots in that inbox. My actual e-mail receives a lot less.

My element14 inbox is permanently at the 50+ setting:

I agree that should be changed, to make the inbox more useful.

I was just responding to the discussion about wrong behavior from people (i.e. the "So, my feedback is, do we really need to reward for clicking like or helpful?" bit), I hadn't noticed people excessively trying to 'game' the system, apart from a few individuals from time to time.

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

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 Fred27 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 : (

Or maybe add an option to disable the notification of helpful and likes while keeping notification of replies?

As the points don't actually mean anything I think there's limited harm in over-eager like and helpful clicking. People are definitely engaged here, so it seems it's doing its job.

Maybe reducing the points to the person who clicked to one point would be a good balance? There's still some inventive to mark stuff you genuinely think it's good, but not enough to be worth carpet bombing.