Points & Rewards

This sort of information can be put into a 'widget' or 'module', basically a 'box' that can be placed anywhere on the site, such as the members area or on the front pages of groups and spaces on the site.

I recently graduated to level 7

I do feel there's an urge to get to yellow, then when you're at yellow you're all good

Where would such data appear?

It'd be interesting to get views on this from people who were less than level 7, and that's always the difficulty.

There's some scripting which is possible with the gamification that I have on my to-do list to make it more prominent in the members area. I figured that would help, because otherwise you won't know about it unless you pay attention to your profile.

There are some things I should be able to do.

In a way the point system also helps those who answer questions. I started here long ago (in a far far place ) trying to answer questions. Why? I wanted to learn by looking everything up. After a while I noticed my points went up. To this day, I believe help and teach and ye shall be rewarded. Just my opinion.   Sean_Miller have found a different way to enjoy this site which is quite valid. The thing is, we all find different ways to enjoy. That is what makes this such a great community! Go E14!

Clem

Thanks for sharing - it looks like a nice approach to tracking accomplishments. I have lost track of most of the mini-courses I've taken over the years. Hopefully some of the knowledge stuck at least.

On a forum like this it is even more important to be active in the short term, and any system that provides incentive to immediately participate is worth exploring.

I like adding a short term element.  I joined element14 about 5 years after many of the leaders.  When I look at my rank, there is no incentive to do anything to move up.  I only look to see if I've slipped considerably.

To be honest, what keeps me loyal to e14 is Tariq being so kind to showcase my work in his examples or throw me a swag bag every-now-and-then.

For the "short term" contributions, here's a similar structure I've applied at work:

I made a web application called STEP (Specialized Training Engine for Professionals).  Employees are assigned competency guides in it within a matrix that lays out their entire career.  The types of activities go from Read Document, Discussion with an Incumbent, Hands On Skills Demonstration, Classroom, External Certification, etc.  Their training matrix is similar to a college course matrix (year of study on the left and competency type on top).  This provides them with one mobile device friendly page that summarizes and links every reference, procedure, and targeted experience they need to be a top performer throughout their career.  With the content arranged as such, it also has a laser sharp search engine at the top of the page.

As engineers, specialists, and supervisors complete their training they get points weighted on the complexity of the training.  This, in turn, contributes to a Personal Growth Index, aka ranking.

Here's where the short term element comes in:  they also get points for training others.  This allows folks to differentiate themselves once more and more reach the top.  However, those points are a moving 2 year target.  So, if someone has a good, energetic year to train the masses, they can't rest on their laurels for the rest of their career or they will fall behind their peers who are training the new folks currently.

Just like any approach, your top 10 go-getters are the ones most motivated by the approach.  But, I'm pretty sure they would not be as motivated to train others without this differentiating them.  Particularly, since training others inherently raises the trainee's rank.

See ya',

Sean

That is a good "point". Points don't indicate performance, knowledge, effort, or quality of one member versus another. They really don't provide any measure that can be used to compare members in any way, not even how active they are. The same point totals could be achieved by just liking content or by just commenting on content, or by just creating content. The number of points does not indicate what was done or contributed to collect those points.

Points can indicate to you what your participation level is relative to your participation style - a personal tally. If a member is very selective about what they like or comment on, their points will reflect how relevant the content is to them. If a member likes all content where the author spent significant time producing the blog, then their points total is more a reflection of how much effort is going into content.

It might be interesting to find out what different members use as criteria for "liking" content. I am sure there is quite a range of criteria.

I like the old liner from Who's Line Is It Anyway: "the show where everything's made up and the points don't matter".

The point thing and leader-board is nice and all, but there are, or will be, folks that will just click away and post a comment everywhere just to boost their rating.  Just because someone is at the top of a points list does not mean they are any better or more knowledgeable than a person with less points.  It just means they more than likely spend more time in the forum posting than another.  However, I guess for some this is important.

I definitely agree that the initial points for a blog should reflect the effort better, but just to illustrate the potential for follow-on points lets use this simple blog as an example.

So far it has been viewed only 213 times which includes multiple times by several members.

It has generated 74 likes for the members who are participating in the discussion. That is 740 points for the comments that were liked and 370 points for the members doing the liking.

It has generated 36 helpfuls which is 360 points for the comments that were helpful and 360 points for the members who clicked helpful.

It has generated 17 comments which is 85 points for replying to a discussion.

This blog was not intended to be a points generating engine, it was investigating the incentive potential provided by the points system, but it still has yielded an opportunity for members to rack up 1,915 points - so far. The originator (me) got around 555 of those points because I was actively thinking about and commenting on all the comments. 500 points for a small blog is way better than the initial points.

This example may be a little unusual in that the members contributing to this discussion are putting a lot of thought into their comments and the number of likes reflects the quality of comments, but it still serves to show that a blog can generate quite a few points just because it is an interesting topic.

I don't publish many discussion blogs like this - maybe one or two per year.....hmmm... maybe I should do more ....

Actually I don't need more points.... I'm just pondering forum issues and participating while building up the nerve to attempt another design project.