On Karma: Top-line Lessons on User Reputation Design(buildingreputation.com)
buildingreputation.com
On Karma: Top-line Lessons on User Reputation Design
http://buildingreputation.com/writings/2010/02/on_karma.html
2 comments
The simple public karma system used by Reddit/HN is pretty bad. HN even lump comment and submit karma contexts.
I think an algorithm like PageRank would be better. Each user has an authority rank and voting up or down content produced by another user confers authority to the other user.
Of course you also need to detect people gaming the system through things like link farms, but there are years of experience on how to do that from search engines. The incentive to have top karma is also worth much less money, so users wouldn't spend too much time gaming it.
I think an algorithm like PageRank would be better. Each user has an authority rank and voting up or down content produced by another user confers authority to the other user.
Of course you also need to detect people gaming the system through things like link farms, but there are years of experience on how to do that from search engines. The incentive to have top karma is also worth much less money, so users wouldn't spend too much time gaming it.
Bad maybe, but there is something powerful about the inconsistent reward when posting then waiting to see how much karma the comment gathered. It's addictive in the same sense that checking e-mail is addictive.
"The typical thought-process goes something like this: there's an activity on your site that you'd like to promote; a number of people engaged in that activity who should be recognized; and a whole buncha other people who need a kick in the pants to jump in. Leaderboards seem like the perfect solution."
...were my thoughts exactly. However, virtually the same day that I introduced a leaderboard into the mix, contributions plummeted and have stayed low since. This was a couple of weeks ago. I suspect that the top contributors got their recognition and now have little incentive to continue contributing, while people who found it confusing or did not want to contribute continue staying still. In other words, I got exactly the opposite effect of what I wanted.
"Do not display negative karma." I can attest to that as well. One user is quite controversial in the community and was voted down badly for contributing. Controversial or not, having negative points for trying is really discouraging.
I suppose I should now go and undo those mistakes. A hundred nights more and we'll have our overnight success.