Hey, On 05.12.2013 13:40, Ancor Gonzalez Sosa wrote:
The idea is to add certain 'social' features to our infrastructure to better track contributions and make them more visible. Contributors would earn AND lose karma points based on their actions (or lack of them), that's why we are calling it 'Karmafication'. We explicitly want to avoid the word 'gamification' because is not only about engaging people or motivating them.
You might think it won't but there is a mountain of research and data suggesting that it does influence engagement and motivation. And not really in a way that is obvious at first sight. This is a complicated topic from a very complicated science (psychology, hello Jos! :-). In the theory of motivation there is a distinction between 2 different type of motivations/rewards. There are "intrinsic" rewards like the feeling that you are getting better at something, that you control the progress you make, that what you achieve is matching your values. Also that you belong to something bigger, more important than yourself. Intrinsic motivation comes from within yourself. What you are suggesting we do is called "extrinsic" motivation/rewards. Motivation that comes from the outside. Like money or prizes and in software this is most often expressed through points, badges and leader boards. This is motivation that comes from outside yourself. http://mozuku.edublogs.org/files/2013/02/AmyKimIntrinsiceTrumpsExtrinsic-1ks... In general it is believed that people more likely have an intrinsic motivation for interesting (complicated) tasks that require creativity and extrinsic motivation for dull, repetitive, tedious tasks. Both also have a complicated relationship and balance you can easily upset. If you for instance issue expected, contingent rewards you reduce intrinsic motivation. And here is where gamification in software gets complicated. You have to get to the point where your automated (software driven) rewards appear human, unexpected and and include direct feedback to what you issue them for. Because only then they increase intrinsic motivation. You have to match your extrinsic rewards to the intrinsic rewards of people or you destroy their motivation. This is especially true for beginner and women (groups we desperately need). And motivation is even the very beginning of things you have to consider before you go ahead and implement something like this. Implementation wise, for instance, you have to offer rewards that matter to the action you reward them for (e.g. compulsion loops). If you don't they are meaningless to the recipient. Watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-BUJL54Tk0 for a nice summary about this. Like I've said in the beginning. It might be your intention to only achieve the things you are trying to achieve (measure trust, credit and guide people etc.) but in the end with any type of gamification system you will impact peoples engagement and motivation, it's inseparable. You have to be very careful with that, you can easily destroy communities with it. Henne -- Henne Vogelsang http://www.opensuse.org Everybody has a plan, until they get hit. - Mike Tyson -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, email: opensuse-project+owner@opensuse.org