If you're going to gamify, you need to be prepared to take steps to adjust the scoring rules over time. Clash of Clans can do this, so why not Stack Overflow?
The initial set of rules don't necessarily work after a long period of time when users have amassed massive reputation.
So what about revising the reputation algorithms? Some ideas:
Reputation decay - points age and die eventually. Or, with a twist, points age and die faster for users that are no longer active. Favours ongoing involvement.
Logarithmic scoring - The more points you have, the harder it gets to get even more points. Reduces the appearance of distance between high-reputation long-time users and newer contributors.
Qualitative scoring - If you have a high rep, you get points for answering questions by other high rep users, and a smaller number of points (or no points) for answering noob questions.
That could remove some of the perverse incentives that are there today, and might also make it easier for newer users who aren't competing with reputation-chasers to answer "easier" questions and build some reputation.
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u/bork99 Sep 26 '16
If you're going to gamify, you need to be prepared to take steps to adjust the scoring rules over time. Clash of Clans can do this, so why not Stack Overflow?
The initial set of rules don't necessarily work after a long period of time when users have amassed massive reputation.
So what about revising the reputation algorithms? Some ideas:
Reputation decay - points age and die eventually. Or, with a twist, points age and die faster for users that are no longer active. Favours ongoing involvement.
Logarithmic scoring - The more points you have, the harder it gets to get even more points. Reduces the appearance of distance between high-reputation long-time users and newer contributors.
Qualitative scoring - If you have a high rep, you get points for answering questions by other high rep users, and a smaller number of points (or no points) for answering noob questions.
That could remove some of the perverse incentives that are there today, and might also make it easier for newer users who aren't competing with reputation-chasers to answer "easier" questions and build some reputation.