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Ask HN: How to design a karma reward system

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Ask HN: How to design a karma reward system

#1

Post by yannis »

I am building what is actually a large portal for a 'tutoring site'. Visitors will be able to join groups, create groups and post comments, lessons etc. They will also be rewarded for completing on-line exercises.

I would like to introduce a 'karma reward system' in order to a) motivate people to contribute and b) to crowdsource ratings both for people as well as content.

I am leaning to something that is in-between what http//thesixtyone.com offers and HN's or stackoverflow's floating method of ratings.

I am looking for suggestions, formulae and good links to resources, books etc as well as other sites than the above three that you favour.

Re: Ask HN: How to design a karma reward system

#2

Post by JeffJenkins »

What I've wanted to try but I have never had the opportunity to was having karma be accumulated on a per-topic basis. I think any time you've got a wide set of topics this is necessary to avoid the issues of people being treated as credible outside of their domain of expertise, and it could help mitigate the issue on Stack Overflow where people who answer lots of easy questions can get much more karma than those who answer a few much harder ones.

Re: Ask HN: How to design a karma reward system

#3

Post by yannis »

JeffJenkins wrote: post #2

What I've wanted to try but I have never had the opportunity to was having karma be accumulated on a per-topic basis. I think any time you've got a wide set of topics this is necessary to avoid the issues of people being treated as credible outside of their domain of expertise, and it could help mitigate the issue on Stack Overflow where people who answer lots of easy questions can get much more karma than those who…

Jeff Thanks! What you saying is very true of stack-overflow and although I visit occasionally their whole karma formula does not appeal for the reason you mentioned. I was thinking in similar lines and have introduced the groups concept for example when you belong to the 'lisp circle' you will be able to earn additional points when you answer or solve lisp problems. My concern is not to let the users focus too narrowly, I was thinking that joining groups should be limited i.e, when you accumulate 100 points you can join a group and as you earn open up more groups... To link the whole thing in a sort of 'PageRank' algorithm to stop people from gaming the system is what is puzzling me.

Re: Ask HN: How to design a karma reward system

#5

Post by babyshake »

It depends on your choice of language and some specific implementation details....and whether you are more interested in the user interface side, the data modeling, or both.

There's a range of approaches to motivational systems, and I think in 2010 we'll see some real innovation in this area. For instance, I think Gowalla is doing a particularly great job.

Re: Ask HN: How to design a karma reward system

#7

Post by yannis »

babyshake wrote: post #5

It depends on your choice of language and some specific implementation details....and whether you are more interested in the user interface side, the data modeling, or both. There's a range of approaches to motivational systems, and I think in 2010 we'll see some real innovation in this area. For instance, I think Gowalla is doing a particularly great job.

Thanks! I added Gowalla on the list! I am more interested in the data modeling and algo and good examples like Gowalla.

Re: Ask HN: How to design a karma reward system

#8

Post by yannis »

karanbhangui wrote: post #4

I'm planning on working on something potentially very similar. Here's an outline post I made a while back: http://karanbhangui.posterous.com/course-learning-aid-propos... Lemme know if you're interested in collaboration.

Thanks I will send you an email! Is that UWaterloo like in the UK?
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