If we set up karma in D.org to mean code contributions, handbook contributions, etc., then it takes concrete hours of work to earn it and therefore lowers the probability of gaming.

One of the key elements of Drupal is that new people can become key people by doing work. Any karma system must reflect and identify those up and comers / recently arrived leaders.

I’d love to talk to you about how we can make this custom development work for the overall Drupal community, if it’s of value. Please send me an email and we’ll make that happen.

I’ve been really taken by the simple ‘props’ system that Blip.fm uses (which sounds similar to the ‘cheers’ or ‘thanks’ systems you’ve described. What I love about Blip.fm is that the more ‘props’ you receive, the more you have to give. There is something very positive about that, which I really like.

@Kars “any choice you make about the formal aspects of the system will influence the perception people have of the community’s social contract” — great quote, and that’s exactly why I mentioned the cheers system — it reinforces the social norms already in the community (E.g. thanking people by mentioning their name in commit messages).

And, of course, I think cheers systems are quite different than points systems, so the whole gaming aspect may not apply at all…

“any choice you make about the formal aspects of the system will influence the perception people have of the community’s social contract”

and the “cheers” system Boris mentions in #3 sounds like the way to go. Stress the “giving” aspect of karma, not the “gaining” aspect.

Also see ubuntuforums.org, e.g. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=840040 (“The Following 6 Users Say Thank You” to this user).

I’ve been a little bit strategic about what I do in professional social networks. Some of those strategies mean that I do keep track of what is going on. Kinda like KPIs.

I actually would like a tool to track my ongoing games in one spot. I’d be nice to see them all on one page!

Anyone know one or got any ideas?

Note: The amount of points a member has never goes down, and is used as a limit of how many points they can reward.

In effect it becomes a karma currency.

Is there any sites with a system like this?

If you have to go for something this simplistic, I would think more along the lines of blip.fm and their props (each user starts with a number of props they can give away to other DJs and when they receive them, they can pass them on) it’s still susceptible to gaming but of a more complex sort and one that requires co-operation with others.

Which reminds me that what we’re talking about here is “undesirable” gaming. You don’t want to stamp gaming out – some element of playing the game is what makes social sites… err… fun!

Some very valuable comments have been made already. I thought I’d contribute some stuff less focused on the formal aspects of social software and more on the experiential (play) level. Some things to consider:

* any choice you make about the formal aspects of the system will influence the perception people have of the community’s social contract
* besides the official rules of the system, people socially construct actual rules
* what you call “gaming” is an individual or group of players proposing their own set of actual rules

If you haven’t already, I would recommend you pick up ‘Rules of Play’ and read the chapter ‘Games as Social Play’. Some very good stuff on these issues.

So whilst I could rack up a high karma score there, it would require so many repetitive and tiny transactions with the website that I’d be discouraged from doing so… the medium ‘scored’ transactions require some buy-in and some work, and the top level transactions are, essentially, awards given to you by others.

Yes it can still be gamed, everything can, but as you say, the transparency here is key. If I’m reading something by someone with a high karma/score then I want a quick indication of how (if!) they earned it!

Taking the above system into play you’d soon see if a high scorer had no top and medium scores, or vice versa, and adjust your thinking accordingly.

P.S. Will see you later this month in Edinburgh!