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[Exploration] Linkedin Contributor Meter

Sir ArmaMalum·12/2/2014, 2:21:26 PM·4 votes·1,490 views

I'm a gamer. And as a gamer I play many more games than just League, as well as many more forums than just League's. So I'm going to highlight some features of other gaming forums, websites and other places that I thought were brilliant. I'm not saying "Put this in, Rito Plz!", but exploring how different developers handled the problems presented in a forum platform can not only be a good exercise, but can be excellent springboards to other ideas.

http://i.imgur.com/l1VespA.png

I'm baaaaaaack.

Here's the Linkedin Contributor mechanic for their site. What this does is track your 'momentum' of sorts when it comes to being active within a group. While I don't know the exact algorithm, I know you can generate momentum by posting discussions, posting comments and having your discussions commented on (with diminishing returns on the last one).

This bar has 3 simple tiers 'No contribution', 'Building influence', and 'top contributor'. When you hit 'top contributor' you get a nice little title below your name on any comments in that group, as well as being included on a list of top contributors avaliable through a small link off to the side. Of course this value will decay after about two days or so of no contribution (possibly varying on total group activity) and you'll quickly lose that 'top contributor' title if you're not consistently getting activity in.

I thought this was a cool bit to look at because I know there's always been talk about how to highlight more active and helpful people within the Boards without producing an easily abusable system that means little to nothing. Now, this system exactly still isn't perfect as it doesn't (I am 90% sure) take into account word count or discussion quality, just the easier to track metrics. I think it works in Linkedin because the groups are usually much tighter in their discssion posting than, say, a public forum. So the main problem, incite/flame posts, can be dealt with through that method.

Honestly, it works a lot like the current in-game honor system, where it's actually not too difficult to get up to the top (i.e. get a ribbon) but it's much more difficult to maintain that level once you're there. It's a clever system for a site like Linkedin, as it uses the visibility increase to you as a person as an incentive to produce more discussion within a group, which in turn creates more opportunities for another person to also build influence.

Thoughts?

3 Comments

Daen12/2/2014, 6:58:45 PM2 votes

I have had a lot of experience with the Top Contributor functionality in LinkedIn, as I used to post a lot in Inside Riot Games. I'll touch on some things I've noticed and talked about with other Top Contributors in that group.

You have covered the basic mechanics well, so I won't get into that. The things that're important to me are how the system feels and what it realistically accomplishes, and that's where things get interesting.

How does it feel?

Depending on the group, Top Contributor can feel a bit like pushing a boulder up an endless hill. The progression from building influence to finally reaching Top Contributor feels good, but a few days of inactivity (or even a slight dip thereof) can remove that title. It's generally pretty easy to re-attain, but there is still that constant feel of needing to post often just to stay relevant.

What does it actually accomplish?

From my experience, Top Contributor encourages post volume rather than post quality. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it really doesn't feel like it rewards the right people sometimes. I've had times where I have felt that I need to write a comment like "I agree with x" or something equally fluffy just to not lose the title, which to me isn't necessarily ideal.

Basically, I think the general concept of the idea is good. I would love to see some recognition for those that post constructively and contribute heavily to the well-being of the platform, but I'm just not sure that TC functionality is what we're looking for.

What do you think?