Gamification

[Former Member]

Hi All,

Just wondering what you make of the new gamification system?  I think that it's a positive thing that will encourage more active involvement in the forums - both giving as well as receiving information.

Regards,

Graham

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Gamification: I'm loving it, This is terrific!

Hope the Team will focus on particular Forum discussions which were answered but not marked as answered by the author.

[Former Member]

I think there is a big positive that it makes people get involved in more area rather than just asking and answering forum questons.

But as has been shown people are adding information of dubious quality just to gain the badge.

I have long felt the ability to deduct points from others where you consider content or answers irrelevant would be a good feature. 

[former_member181931]

Hi Paul,

We have the ability to remove points but need to think of a process to handle this with the moderators. Removing points is not something I would open to everyone, I would just handle it with the moderators who can assess quality and can monitor abuse.

Thanks for the feedback,

Laure

[Former Member]

I think it's a great motivator to help and learn at the same time.

[Jelena]

Oh boy, someone just posted yet another blog on FOR ALL ENTRIES in ABAP space. What's next - PC vs. Mac? Oh, Gamification, what have you done!!!

[marilyn_pratt]

Jelena, confused with the link above. It points to Sapphire stuff.

Can you check your link please?

[Jelena]

Marilyn, my mistake (darn copy/paste!) - here is the correct link (don't see a button to edit comment, unfortunately):

http://scn.sap.com/community/abap/blog/2013/05/08/use-of-for-all-entries-in-abap

Thanks for pointing this out.

[Former Member]

You can't edit, or delete, a comment once somebody has replied to it. Makes sense, really.

Steve.

[marilyn_pratt]

Global moderators can so I wasn't seeing the problem with an update.  Thanks for reminding me that different permissions give different abilities.

[marilyn_pratt]

Okay! now I see it.  Now you won't as I have just warned the member via DM and removed the content

[Former Member]

This was implemented because there were enough wingnuts trying to sell points on eBay that they would make dummy posts, then wait for the real answers and edit their own to copy&paste the real one.

Anything bolted onto the points system can only end in such mindless noise.

At least the missions have not created any additional rivalry, but then again the points "contests" of the paste have done enough damage already that it could not get much worse....

Cheers,

Julius

[former_member193464]

May be any blog that is posted should be approved by one(any) of the moderators . This will give additional burden on the moderators though
Just a thought , dont know if its really feasible

[Jelena]

Maverick Manoj wrote:
May be any blog that is posted should be approved by one(any) of the moderators . 

Yes, that's how it worked in the Old SDN - every (?) blog was moderated. There were fewer blogs but much better quality. There are several ideas already posted on Idea Place to restore the blog moderation, please support them if you agree.

There was also a long discussion in About SCN regarding "not a blog" issue with many good suggestions posted. Not sure if/when any of them will materialize...

[former_member193464]

will try to find it in ideaplace (not very familiar with SDN , the only two things i know here is how to ask a query and other how to answer someone )
well the devil is in the points allotted on blogs (i think now the badges too), even if you want to have every  blog posted in sdn , let them get posted , however the points (including comments and likes) should be awarded when a moderator verifies the blog otherwise it would be just a POINT-LESS blog...

in time only people who have something to add will actually blog....

[Former Member]

Hi Jelena,

I agree that the blogs were typically (in the NetWeaver space) of high quality and were for tricky and/or new areas.  It seems that with the new system then people are uploading anything they can think of in order to complete the next mission.  Now I completely understand why SCN thought this a good idea, however already it looks to have backfired.  Not sure where we go from here, but moderation would help.

Thanks,

Graham

[former_member181931]

I think it is sad to see people write comments and blogs with no real valuable content, just to get badges or points. It has always been difficult to manage this. Today we have blog pre-moderation for all members below 30 points, this is an effort to coach them to produce good content. Hopefully it's been increasing the quality of contributions in the last few weeks!

As for missions, maybe they are easy at the beginning but then they require more quality, as judged by the community (likes, ratings, etc) so people who game the system can't expect to continue doing this over time. At least as far as badges are concerned. That is the intention, hopefully we will be successful.

Laure

[former_member182652]

Hi Laure,

The reason for imposing the restriction of moderating the content of members with less than 30 points is great but its becoming a real pain due to the time required for the content to be approved.

I had 280 points on my previous SDN id which could not be shifted to my new SDN id. My current id has less than 30 points and i am facing huge problem in replying to a post or raising a thread. I had a query and raised a question on last Thursday but its still in moderation. I also replied to one of the threads and my reply got posted only a week after the thread has been answered.

I suggest that such a restriction is not applied for raising a thread so that beginners or not so active users can timely raise their queries. Also, there should be a provision of clubbing points of different SDN ids and if possible, moderation should be quicker so that response to someone's query is posted in relevant time.

Regards,

Kunal

[former_member181931]

Hi Kunal,

We are planning to develop a tool to merge user IDs, their content and their points. It will take some time though because it's something that needs to be developped to work with our ID management system, Jive (SCN platform) and Bunchball (our gamification platform). You can imagine the complexity 😉 But it's high on my priority list.

As for moderation before content is published, this is not really my area, it's just that points are used as an indicator to decide when someone can be considered "experienced enough" to no longer be pre-moderated. I think that with the onboarding missions we created and a few contributions you can quickly get out of pre-moderation mode, learn and have fun all along.

Regards,

Laure

[former_member182652]

Hi Laure,

Thats great. I will be eagerly waiting for the tool But i sincerely believe that moderation should not apply when a person is raising a thread so that everybody can get help in timely manner. I have raised an idea for this in the Idea Place.

Regards,

Kunal

[Former Member]

The moderation for new users is in place because of a major SPAM attack on SCN a couple of months ago. People were creating new accounts in their hundreds and posting spam blogs and discussions. For more background see these blogs: , , and .

The moderation is annoying, I agree, and off-putting for new users, but it has effectively dealt with the SPAM issue. If you have suggestions for alternative ways of dealing with the spam do post them here. I'm sure the moderators would love not to have so much work to do!

Steve.

[former_member193464]

I am not sure if this is possible , quite a vague idea and i have no idea on how SDN is built...(can have many loop holes )
but if its possible to connect a mobile number to one SDN account mandatory(keeping it private), when creating your account a verification needs to be done through mobile code...
one account to one mobile number , i dont think spammers would buy many mobile numbers just to spam... 
(Can also be a easy basis for two mail id with two different mobile number but same person can also add there points if they merge both id to one id and one mobile number and deactivating the other in the process)
any way just an idea can be a silly one

[former_member181931]

Hi Maverick,

That's a very good idea, I noticed that Google Voice does this: You have to give your cell number to validate your account. They call your cell phone, and when you pick up you hear the code and you have to type it in during the validation processs.

I think you should put this idea in Idea Place and I will definitely vote up!

Best,
Laure

[former_member193464]

Hi Laure,

Thanks. Yip something like that.
Well boosted by your support i added it to the idea place, here is the link.

Thanks,
Manoj

[former_member181931]

Great! You got my vote.

Laure

[former_member193464]

Its good , I recently opened SCN for asking a question maybe after 4-5 months , didnt know that a whole new Avatar of SCN would be infront of me. Loved the badges and the missions....

I am still learning the new features as to what new has been added
Also the medals are now based on lifetime coins, that is good , because sometimes you are busy in work for months and then see that all your yearly points have hit the bottom rock

[Jelena]

I have yet to read more on this, but so far I've noticed that to get to the next precious stone level I'll need much more points than previously from Silver to Gold . However, since I got both Mentor and 'SCN member of the month' badges, my self esteem is through the roof anyway. (No that it was low before, but still. )

[former_member181931]

Hehe. Are you addicted already? 😉
It does make sense that the higher you go the harder it gets! But I know you will get there. And really, the points are not that important, compared to badges and what you've achieved.

Laure

[Lukas_Weigelt]

None of the new features work for me. All I get are infinite loading screens/bars that won't go away even after hours... I guess it's because I'm stuck to dark-age-browsers like IE7 and FF3.6 at work, since I haven't seen people report such problems on the respective threads.

Dammit. :´(

[former_member181931]

Sorry to hear that Lukas 😞 I just emailed you to ask for more information.

Thanks,
Laure

[Nigel_James]

I want my API

[former_member181931]

Hi Graham,

I love it. But I implemented it so I'm biased 😉
If you are interested in gamification discussions, make sure you follow our space Gamification. There I also started a thread asking for feedback about the recent introduction of gamification on SCN.

Best,
Laure

[Former Member]

HI Laure,

I've noted that many more people are now pitching in with replies to questions.  As the objective was to get people contributing rather than just taking, I think that it's already looking like a successful project.  No doubt this will prove to be a game-changing initiative.

Great idea

Best regards,

Graham

[former_member181931]

Hi Graham,

It's great to hear. I've noticed more people commenting, liking, etc. In short, providing feedback. This is one of the behaviors we want to encourage as it motivates other members by validating their contributions. Sometimes it feels that the comments could be... well... more constructive. But overall I'm happy so far.

Quality is my number 1 focus, so I check to see what others observe in the community.

Thanks,
Laure

[Jitendra_Kansal]

i have very much impressed with new badge on SCN gamification. it is cool

Regards,

Jitendra

[JasonLax]

Time will tell but I think it's off to a great start. It will be really awesome to see more feedback from the community so that it can be used to surface quality content more easily (likes, ratings, comments).