The Order of Gilded Spheres; monks could go geekier with awards

[Your Mother]

The Level system here is great for a few reasons. It edges up responsibility as real experience increases. In the best Tom Sawyer idiom it makes users feel like getting to paint the fence is more fun than work. And of course, if it feels fun, it is fun. Great technique for driving the content forward and keeping users long term. Really good site design.

I've noticed a curmudgeon or two complaining that the XP/Level system here isn't meaningful (to them); that there are Saints who got there only by using up daily votes.

A geeky, but maybe nice, feature to combat this would be user sponsored and voted awards, medals, orders, so on. They would be harder to get than levels by design. Say, only Bishops or higher could nominate, and only Friars or higher could vote on it, and it would have to be determined in a combination of number of vote (100++ votes/50% of active users?) and ratio of ++:-- (minimum ratio of 50:1). Or anything along those lines.

Awards would be a clear mandate from the senior community. Could come in many flavors to acknowledge differing levels of significance, obviously. Could also have individual "Relics" that transfer so one is a holder of "The Curly Braces of Map, Sort, Map" for a period.

[diotalevi]

Oh I love this - it completely fits with my perception of PerlMonks as a sort of odd multi-player role playing game. Of course, I think its plenty fun to come up with nifty hacks but this might be icing for the already well-loaded cake. *grin*

[Coruscate]

All I can really say... why? To gain more XP? What for? To gain levels? Why? To be proven as 'better' than other monks? Why? As you can see, I suppose I land in that group of people who think that XP is pretty meaningless.

I wonder if I sound crabby when I say this, but... can't we just leave the whole level/xp thing alone already? It's fine the way it is, it doesn't need to be modified. {shrug}

As one final comment, I believe there are things that need our attention more than creating new additions to the XP system. Perhaps we should concentrate on improving what we already have before going off and inventing new things. Though of course, if anyone else is willing to spend the hours required to get this working, as well as adding more load to the database, go right ahead. Who's to stop you? ;)

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[djantzen]

I like the idea myself, mainly because it's *not* directly related to XP. It provides a distinct way of measuring achievement, kind of like being awarded "Employee of the Month", only without the parking space ;^) It would also be nice for Saints to have targets to shoot for, and seeing You gained 1 experience point. You have 1002334 points until level vroom is not exactly motivational.

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"The dead do not recognize context" -- Kai, Lexx

[chromatic]

I like this idea. It could be interesting to have a monthly "most helpful poster" and "most interesting snippet" contest. I'd probably not add it to the XP or level system, but it'd be another way to recognize and reward positive contributions.

[allolex]

Have to agree with both Diotalevi and Coruscate on this one, but in different proportions. I'm sure it would be cool to have (although I'm not sure if I would use it), but the extra server load from the system would make the site even less responsive. I guess that's really the fundamental consideration in adding features, apart from the obvious "who's going to code and maintain this?" questions.

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Allolex

[particle]

extra server load? this hasn't been designed yet, never mind coded.

let a pmdevil code it, let gods do the cost and risk analysis, and let the community decide it's worth.

i, for one, think it's a neat idea.

~Particle *accelerates*

[allolex]

Excellent! I guess I'll have to eat my hat because that sounds like you're volunteering for the job, Mr. pmdevil! ;) Responsiveness of the site will have to remain one of my concerns, though.

However, just to keep accounts straight, I never disputed the value of the idea and put my votes where my fingers were by post++. =)

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Allolex

[wolfger]

Great idea. I like the XP/level system, but it's pretty impersonal, and indicates how long you've been here rather than how good/useful/helpful you've been. This idea is more "warm and fuzzy", and will reward people for *what* they do, rather than just how much they do.