An "award" for a good post or encyclopedia edit can simply be a compliment: "nice post" or "good edit". This is also at the heart of civility, and should be done much more than it is in the Project.
That's why I like barnstars so much. They are easy to award, and people don't get obsessed over them to the point of dedicating their wikipedia time to the purpose of solely getting barnstars.
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Wiki Dudeman wrote:
An "award" for a good post or encyclopedia edit can simply be a compliment: "nice post" or "good edit". This is also at the heart of civility, and should be done much more than it is in the Project.
That's why I like barnstars so much. They are easy to award, and people don't get obsessed over them to the point of dedicating their wikipedia time to the purpose of solely getting barnstars.
Yes indeed. I've done on-line community stuff for a long time, and I can't think of anything so subtly brilliant as the barnstar system.
Given by anyone, they don't reinforce any particular power structure. Given for anything that somebody thinks is good, they don't privilege one particular view of goodness. As awards, not rewards, nobody dedicates themselves to chasing them. And since they can come for anything, they don't bias people much to particular kinds of work.
But still, they're damned nice to get. They seem to be a system of almost pure appreciation, rather than the manipulation that is the purpose of most reward systems.
And I agree completely with your earlier point about adminship. A lot of people seem to pursue admin status like they would leveling up their World of Warcraft character, which is unfortunate. Understandable, but missing the point.
In "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", Adams describes a governing system where the presidency is an entirely ceremonial post, meant for people who pursue it for the wrong reasons. It's too late for us, but I'd love it if some similar project created "administrator" and "janitor" posts. One would be showy and useless. The other would be boring and maybe even a little denigrated, but would have the ring of keys that opens every door in the building. :-)
William
on 11/6/07 1:27 PM, William Pietri at william@scissor.com wrote:
Wiki Dudeman wrote:
An "award" for a good post or encyclopedia edit can simply be a compliment: "nice post" or "good edit". This is also at the heart of civility, and should be done much more than it is in the Project.
That's why I like barnstars so much. They are easy to award, and people don't get obsessed over them to the point of dedicating their wikipedia time to the purpose of solely getting barnstars.
Yes indeed. I've done on-line community stuff for a long time, and I can't think of anything so subtly brilliant as the barnstar system.
Given by anyone, they don't reinforce any particular power structure. Given for anything that somebody thinks is good, they don't privilege one particular view of goodness. As awards, not rewards, nobody dedicates themselves to chasing them. And since they can come for anything, they don't bias people much to particular kinds of work.
But still, they're damned nice to get. They seem to be a system of almost pure appreciation, rather than the manipulation that is the purpose of most reward systems.
And I agree completely with your earlier point about adminship. A lot of people seem to pursue admin status like they would leveling up their World of Warcraft character, which is unfortunate. Understandable, but missing the point.
In "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", Adams describes a governing system where the presidency is an entirely ceremonial post, meant for people who pursue it for the wrong reasons. It's too late for us, but I'd love it if some similar project created "administrator" and "janitor" posts. One would be showy and useless. The other would be boring and maybe even a little denigrated, but would have the ring of keys that opens every door in the building. :-)
Exactly, William. They truly hold the keys to the kingdom :-). And, without the janitors, we'd all be constantly bogged down and tripping over yesterday's trash.
Marc
On Tue, 06 Nov 2007 10:27:46 -0800, William Pietri william@scissor.com wrote:
In "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", Adams describes a governing system where the presidency is an entirely ceremonial post, meant for people who pursue it for the wrong reasons. It's too late for us, but I'd love it if some similar project created "administrator" and "janitor" posts. One would be showy and useless. The other would be boring and maybe even a little denigrated, but would have the ring of keys that opens every door in the building. :-)
As ever, William articulates my thoughts much better than I could.
Me, I'm just the janitor.
Guy (JzG)