On Thu, Jul 25, 2013 at 2:42 PM, Andrew Gray andrew.gray@dunelm.org.ukwrote:
Wikilove the tool in particular, or barnstars/appreciation in general?
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0034358 found productive people, gave half of them barnstars, and looked to see what happened. - "receiving a barnstar increases productivity by 60% and makes contributors six times more likely to receive additional barnstars from other community members"
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Editor_Survey_2011/Wikipedia_Community had a general question about appreciation through barnstars etc, but "do you like people saying nice things" is not the most rigorous study ;-)
Also check out https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:WikiLove