[WikiEN-l] Punished by Rewards? (Marc Riddell)

[Marc Riddell]

on 11/6/07 1:27 PM, William Pietri at william at 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