Starting now: No more points for likes on comments/replies

Hi everyone,

In an effort to further encourage the creation of quality content, we are making changes in point assignment.

Effective immediately:

• The author of a reply in a discussion thread will no longer receive 2 points when this reply is liked by someone.
• The author of a comment to a blog post or document will no longer receive 2 points when this comment is liked by someone.

When we decided to give these points a couple of years ago, we wanted to encourage feedback on meaningful replies and comments, but we see that the desired effect is not happening.

• We see comments or replies being written solely for the purpose of getting these like points
• Some of these comments or replies do not add any value and may not be encouraging for the author either
• There are groups of people who appear to be liking each other's comments and replies in order to earn a large amount of points quickly.

Please remember that SCN is a professional community and we are looking for added value. What is adding value? It's making contributions - a perspective, content, etc. - that are original, insightful and helpful to others in this community.

If we find that points are encouraging low-quality contributions in other areas (for example, copyright infringement in blogs), we will consider changing the points awarded further, and could consider eliminating points completely.

Whenever the Rules of Engagement are not respected, we will continue removing points and disabling accounts.

I hope we will all see value in this change. Thank you for your attention as always.

Laure