Points Preaching Overdose

[Former Member]

Hi,

There has been lots of point preaching. I remember, once

I had suggested in a post in this forum, exactly opposite

to what I would be suggesting now.

I have been a regular member in the ABAP Programming

Forum, and the replies always have a four to five lines

stating how to award points. Some would say, despite that

people don't.

Perhaps the points thing is not a great idea. If you look

at Google Groups, it runs without the points or award

system. Still people reply. Yes with the points system,

there have been far more replies and some very accurate,

I agree, but awarding points should be something like,

<i>I go to a store, buy a product, pay the money and come

home happily. Shopkeeper is happy, even the customer is.</i>

It should not be,

<i>I go to a store, buy a product, shopkeeper rattles me to

pay the money and come home with both the shopkeeper and

the customer not having the best of experience.</i>

Probably, I have just made this too dramatic, but bottomline is, I would like to see more of tech. talk than points talk.

Regards,

Subramanian V

Message was edited by: Subramanian Venkateswaran

[ssimsekler · Accepted solution]

Hi Subramanian

You are right in a sense. However I couldn't understand why you are so <i>dramatic</i> as you said so. The architects of this forum has established the pointing system for anything they have thought of. At this point, I should say that at an earlier time of this pointing system, I told that I would like this forum to go on with voluntary replies and have neither a pointing system nor a "most number of posts" system.

But this is the game and I believe anyone should play within the game circumstances. I do PREACH for points writing four or more lines as you complained. But I do this just for THE NEW members or someone who insists on not giving points. That is just to remind the rules of this game. If it is the number of lines you worry about, then I can scan all my old messages and delete those lines :).

Every earthman knows the rule that he must pay a shopkeeper for something he buys. However, if an alien from Mars comes to this world and tries to buy (he wouldn't be aware of this action in fact) something, the shopkeeper will exactly and KINDLY explain the rule of purchasing. This will also hold for a small child who doesn't know how to purchase. This time it will be his friend or one of his parents who will introduce him the system. This is the rule of the LIFE game in the world, is not it? I'd better stop here, I could be more dramatic than this...

Now, if the SDN moderators give up the pointing system, be sure that I will still be here at your service

OK! Hope I did not break your heart, but seems you are somehow angry about sometings. Never mind and just play the game...

*--Serdar

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

I think the problem is that users who respond should not have to remind people to assign points. The system should do it for you.

See for example http://www.experts-exchange.com/

On this site the system clearly follows up questions in a much detailed way, so that each question does assign the relevant points. If this doesn't happen because the users doesn't respond to the "nagging" of the system, a moderator steps in and does it.

Moderators are the clue here, and unfortunately the SDN team doesn't have enough resource to do this job.

Perhaps "non-sap" moderators should be introduced ?

I believe that users should be reminded on questions not assigned points to on sdn in a much more visible way (for example in the portal framework, or when you try to post a new question).

Just my two-cents though

[former_member374 · Accepted solution]

Hi SDN Members,

Today we changed the UI for giving points with the hope that people will give out blue stars left and right.

Hope you like it and the necessety to remind people will be less, Mark.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

This is an amazing concept. I like it very much. Full marks for this.

Regards,

Subramanian V.

[ssimsekler · Accepted solution]

Hi

I really liked this, too. I will immediately confess about my preaching and play the game without doing so ;).

<i>"I do not want to moralize, but to those who do, I give this advice: if you want eventually to deprive the best things and situations of all their worth, then keep talking about them the way you have been!"</i> -Nietzsche-

*--Serdar

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hello,

I'm a regular on the ABAP Programming Forum too. And I would completely agree with Serdar's view on this topic.

In fact, I'm also one of the guys who asks people to reward the points for the replies. And along with my answers, I do churn out 4-liner-harangues for points. But they are limited only to the new members on the forum - member's who are making their first / second post. It's a different matter that , of late there are more new members joining SDN.

IMHO, the pointing system is really a very good feature. For one thing, it helps motivate more number of people to respond and participate. For another, there are often a lot of questions that are redundant. Similar and sometimes same questions are asked again and again. And trust me, it really gets boring to respond to the same questions again and again. And to those who know the answer to the question, it is likely to cause some reluctance to respond to the question. This puts the person asking the doubt in a disadvantageous position, so to say, just because a lot the guys have asked the same question before !! But one thing I try to ensure in such cases is to give the person a link to a similar discussion that had taken place in the forum in the past. And often, he/she might find more information in the past post and shall inculcate the habit of searching for similar posts before making a new post.

But there's a child in each of us and we might want to respond if we get the points. We would want to compete with the rest of the folks in the forum and beat them on the points tally. We would want to see our name in the list of top contributors and so on...Personally, if I find enough questions that are new, different, <i>interesting</i> and challenging, I would not mind if I am not rewarded for that post. The joy of researching the issue and learning something new is more than enough.

Subramanian : I really still fail to see why you are so upset about the system. But now that we have the new UI for points, I guess I will be less <i>instructive</i> on the pointing system.

Let's make merry <i>yaar</i>...

Regards,

Anand Mandalika.

[eddy_declercq · Accepted solution]

I'm also one of the guys reminding people that they have to assign reward points if things have been helpfull. But even then, some people don't seem to bother.

Having points is always nice (good for the ego, no?), but I see it also as a feedback in order to see if I got it right.