Points again

[elvan]

Hate to bring this up but my points dropped over 1300 this evening...what on EARTH is going on.  I think I would rather just get feedback...I don't understand why my points would go down, ESPECIALLY by more than they have gone up in some time.

What's the deal?  Anyone else?

Mark‌???

[CommunityAdmin]

I wonder if you were given a badge and then somehow it was deleted.  Points are only removed if they are earned/given and then that action is reversed.  

Mark

[Jennifer-Quit]

I do know that Ken aka Pops deleted some blogs and also had his account deactivated.  That may have caused points to drop. 

[elvan]

I did not know that Ken had deleted his blogs or that he deactivated his account, that makes me feel sick.  

Seriously, I don't really care about the points, I care about knowing that I made some sort of positive impact for someone.  It was just shocking to see that I was notified that there was "Positive Feedback" and there was this bold red MINUS points next to my name.  

I really hope that Ken will reconsider and that if anyone has a way to reach him other than through here, that they will let him know that his departure is seriously impacting others.

[Jennifer-Quit]

As of a little over 24 hours ago I talked to him and he is not smoking.  That is the most important thing. 

[elvan]

Jennifer-Quit  Thanks for that information...you are right, that IS the most important thing.  I so wanted to know that his quit was secure, not sure why I would have doubted that.

[Rise_and_Grind]

Can someone explain how the points work to me? What do they mean and what can you do with them?

[JonesCarpeDiem]

They are given for participation. No one knows exactly what you get for what you do? You can give them away to people when you like something they said in a blog or a response.

[elvan]

I'll go along with JonesCarpeDiem‌ on this...no one really knows.  When we migrated to this new platform in January, there was this point system put into effect, it is an effort to make the site more appealing to younger people or people who like games associated with quitting.  I am sorry I ever brought it up and I have completely disengaged from the points whether they are there or not...if I get positive feedback from someone, say they like a comment or they mark it as helpful,  I get a notification and I DO look at those because I want to see what may have touched someone.  The rest of it is beyond me...like keeping score in a game where you don't know the rules.  

Sorry that probably didn't help much.

Ellen

[CommunityAdmin]

@all

The points system is baked into the community.  Different number of points are earned for different things.  Things deemed of higher quality earn more points. We have everything pretty stock and haven't done a lot of configuration in terms of the rewards system other than setting up some quests to help people learn about the site by performing introductory tasks.  By participating in different ways on the site you earn mission badges and that defines the type of participant you are.  As you repetitively complete these tasks, you level up. While "younger" people are more familiar with the the intrinsic nature of gamification all people no matter their life experience may find gamification interesting and subscribe to it at some level.

With some communities you earn additional privileges as you level up and increase your point total.  We haven't configured any earned privileges at this time as the site's main focus is not to earn points, but to support each other in their quit journey.

Points on many online communities give credibility to someone's words as does their length of time as a member and number of contributions. Your level of membership will give context to a person reading how much skin you have in the game. Certainly there are cases where people may game the system but hopefully this is rare. Especially in this community.  Also since points can be given away, points may not necessarily be a measure of how credible a person is if they've given all their points away and if someone is a new member but has been gifted thousands of points but they aren't quit. So that must be taken into consideration.  

Given all that, this is why I stress the importance of not liberally giving away points or overusing helpful answer. While points may not matter, they're your badge of participation/contribution to the site. And the contributions made on the site are amazing!

As others have said, you don't "turn your points in" on the site for anything.  They're not a virtual monetary system other than potentially a mark of your online reputation.

Hope this makes sense.

Mark
EX Community Manager