Posted by mgifford on November 28, 2013 at 6:17pm
The Goals & User Points modules both can be used to reward behavior for participation in Drupal sites. Are there other examples of modules that do this? What are the best examples of Drupal sites leveraging this type of points systems?
https://drupal.org/project/userpoints
https://drupal.org/project/goals
Are there things that should be learned for application on Drupal.org?
There are some really interesting ways in which points are used on sites like StackOverflow. How far do these point systems get to replicating that?
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I jut ran across this list of modules to extend userpoints that might be of value:
https://drupal.org/project/userpoints_contrib
Also this article talking about gamification & user points with Drupal:
http://drupaleverything.com/content/create-user-behavior-user-points-lea...
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OpenConcept | Twitter @mgifford | Drupal Security Guide
Achievements also provides
Achievements also provides points, but it's optional - there's a module (shipped with core) called "Pointless" that removes the leaderboards and display of points. This module was coded specifically because previous discussions by the Drupal community indicated a desire for no points whatsoever - that leaderboards would turn people OFF to contributing because it's too competitive; notables would also dominate the board, making it feel impossible for a new user to ever be recognized (though, this is also why Achievements offers leaderboards per achievement too).
Note, however, that there are two different ways of handling points - User Points exemplifies one approach, and Achievements another (I don't know about Goals - my inclination is that Goals is the same approach as Achievements).
User Points points are infinite - that is, you can get 5 points for every comment. Made your 2nd comment? +5. Your 3rd? +5. Your 8000th comment? +5. Each individual action always grants you points, and there's no upper boundary to when the points stop. Someone with more time will always dominate the leaderboard, and there's no way anyone could challenge them. Note, also, that User Points allows the removal of points - there's support for "spending" your points on things.
Achievements, on the other hand, are based on milestones - you only get points for configured aggregations, not for each and every action. You might get points for your 1st comment, and for your 20th comment, but if there isn't an achievement for 21, 25, 100, 200, 8000, etc., then you're not going to get any recognition for that particular milestone. And, while you can code shame achievements (that is, Achievements that "reward" you -5 points), it's generically frowned upon (and absolutely non-existent in the gaming world that Achievements is based upon).
That's great!
Thanks for writing up that distinction. I would think that the milestones are ultimately more motivating. Particularly if they come with some perk once you've hit that point.
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OpenConcept | Twitter @mgifford | Drupal Security Guide
Will improve user contribution
I strongly believe that this will increase user contribution. I am in favor going the achievement route because I believe sites like drupal.stackexchange.com already exist that reward based on user points. On D.O it should be more based on contributing to towards for fixing issues, providing patches and providing documentation for these modules