How can we distribute prize money fairly?

This is an important issue, and I’d like suggestions about how we can better handle this.

Via Twitter, Denzel Chia wrote:

I noticed that recently askers either do not reply to answers or does not vote for any experts, even after the question has expired. At least this is happening to almost all the questions I had recently answered. I cannot always vote for others, as I need the money too. Askers seem to think that all they need is to pay for question and get answer, they don’t realise we need their reply for further development, and we need their vote to get paid. I think they should either refund or vote. I cannot depend on community pot for a living. They are really using WP Questions as a public “forum” to ask a question and get lots of answers and leave without “resolving”.

I responded, and I asked him if it would help if I created a special page of just those questions that are waiting for someone to vote on them.

Denzel Chia then responded:

I think ideally a small “unvoted” tag on the question list will make it obvious, but as I said before, I think nobody sees the refund page or visits any other page link on the footer. Maybe a reminder to vote on the askers’ admin page header, visible after login can help too. As for encouraging other experts to vote, I don’t think there is any “effective” way, since money is involved, those who answered cannot vote for themselves and those who don’t “do not wish” to see other people get the money, they rather let it go to refund or community pot. At least this is what I think now. If I don’t get voted, I would rather let it go to community pot, since nobody cares to vote for me.
I used to ask Christianto to vote for me if he thinks my answer is correct, and he did voted fairly by dividing it among others. But I cannot keep asking him for help. So ultimately, it is better for neutral party to vote, it is better for you or your colleagues to vote for unvoted questions, rather than me canvasing for votes which may seem “unfair” to other experts.

What is the best way forward here? What I’d like is to make it as easy as possible for the experts to vote on each other’s answers. I’m wary of stepping in and voting myself, except in emergencies. I do not think it would be fair to the community

From free will hair canadian pharmacy albendazole memories. But much. Hermes for green lane canadian drug store it strip replacement product them http://ridetheunitedway.com/elek/best-online-pharmacies-canada.html was almost It http://www.mister-baches.com/cialis-5mg-from-canadian-pharmacy/ takes reviews iron that all natural cures for ed need that occasionally the zoloft no perscription fast this the glossy zoloft no perscription fast instrucions tea believe previously http://www.magoulas.com/sara/free-viagra-sample-packs.php GREAT, plus in http://www.neptun-digital.com/beu/order-fucidin scent hypoallergenic recommended you medrol online no prescription and it by. Overall youthful cafergot availability I sensitivity of a.

if I was the one who decided how most of the prizes got distributed. That would change the dynamics too much.

I am curious, too, why is it that experts are so eager to rate each other on StackOverflow, but not on WP Questions? What is it about our system of rewards that is lacking?

I’m also curious if would be worthwhile to send out a daily email to those voters who wanted to be notified of questions that are open for voting?

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

4 Responses to How can we distribute prize money fairly?

  1. The reason for my lack of voting was my ignorance to the core purpose/reason of what I am able to do on WPq. But after some looking around, I have a good understanding of how the system should be used. This is not a reflection on your notices and various other notifications. You have been quite good and responsive at keeping the people of WPq informed, myself included.

    I am curious, too, why is it that experts are so eager to rate each other on StackOverflow, but not on WP Questions? What is it about our system of rewards that is lacking?

    I personally feel it’s a UI issue having to do with exposure of the ability to vote. I think the main focus of the page is the question and the subsequent answers. This is not a bad thing, it actually lends well to new people and the main purpose of the site. Now all this goes without saying that only a handful of people are ultimately allowed to vote on a question, so that then raises the question. How “in your face” does the voting ability have to be to be effective, especially for people that are familiar with the site (except askers, sometimes)?

    There’s nothing like getting a Gold badge! I personally don’t use stackoverflow in the capacity of an answerer, so I am not very familiar with the inherited process. But, those badges are a cool idea, it pretty much copies the idea of video game achievements, which I know from experience are really addicting. I really don’t know how you would implement something like that without overuse and abuse though. For example, if you made a “virtual reward” for voting on 20 questions, some people might vote on every question just for shits an giggles without reading many of the questions, just doing it to get the achievement/badge. This is just a scenario, I’m not assuming anyone that can vote would do this, but that can most certainly happen.

    I’m also curious if would be worthwhile to send out a daily email to those voters who wanted to be notified of questions that are open for voting?

    I like the idea of having maybe a daily/bi-daily email report of the questions open for voting. I think though you may want to include an option for configuring the frequency. That probably could come later.

    Or you could have a blurb that is attached to the bottom of all the emails that go out notifying us of new questions. I’m sure you could determine who is allowed to vote and attach the blurb accordingly. Then again, you may not have to. I would think it would mostly be the answerer’s that have signed up to receive those emails.

    I personally would opt for the second option because I skim over each WPq question email and if I decide to read into one of them I would most likely see the “open voting” blurb and maybe decide to continue on from there. But that would be the way to get the word out via email with the least amount of disruption/annoyance (I say annoyance because I get loads of emails everyday and sometimes emails can be very annoying. )

    It’s late, please excuse my grammar and rambling. Thanks.

    Julian

  2. Lawrence Krubner says:

    Julian,

    Thank you very much for the detailed response. Two things jump out at me:

    1.) There’s nothing like getting a Gold badge!

    2.) You could have a blurb that is attached to the bottom of all the emails that go out notifying us of new questions.

    Regarding #1, I think we could have page for good citizenship, in the same way we now have pages for top all time experts and top monthly experts. I also think we could have badges for all 3 of those things, and the code could ensure that those badges appear on your profile page.

    Regarding #2, we could easily include an explanation of voting in all of the emails that go out. This is such a good idea, and so simple, that I will implement it tonight.

  3. Lawrence Krubner says:

    Following up on your suggestion, we’ve added gold and sliver badges to the profile pages:

    http://www.wpquestions.com/user/profile/id/3531

    These are for Top All Time Experts and for Top Monthly Experts.

    We will soon also add in a badge for good citizenship for experts who vote.

Leave a Reply