People really love their fake internet points. Tracking per-server would be trivial. Gamification works to encourage engagement as has been proven time and time again.
But what is the goal? Gamification does work if your goal is quantity over quality, which it is for many site owners who want big numbers and to push ads. But for Lemmy, the only goal is for people to have a place to post links, comment, and build communities. People shouldn’t post if they don’t have something meaningful to contribute.
I’m not necessarily against showing stats for users, but we don’t have corporate goals like “engagement”.
People really love their fake internet points. Tracking per-server would be trivial. Gamification works to encourage engagement as has been proven time and time again.
But what is the goal? Gamification does work if your goal is quantity over quality, which it is for many site owners who want big numbers and to push ads. But for Lemmy, the only goal is for people to have a place to post links, comment, and build communities. People shouldn’t post if they don’t have something meaningful to contribute.
I’m not necessarily against showing stats for users, but we don’t have corporate goals like “engagement”.
It’s also great to create karma-whores and serial reposters, while discouraging discussion which leads to echo chambers.
Engagement is great, but I prefer quality over quantity.