PAX East 2012: I’m Going Going, Back Back
It’s that time of year again for gamers to invade Boston. PAX East kicks off Friday April 6th and runs through Sunday April 8th at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. It brings together some of the most passionate video game enthusiasts to interact with some of the most influential game developers in the industry.
Similar to previous years, after I build my agenda, I like to share it with you so you can see for yourselves the parallels between enterprise community management and community management Read more 
The Dangers of Over-badging in Online Communities
I caught the [New] episode of Parks and Recreation last night, “Pawnee Rangers.” The Pawnee Rangers are a spoof on the modern day Boy Scouts. Having a boys-only policy, Amy Poehler’s character, ‘Leslie Knope,’ goes off and starts her female version of the exclusive group, “The Pawnee Goddesses”
The episode immediately kicks off with Leslie awarding her Goddesses with badges of achievement; rather obscure and very niche badges at that. Seemingly, a badge for everything imaginable.
- Most Community Service badge
- Best Penguin Blog badge
- Flyest Hair Style badge
- Second Flyest Hair Style badge
Later in the episode:
- Cabin Refurbishment badge
- Best Pillow Fight badge [Gold, Silver, Bronze]
- Banging Hair day badge
I took these as a shot at diluting the value of the badging system. If everyone receives a badge just for the sake of completing any old task, then where’s the value? It’s the scarcity of the reward that makes it valuable. And that, I think, is what the show was trying to get across; our dependence on insignificant rewards just to inflate our egos for a temporary moment.
Make badging a sliver of your overall reward and incentive program mix for your online community. Leverage other gamification strategies like leader boards, point systems, progress bars, status rank.
If I can quote Gabe Zichermann for a second; “Gamification is not just throwing up shitty badges on your website.”
See also: Gamification of Online Communities for Beginners
Now, I’m going to take a stab at creating my interpretation of ‘Flyest Hair Style’ badge.
Photo credit: drewm
Gamification of Online Communities – Head to Head
I’m sure you’re all use to hosting contests and giveaways in your respective online communities as a way to boost activity and member morale, keep members engage and create compelling content. You pit each member against each other to see who can come up with the best “x” or the most “y.” I’m still all for that and community managers should still lean on this competitiveness as integral component to their community strategy.
This is the third installment for the Gamification of Online Communities series. See also:
- Gamification of Online Communities for Beginners
- Gamification of Online Communities – Advanced Edition
A great way to rally your community together is to hold competitions against other online communities. Nothing embodies the meaning of community when every member is charging after the same goal.
Find a competitor community or one that closely aligns with your product, function or service, contact their community manager (This is a great networking opportunity too) and work out the rules, guidelines, winning criteria and prizes the same way you would with any competition. As you can tell, this tactic is mutually beneficial for both communities.
An Online Community That Turns Work Into A Game
Paint your bedroom. Hit the grocery store. Assemble a new desk. Do laundry. Pick up prescriptions. Drop off dry cleaning. Vacuum the apartment. Walk the dog [and curb it]. These are small tasks we all do in life. Don’t you ever think to yourself, “Can’t I just pay someone else to do it?” Now you can with the help of TaskRabbit.
That’s right, TaskRabbit is an online community made up of “senders” and “runners.” Senders post a task and name the price they’re willing to pay for the task at hand. Runners then bid on the task. Sounds easy enough, but it gets interesting. Senders are free to choose which bid to accept. Wait, why would anyone accept anything than the lowest bid? It all comes down to reputation each runner has built up within the community. After tasks are completed, senders can rate and review runners. Therefore, highly rated runners who have proven their promptness and reliability can command premiums.
Another thing TaskRabbit is doing well, and that I’m an extreme advocate for, is gamification. They employ most of the gaming mechanics I’ve published in previous posts; leaderboard, points, level rank, average customer rating and progress bar.
What’s particularly impressive to me is the size of the community. TaskRabbit operates in 5 major cities; Boston, New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Orange County and accounts for 1,600+ members. You’re probably thinking, well that’s not that large for an online community. You have to remember, a successful online community isn’t about registrations numbers, it’s about how socially engaged your members are with each other and the activity they spur as a result. And with an average of 3,000 tasks being fulfilled each month [an average of 2 tasks per member], it’s clear, at least to me, TaskRabbit is on point to be the auction house for local reliable labor.
See a demo: How TaskRabbit Works!
Gamification of Online Communities – Advanced Edition
As a follow up to Gamification of Online Communities for Beginners, I thought I’d take it a step further and provide a strategy for the more advanced communities that may be looking to keep up the competitive momentum.
Taking a lesson from fantasy sports, more notably, fantasy football because I’m a [American] football nut; let’s apply the same concept to online communities. Members form teams to compete against other teams within the same community. Using the built-in gaming mechanics of your community platform, the collective points achieved from each activity performed by each team would determine the top leaders week-to-week, month-to-month. Heck, you could even replicate a full season with playoffs and a Super Bowl. This approach takes the meaning of social collaboration to a whole new level.
The team lineup will depend on the type of community you manage and its strategy. I’ll leave it to your creative minds to dictate, but if you need help, hit me up for feedback.
See also: “Gamification of Online Communities – Head to Head”
Photo credit: tambako
