2. 1. Radically lower the bar for
participation
2. Trusting (some of) your
users
3. Life is the worldâs biggest
MMORPG
4. Bad stuff happens
5. Love trumps money
25. All teachers of programming find that
their results display a 'double hump'. It
is as if there are two populations:
those who can, and those who
cannot, each with its own
independent bell curve.
26. âTo write a computer program you
have to ⌠accept that whatever you
might want the program to mean, the
machine will blindly follow its
meaningless rules and come to some
meaningless conclusion.â
27. âThe consistent group showed a pre-
acceptance of this fact: they are
capable of seeing mathematical
calculation problems in terms of
rules, and can follow those rules
wheresoever they may lead.â
28. Facebook is exactly that: mapping rules
to social relationships between people.
Taking what had been scary and
unknown, and adding rules and
structure.
29. Scary Idea #6
Rules can be fun and social.
Everyone loves games, and all
games are built on rules. Guess
what programmers are REALLY
good at?
38. To play the game, you must accept the
rules.
The rules exist to protect the integrity
of the game, and more importantly, to
keep it fair for every player.
The rules are part of the common
good.
40. Scary Idea #7
All modern website design is
game design.
Everythingâs social, therefore,
everything is now a game with
rules.
41.
42. Letâs play the Q&A game. You have a
⌠question. A specific question that
can be answered (see rules).
How do you get an answer to your
question?
First you must figure out how to ask.
43.
44.
45.
46. What is this number and how do I get it to go up?
47. What is this number and how do I get it to go up?
48. What is this number and how do I get it to go up?
49.
50. âStack Exchange is like a well-designed
video game. When was the last time
you had to read the documentation to
play a video game? You don't.â
â Robert Cartaino
Director of Community Development
Stack Exchange
51. You start by walking across the room.
Then you learn to pick something up;
and then jump. By time you need
to, you're already strafing across a
catwalk, jumping and spinning 360-
degrees while simultaneously firing a
beam rifle and throwing two plasma
grenades through a window 40 feet
away.
52. When you get up from the couch after
a Halo or World of Warcraft
session, what do you have to show for
your efforts?
53. Whereas on Stack Exchange, you leave
breadcrumb trails of your
awesomeness for others to learn from
and improve on.
54. Game: get an answer to your
question, by any means necessary.
Metagame:
reputation, badges, privileges, peer
recognition.
Endgame: improve the internet for
everyone.
55. The game works in service of both
selfish (I need an answer!) and selfless
(I need a better internet!) goals.
Weâre creating an oasis of high
quality, expert Q&A on the internet
that can serve as a national park of
information: a public resource for all to
enjoy and benefit from.
56.
57. Scary Idea #8
Thoughtful game design creates
sustainable communities.
Government is a form of game
design.
58.
59. âIt is an invariable principle of all play âŚ
that whoever plays, plays freely.
Whoever must play cannot play.â
Everything else is by definition Work with
a big W.
60. The game never ends.
Actions in the game have consequences
and history.
People will remember how you behaved
in previous rounds.
61.
62.
63. Permanent death.
How can that be fun?
This is a horribly flawed game
design!
64. 1. You cannot win alone.
2. Individual skill, however great, is
always inferior to teamwork.
3. Rash decisions are risky;
patience and planning pays off.
65. The design of the game forces you
to play as a team.
Whether you want to or not!
66. The rules make the game work,
even with completely anonymous
internet players.
Brilliant.
âAll my teammates are my friendsâ
67. Itâs an infinite game.
Any time, with anyone.
Counter-Strike
54k players / day
69. 1. You cannot win without teaching.
2. Individual skill, however great, is
always inferior to communication skill.
3. Discussion is risky; sharing research
and experience pays off.
70. Teamwork:
Advance knowledge of a topic.
For everyone in the world who
loves that topic as much as you do.
71.
72. Scary Idea #9
The community isnât always
right.
Groups arenât good at predicting
the consequences of their
collective actions.
73. 1. You should only ask
practical, answerable questions
based on actual problems that you
face.
Why canât we have discussions?
74. Whatâs your favorite bicycle?
I use spatulas to turn eggs, what do you use?
Bing is doomed. Iâm curious if others feel as I
do.
What if Canon merged with Nikon?
COBOL sucks, am I right?
75.
76. Chatty, open-ended questions
diminish the usefulness of our site
and push other practical questions
off the front page.
If you donât like these
questions, donât look at them!
77. âDonât lookâ doesnât work in real
life, either.
Broken windows: others will see, and
use what they see as templates for
future questions.
Opportunity cost: time spent on
discussion is time that should have
gone toward sharing actual research.
78. Protip: answer the damn question.
What research and evidence can you
provide to support your answer?
80. Your questions should be
reasonably scoped. If you can
imagine an entire book that
answers your question, youâre
asking too much.
Why canât we ask broad questions?
81. Q: First let me inform you: I am new to this type of
enterprise and in a sense I am looking for all the help that
I can get so that I will have a general idea where to start. I
have a drawn out plan for the workings of an electronic
communication application. Its not that complicated in
terms of its usage and function. The impass that I am at
has to do with me not knowing how to create this
application because of my lack and understanding "how
to write a program" using programming language. I have
done my homework (undercover market research) and
found that ten out of nine individuals would purchase this
product if it were available. My second impass is that my
funds are at an all time low. So any information woild be
most appreciated. Thank You.
82. A: Begin by reading a book or two.
Come back when you have specifics.
83. 2. What research, if any, did you
do before asking?
What have you tried? What
happened when you tried that?
How did you attempt to solve the
problem?
You gotta do your homework.
84. It is unfair to ask others to do all
the work.
If you want to play the game, meet
us halfway.
Nobody should be more
motivated to find an answer to
your question than YOU.
85. âBut this is such a great
resource, why canât I ask just this
one question the way I want to?â
Did it ever occur to you that the
site is a great resource precisely
because we disallow discussions
and drive-by no effort questions?
86. There are many kinds of games on
the internet. We designed ours a
certain way to achieve a certain
result.
Perhaps you want to play a
different game somewhere else on
the internet?
87. âInnovation is not about saying yes
to everything. It's about saying NO
to all but the most crucial
features.â
â Steve Jobs
88. Can you say NO to your users?
(in a nice, educational way of
course.)
If not, then you have a problem.
89. Scary Idea #10
Some moderation required.
Someone has to protect the
community from itself. Why canât
it be you?
90. The curse of popularity, aka
Bikeshedding.
The more general interest your
question is, the more people can
see it and answer it â with their
unique individual opinions.
91. âWhat is your solution to the FizzBuzz problem?â
âBest Keyboard for programmers?â
âWhat are some funny loading statements to
keep users amused?â
âWhat easter eggs have you placed in code?â
âWhat single discovery has given you the biggest
boost in productivity?â
92. If a question can have infinite
answers âŚ
⌠is it really a question?
⌠or is it something else entirely?
93. âOver on FriendFeed people are
telling me âwe have more
conversations.â Thatâs true, but the
more conversations I got involved
in the less I found I was learning.â
-- Robert Scoble
94. âHow can you close / delete this
question, it is hugely popular with
the community!â
Popularity isnât the only metric that
matters.
95.
96.
97. âever since the Open Beta the amount of
image macros, memes, rage comics and
generally low-quality content hitting the
front page has grown to annoying
proportions.â
98.
99. âThe problem with image macros and rage comics
(besides generally lacking wit or anything
genuinely insightful) is that they're quick and easy
to digest, and thus tend to get upvoted faster
than self posts and actual discussions which take
thought and time before an appropriate response
can meted out. If you're not careful you end up
with something akin to /r/gaming, which is now a
burbling, deformed wreck of its former self, with
anything remotely resembling intelligent
discussion being buried under a sea of vacuous
meme-repetition.â
100. âThis only way this is EVER stopped on reddit is through
mod intervention, rule sets, and careful removal of
content. So along with this post, please directly contact
the mods and hope that they will act to save their
subreddit.â
101. The goal of moderation is not to punish the
community, but to
⢠Temporarily overrule
⢠Educate
⢠Refocus community exuberance on more
substantive content
... in other words, to lead.
102. Our biggest mistake: not building a
meta from day one.
âThe place about the placeâ is
where all governance forms and
moderators are born.
103. Moderation requires power, the power
to (sometimes) defy the community to
lead it.
Moderation has to scale in proportion
to the size of your community.
Therefore, you must give power to
regular users: mini-moderators.
108. But elected community
moderators are not infallible.
If you have an issue with
moderation, bring it up on the
meta. Citizens have input into
government and the design of
Stack Exchange itself.
109.
110.
111. 6. Rules can be fun and social.
7. All modern website design is
game design.
8. Thoughtful game design
creates sustainable
communities.
9. The community isnât always
right.
10. Some moderation required.
112. JOIN US!
Help build our park.
http://stackexchange.com
Editor's Notes
Five scary ideas!
Five MORE scary ideas!
Programmers are MARRIED to their rules. It is what makes them who they are.
Nobody expects to sit down and immediately start playing Magic without learning the rules.
Settlers of catan, the game is a structure over which we hang social interaction. So now social interactions have rules.
Rejecting the rules means you either donât want to play or need to play another game.
Gamification: The use of game play mechanics for non-game applications
Student badge for getting your question voted upYou might visit the faq; thereâs a badge for viewing all the sections of the faqYou complete your user profile; thatâs the autobiographer badgeYour question gets 1,000 views; thatâs a popular question badge
You learn the game by PLAYING THE GAME.
Training wheels to get you started, then the training wheels come off. As you get reputation on Stack Exchange, you can start to do more things, and more dangerous things.
Itâs the type of game that builds a path in the world.
Iâm here because I love bicycles and I wish there was better information on the internet for other people that love Bicycles.
We canât take it away from you. You licence your content to us and the rest of the internet.
What do you do while youâre dead?
Shortcut of playing only with people you know and friends.
From parenting, to photography, to mathematics.
You can be hardcore, you can play occasionally, or you can observe the game. Everyone benefits from the game being played and this high quality, expert Q&A existing.Question asked once, Answered 5 times, Viewed thousands of times.
The first and most primary rule of the Stack Exchange game. And yet, it gets questioned.
If you donât like them, donât look at them. Two problems with that: broken windows, opportunity cost.
If you donât like them, donât look at them. Two problems with that: broken windows, opportunity cost.
Teaching the game just in time.
Youâre not a bad person for wanting to ask this discussion question, but you are IN THE WRONG PLACE.
Moderation is fundamental. You canât sustain communities without active moderator leadership.
Not intuitive â to have a successful website, you need the most POPULAR items, right?
Hugely popular but ultimately distractions from LEARNING.
Why do you come to the battlefield 3 reddit? What are you there for? These things were popular but they were ultimately destroying the site! Weeds choking out the edible plants in the garden.
On things they THINK they want, they will fight you to the death for the right to keep doing this destructive stuff