@jlrdw or maybe if there were multiple moderators, the answer that gets most upvotes from moderators gets automatically picked as Best?

Hey @jeffreyway , I like the idea to drill up the leaderboard/reward system to make the whole system more interesting for new users.

1. How about a weight for the points by time? All rewarded points from one year ago are cut into half. After a second year they are quartered. This way it is easier to reach the current top leaders.

2. Leaderboards for 3 months do also sound nice.

3. Moderation: I think Laracasts needs (more) moderation. This could rise the quality of answers as written by @jlrdw .

4. I think a missing key is to give points on questions. Not only the answer is quality content but the question as well. Award often clicked questions and allow readers to upvote answers (stackoverflow style). But also allow to downvote questions which are not written nicely (maybe only by members with a specific amount of points). This topic needs the most work and surely needs moderation, but this could bring a complete new dynamic into the whole community.

cheers

I don't like the idea of any type of removal or expiry of experience points. The key word here is "experience" not "participation points" - just because a member becomes a little less active doesn't mean it negates their gained experience and knowledge. Being in the top 50 myself, however being no where near the top, I could only imagine the amount of time and dedication some of these members have put in to be where they are. To remove experience would be a slap in the face.

Also, since Laracasts is such a well-respected pillar of the Laravel community, the profile page could easy serve as a great reference on a resume or cover letter. To be honest, I can think of no better way to demonstrate one's knowledge and problem solving skills than to share their profile page. You can talk all you want, but those achievements/badges/experience related to best replies can't be faked. To consider having expiring experience would be a great disservice to members, active or not. We all have things going on in ours lives where we just don't have enough free time to dedicate hours each day (anyone with a 2 year old knows this!)

One thing that always annoys me is when companies give fantastic deals to new customers (50% off TV/Internet for the first year) meanwhile giving no loyalty discounts to customers that have been with them for 20 years. Just something to consider when making changes in an effort to enticing new members that old members don't feel disregarded.

These are some really good points, Talinon. You're right about the "experience disappearing", it would be pretty nasty to see everything you've worked for disappear overnight. I like the idea you had where the profile becomes a resume or cover letter. Perhaps we will integrate elements of the leaderboard in the profile section so that anyone who views a profile can instantly see their past achievements and contributions empowering individuals and strengthening the community.

I also agree that the experience you gain from getting best answer and contributing should be greater than that of viewing videos since you can easily click through videos but you can't force anyone to give you best answer unless you're helpful.

I really like the idea of the Season Events, in fact, I think this is one of the best yet and it has also been on my backlog - been recently playing Apex, haha, and it makes a lot of sense because this way, new users can quickly get in and start earning experience and gaining some perks without having to hurt older users' contribution.

I am also considering the idea of "Liking" a post with XP, rather than just a simple heart. Perhaps have 3 or so layers of XP liking, depending on how helpful a reply was, you can gift it more XP. That way users who don't get best answer but also provide a helpful response be gifted with more experience. This would also in part solve the issue where the OP forgets to give best answer, since if the community is strong in that particular thread, it would at least reward users who contribute, perhaps even surpassing a best answer, making the best answer an additional bonus if it is given. Alternatively, simply getting a like will give you XP, so getting multiple likes awards you with plenty of XP to level up.

Season Events would probably have special/dedicated achievements such as get 50 best answer, participate in 10 threads that were solved, etc - and award special more prestigious badges that can be displayed near your username aside the regular ones.

Just some thoughts so far - we'll see what ends up being implemented so that it works out well. Thanks everyone and if there are any more ideas, I'll keep checking here and writing them down =]

@jeffreyway BTW are you testing out some new scoring features as the moment with @snapey @bobbybouwmann ?

I notice both their XP scores have a 5 at the end but there is nothing currently that scores less than 10 or anything with a 5 at the end.

Blink twice for yes, and once for no :P

Not sure if this has been mentioned. But one idea for a "price" would be to allow a high level user to give another a free month on laracasts. Sometimes we help people who really do their best, but cannot afford a subscription. Would be a nice way to help each other out

+1 @sinnbeck

I don't know about the viability of members giving away a full month's subscription, but some limited access (to episodes?) might be an interesting idea.

@tykus yeah a month might be to long. It was just a minor version of this one

(mugs, t-shirts, free Laracasts access for life, etc.)

Free laracasts for myself would be great, but on a smaller scale I would rather help others out

If I may, I think a good way to weed out not-so-good answers might be what stackoverflow does in terms of up/down voting of answers.

1. Best answers are still picked by the author
2. Allow only "qualified" moderators to up/down vote best answers
3. Perhaps each down vote will half the points each time and require a brief explanation

Just some ideas.

More ideas, most discussions serve 2 purposes

1. Address the OP's issue
2. Provide a public good if the issue is one faced by many

Treat all best answers as #1, upgrade only certain answers to #2.

@jeffreyway Leaderboard no longer shows the position number ?