Member Avatar for diafol

I think I see what you want, but I'm sort of with Mike - your goals seem to be at odds - you want to provide an incentive but not make it too attractive at the same time. If money is an incentive, then people will flock to it, but that's not what you want. If the money is not worth it, then it ceases to be an incentive. Do you have an inkling as to whether the currently-absent experts would be interested? Seems like a bit of work if it fails to bring in the sellswords. The majority of us, I would imagine would carry on regardless, helping people for the sake of it.

Member Avatar for JorgeM

There's something about cash that always complicates things...

I recall that back in the late 80's (i think), there was a really extremely cheesy spanish local commerical for a furniture store. Their "hook" in the commerical was.. Aquí lo que importa es el “cash”. Some spanglish there, but it translates to "Cash is what's important here". Just picture an overweigth hispanic with his fists clinding on to cash in his furniture store. 20-30 years later, those american born cuban americans (in my generation) still use that catchy slogan whenever the converstation revolves around money. its quite comical, actually. You'd have to have been there...anyway...

I think we all get the concept that you dont want a cheesy get cash now product. Of course no one wants that.

Maybe you might consider some type of "rewards points" program that people can exchange points for stuff, including gift cards, etc.. to kind of psycologically create a distance from the cash/money component.

Edited by JorgeM
Member Avatar for diafol

I like the exchange idea. It could even be for DW merch - double win :)

Member Avatar for iamthwee

Did someone mention a DW mug... coffee set and T-shirt. I'm sold!

Member Avatar for ddanbe

Count me in!
My own DW mug for points, marvellous idea!
Only one downside ... suppose I win such a mug after collecting enough "points", what will be the fees for sending it from the US to Belgium? Too high I guess. :(

Member Avatar for diafol

Only one downside ... suppose I win such a mug after collecting enough "points", what will be the fees for sending it from the US to Belgium? Too high I guess. :(

For that you need to win triple points. Heh heh.

Member Avatar for Ancient Dragon

Simple solution -- have Dani just email the mug to you.

Member Avatar for ddanbe

Diafol and AD you are all such nice guys!
Now the only thing I have to do would be for me to purchase a 3D printer. She could mail me the 3D design!

Member Avatar for Reverend Jim

Or a daniweb logo you could print on a decal and apply to a blank mug.

Member Avatar for ddanbe

Yes, good idea.
Or an exclusive DaniWeb logo to be imprinted on a purple T-shirt.

Member Avatar for emmaharward789

Pay up front, put it in a DW account... distribute after.

If they don't mark it, bad rep will follow by the hand of disgruntled users.

Member Avatar for Dani

Thanks for everyone's help! I've decided how I'd like the system to be and I've started coding it today. We'll launch within the next two weeks or so at the rate I'm going, considering this upcoming week is Internet Week NYC.

Member Avatar for Mya:)

How about the person who posted it, chooses a answer wich helped them (almost like the yahoo_answers concept), but then that person also say if the answer is worth money? if they say yes the money will be deposited to the person who gave the answer.

Member Avatar for <M/>

Honestly, you should try doing this... it'll get more members involved giving good answers rather than some bs that some will give.

Member Avatar for deceptikon

it'll get more members involved giving good answers rather than some bs that some will give.

Doubtful. A lot of the bad answers are due to ignorance about the subject matter, which is part of the learning process. The only way to improve quality would be to punish bad answers, which is a horrible idea if we want Daniweb to succeed as it would discourage everyone from posting and go against Daniweb's core philosophy.

Member Avatar for Dani

The only way to improve quality would be to punish bad answers

You mean like StackOverflow does? :)

Member Avatar for blackmiau

I like the exchange points for something rather than the money. I consider a forum to be a place to hang out with people and, in this case, to learn with real people. It's like having to pay your friends to go out for coffee with you. Does it make sense?

Member Avatar for deceptikon

You mean like StackOverflow does? :)

I wouldn't say they punish bad answers any more than we do, excepting the capability of regular members with sufficient e-peen points having moderation power.

No sane forum I'm aware of actively punishes members for "bad posts" by removing features they already have or whatnot, and that's what I was thinking of. Imagine taking away sponsor perks with enough downvotes, that's more what I was thinking of in terms of punishment. In other words, a truly bad idea. ;)

Member Avatar for Reverend Jim

What exactly am I looking at? I see a graph and a pile of numbers with $12.63 at the bottom. Some of the months are tagged with an asterisk. Without some explanation this page means nothing to me.

Edited by Reverend Jim
Member Avatar for Dani

Everyone's chart looks completely different so if you could take a screenshot for me, I could explain it to you. However, congrats, you've earned $12.63!! :)

Member Avatar for Dani

For the most part, the description is in the heading though ;)

Member Avatar for diafol

$31.94 - does that mean I can 'cash out'?

So seems I reclaim half of my yearly sponsorship money :)

Can we donate this back into DW if we don't want it?

I have to admit that the headings leave me a bit confused - %ages - a %age of what? Sponsor OPs?

Member Avatar for mike_2000_17

28.68$ woot woot!

I'm gonna wait for the "Cash out as Daniweb swag" button.

Member Avatar for Dani

Can we donate this back into DW if we don't want it?

Just don't hit the Cash Out button.

%ages - a %age of what?

I have no clue? Where does it say % age?

Sponsor OPs?

Do you mean 'OP Kudos'? That's exisited on the site for like two years! Basically, anytime an OP who has a lot of kudos with the community in the form of reputation, solved threads, etc. starts a new thread, the thread gets a little 'OP Kudos' label.

So the flow works like this ...

  1. Newbies donate to DaniWeb to get their questions featured for faster answers, and their questions get labeled 'Sponsored' and get highlighted
  2. Experts answer sponsored questions and earn rewards points
  3. The more questions an expert answers, the more kudos points they earn (in the form of reputation, solved threads, etc.) Eventually, whenever they have a question or start a new discussion, it gets featured with an 'OP Kudos' label
  4. Other experts know they can earn rewards points by answering sponsored questions asked by newbies or OP Kudos questions asked by experts
  5. It all comes full circle because, when you answer questions, not only do you earn money, but you also give other experts an incentive to earn money themselves by answering the discussions that you start
Member Avatar for Dani

I'm gonna wait for the "Cash out as Daniweb swag" button.

Points expire after a year. You have to either cash them out or you lose them.

That being said, I'm looking into alternatives to PayPal such as exchanging rewards points for swag and such. It's mainly a logistical issue right now as we have tons of swag here in the office, but no easy way or manpower for shipping it globally.

Member Avatar for diafol

right now as we have tons of swag here in the office, but no easy way or manpower for shipping it globally.

I'd certainly swap it out for swag. I (and I assume many others) have been waiting for DW swag to come online, either to buy or through competitions or mybe this new reward points scheme. Isn't there a third party out there that could do this for you?

Member Avatar for Dani

Swag is really bulky and it can be fairly expensive to ship out of the country. We'd have to switch to a different company that produces and dropships the stuff. I'll definitely look into it now that we have this rewards system. :)

Member Avatar for Dani

Regardless, while it's not quite ready for prime time, hopefully you guys see the direction I wanted to take this with regards to it not being so in-your-face with how much money you earn for each individual post you make or action you take, but still enough of a showcase to track your progress and be excited about increasing your participation.

Member Avatar for Reverend Jim

Everyone's chart looks completely different

I didn't see anything on the page that said those were the numbers for me so I assumed it was a generic "this is a sample page with sample data".

Just don't hit the Cash Out button.

So as long as I don't "cash out" I have effectively donated the money back to Daniweb? Sounds good to me. Although if I ever get to Stony Brook to see my son I might want to hit you up for a coffee mug or some other token.

What do the asterisks on the months mean?

Edited by Reverend Jim
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