3 ms·

This paper is cheerless — gamification for good should be celebrated! If we can make contributing to open source projects as exciting as playing Factorio or wa

This paper is cheerless — gamification for good should be celebrated! If we can make contributing to open source projects as exciting as playing Factorio or watching TikTok, that's a huge benefit to society. And even if we don't care about the benefits to society, it's also much better for the developers — they can be part of a community, know they're making an impact on the world, potentially get a better job through their passion. Is there a potential downside, that people build fewer human connections, spend less time with their family, delay finding a partner — sure. But is it more of a risk than with video games or their job? I can't see how we can draw that conclusion. So let's give contributors more status, and if that means more badges on GitHub, great.

_c3ag 4y ago
coding, specially for open-source projects does not even gets close on how much cognition you have to burn vs. watching TikTok… i would have someone coding with me excited by seeking knowledge rather than trying to reach level 75 on Github… not even mentioning what is gamification? are levels based on dark patterns on video-games, created with the intention of making players waste more time or get more addicted? and then what is the end point of having someone full of badges and trophies on their profile? to compare oneself with others and feel bad? have benefits over others that a hierarchical system has? append: i am not typing levels were created specifically for a dark-pattern introduction but nowadays, even if the game is not free, these practices are done to make players addicted. and i can not feel how someone really interested into get better at coding, would care
porcoda 4y ago
> If we can make contributing to open source projects as exciting as playing Factorio or watching TikTok, that's a huge benefit to society. If you suck at Factorio or waste time on TikTok, it doesn't really affect anyone else other than yourself and your direct friends/family. If you're contributing to OSS to earn points based solely on participation and not quality/value, you're having a negative effect on the signal-to-noise ratio and quality of the OSS community. That is NOT a huge benefit to society. Simple participation isn't inherently beneficial if that participation is just a source of noise. I speak as someone who has had to sift through and reject pull requests and issues from incompetent developers. I'd rather they not be encouraged to waste my time.
- maximilianroos 4y ago
  If any "incompetent developers" are reading this, come and contribute at Xarray or PRQL — you will be part of an exciting project, and we'll mentor you to become competent developers. Your contributions will be appreciated by the devs and the users alike.

_c3ag 4y ago

coding, specially for open-source projects does not even gets close on how much cognition you have to burn vs. watching TikTok… i would have someone coding with me excited by seeking knowledge rather than trying to reach level 75 on Github… not even mentioning what is gamification? are levels based on dark patterns on video-games, created with the intention of making players waste more time or get more addicted? and then what is the end point of having someone full of badges and trophies on their profile? to compare oneself with others and feel bad? have benefits over others that a hierarchical system has? append: i am not typing levels were created specifically for a dark-pattern introduction but nowadays, even if the game is not free, these practices are done to make players addicted. and i can not feel how someone really interested into get better at coding, would care

porcoda 4y ago

> If we can make contributing to open source projects as exciting as playing Factorio or watching TikTok, that's a huge benefit to society. If you suck at Factorio or waste time on TikTok, it doesn't really affect anyone else other than yourself and your direct friends/family. If you're contributing to OSS to earn points based solely on participation and not quality/value, you're having a negative effect on the signal-to-noise ratio and quality of the OSS community. That is NOT a huge benefit to society. Simple participation isn't inherently beneficial if that participation is just a source of noise. I speak as someone who has had to sift through and reject pull requests and issues from incompetent developers. I'd rather they not be encouraged to waste my time.

maximilianroos 4y ago
If any "incompetent developers" are reading this, come and contribute at Xarray or PRQL — you will be part of an exciting project, and we'll mentor you to become competent developers. Your contributions will be appreciated by the devs and the users alike.