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Discourse's trust level system (https://blog.discourse.org/2018/06/understanding-discourse-trust-levels/ https://blog.discourse.org/2018/06/understanding-discou
by ethan_smith 1y ago
Discourse's trust level system (https://blog.discourse.org/2018/06/understanding-discourse-trust-levels/ https://blog.discourse.org/2018/06/understanding-discourse-t...) offers a practical example of democratic governance that scales through automated promotion/demotion based on participation patterns rather than explicit voting or moderator intervention.
- ff12wq111 1y agoGreat example! The Discourse trust levels are exactly what I've been thinking about. We're experimenting with something similar - a "Star" system where users earn influence through contributions and can spend it on governance decisions. Early results suggest contribution-based voting leads to much more thoughtful decisions. How well does Discourse handle controversial governance choices? I'm curious if trust levels work when communities face difficult decisions.
- WHA8m 1y agohaven't looked into the link, but the way you phrase it, I'd be worried you're creating a system that only gets gamified. Trust should not directly feel like a reward.
- ff12wq111 1y agoYou're right about gamification risk. What if the formula is transparent though: Your contribution = Your Stars = Your Influence? Traditional systems reward activity (posts, comments, time spent) which are easy to game. But measuring actual contribution outcomes - did your help work, did your advice get adopted - seems harder to fake. Still gameable probably, but at least people would be gaming by actually helping others?