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Comments on What incentives are there currently to edit and moderate? Should there be more?
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What incentives are there currently to edit and moderate? Should there be more?
On Stack Exchange, I spent a significant portion of my time on the site editing posts, because the idea of an SE site as a repository of useful reference information has long appealed to me.
Being new to Codidact, I am currently taking it all in and trying to observe to what extent one feels naturally inclined to begin editing pre-existing posts and content into a more polished or finished form, based on the site’s current design.
So far, I do not know if there is a small reputation reward for having a suggested edit on another’s post accepted by a mod, which is one incentive. If Codidact strives even more than Stack Exchange to encourage people to constantly refine and improve the existing content, should the incentives to make quality edits here be higher, than on SE? On SE, a normal upvote is worth 10 points; an accepted edit is generally worth 2. Could Codidact reward even slightly higher; with a rep boost of 3? Or with any other system, such as points relative to the amount of accepted edit content (i.e., proportional to the number of characters added, in an edit, or soemthing?)
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Intrinsic & extrinsic motivation, and perverse incentives
It is clear that your intentions are good, but the outcomes may not be.
Intrinsic or extrinsic?
People's motivation for making edits may be intrinsic or extrinsic. That is, they may be motivated by the desire to see the site improve, or the desire for personal reward.
I would expect the best results from people who want to see the site improve. This will motivate them to make each edit the best they can.
I would expect worse results from people who want to earn a reward. It is difficult to judge the value of an edit (it is simply accepted or rejected), so the reward will be received every time an edit is not rejected. This encourages edits to many different posts that are just good enough to be accepted, rather than making all of the improvements to each post that the editor would have otherwise chosen to make.
Perverse incentives
In addition to prioritising quantity over quality, a well meaning reward may also introduce perverse incentives. If there is a reward per edit then there is an incentive to split up a full edit into as many separate small edits as possible, to get the reward multiple times. Since there is also an incentive to hide this behaviour to avoid any consequences, the subsequent small edits may be left for later and potentially be forgotten and never made.
Conclusion
For these two reasons, I would much prefer to see no additional reward for making edits. There is already a small reward for suggested edits in that each one counts towards earning the "Edit Posts" ability.
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