The Carrot Project

We’re working on a system that’ll award points to users corresponding with every contribution he makes to the community.

When a user expresses his opinion of an expert or particular expert opinion, either by voting or commenting, we’ll give him points.

When he participates in the feedback forum - by voting, commenting, or posting new feedback - we’ll give him more points.

When he adds new content (a new non-main stream product, for example), we’ll give him still more points.

When he invites friends to the site, we’ll give him more.

When those friends become trusted members of the community, we’ll give him more again.

And when other users express their trust in his opinions and their appreciation of his contributions - by voting thumbs up on the comments, new non-main-stream products, feedback, and other content he produces - we’ll give him heaps more.

Exactly what it’ll mean for a user to earn more and more points, we’re not 100% sure. At first, most likely, it’ll mean he’ll get an inbox-full of love and thanks and praise from me. Then, a cute little icon-badge or four will appear next to his name wherever it appears on the site (on comments he has made or will make, for example). Next, we’ll send him a sticker or tee shirt, sustainably produced, of course. At some point, we’ll find a way to feature him somewhere prominent on the site (maybe we’ll invite him to write a Carrot Project blog post about whatever he wants, whether it connects to The Carrot Project or not). And, eventually, if he keeps contributing and other users keep loving his contributions, we’ll turn him into an expert: we’ll ask him which main stream dog food brands he recommends and why, and we’ll let other users earn points by voting and commenting on his opinions.

Anyway, just wanted to throw that out there and see what people think.

Any other ways we should let users earn points?

Any other ways we should turn points into more tangible rewards?

Any ideas for what to call this system? I heard the term Reputation Economy many months ago, and it stuck with me. I thought it might be a good combination of unusual and descriptive. But we’ve thought about some other words too: karma, authority, trust, to name a few. What would you call a means by which community members contribute time and thought and information and earn love and recognition and, eventually, power?