The Absence Of Internet Points
#meta#discuss
Leighton Darkins

Leighton Darkins @leightondarkins

About: Lead Developer / A bit of an idiot

Location:
Dallas, USA
Joined:
Feb 20, 2017

The Absence Of Internet Points

Publish Date: Nov 23 '17
21 4

I was showing Dev.to to a bunch of my team members yesterday, and I noticed something. Maybe I'm just a little slow, but I can't seem to see who is following me, how many people are following me or how many cumulative "likes" I've accrued.

EDIT: I just realised I missed the most important point: I also can't see how many followers and "likes" other folks on the site have accumulated. This is in comparison to something like Twitter, where this information is front and centre.

I 👏 Love 👏 That 👏

At first I thought to myself, "the site's kind of new, I guess those features will come some day". But then I thought a bit more and now I'm not really sure that I'd even want those features at all. Then I thought "maybe the absence of those features is a feature?"

Mind. Blown.

Something great about this community is that it feels like everyone's on the same playing field. Whether you're brand new to writing software, or if you've been doing it for 30 years, Dev.to presents and treats everyone equally.

I think a huge part of what makes that possible is the absence of a public "points" system for users.

For the Dev.to team: Is this intentional? And if so, what's the motivation?

For the general community: How do y'all feel about this?

Comments 4 total

  • Alexey Voinov
    Alexey VoinovNov 23, 2017

    I believe you can see how many people are following you, and even who are those people, but you're right it is impossible to see who liked you (except for those, who are explicitly mentioned in the notifications).

    Well, I think I'd like to see who likes what. I see it as a great exploration feature, a way to find new people with some information on what they like. But I can live without it just fine. :)

  • Ben Halpern
    Ben HalpernNov 23, 2017

    We've talked about doing something like badges for accomplishments and some things like that. Those are perhaps in the pipeline, but no time soon.

    The absence of follower count and points and the such is intentional. We'd rather contribution motivations to be primarily intrinsic. If and when we venture down the badge system or otherwise, it will be post-open-source so we'll get a lot of feedback in going down that road.

    • edA‑qa mort‑ora‑y
      edA‑qa mort‑ora‑yNov 24, 2017

      But without points how will I know when I level up?

    • edA‑qa mort‑ora‑y
      edA‑qa mort‑ora‑yNov 24, 2017

      On a more serioues note, as a content creator, some "points" can provide me with valuable feedback.

      The things I write range from absoulute duds to runaway successes. It's helpful to me to understand how well received an article is. It shapes how I write future articles. I'd call this basic stats though, not really "points".

      It's kind of why I wouldn't mind having at least one negative response icon for an article. It's good to know if people are annoyed or bothered by something. It doesn't need to play into any kind of rating, but just seeing a negative response can be helpful.

      Things like StackExchange syle badges provide me with nothing really. I either just happen upon them randomly, or work specifically to achieve them. The latter is terrible, as it removes intrinsic reward. It's the same reason why I turn off badge notifications on my PS4.

      In short, internet points are bad but feedback is good.

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