Reuters employs game mechanics to improve commentary onsite
on 1st October 2010
Reuters is due to introduce a points system to its website that will manage and rate users’ comments, rewarding users with points and the ability to contribute without moderation.
Anyone wishing to contribute will need to register as a new user, starting with no points and having all comments moderated. The more appropriate the comments, the more points they will receive, enabling them to eventually add to the discussions on the site immediately. However, any posting that’s deemed to be unsuitable will result in a loss of points, returning the culprit to ‘new user’ status.
This new process applies game mechanics to the comment functionality of the Reuters site, which is a way of shaping behaviour and encouraging people to ‘compete’. Many brands have already used this with the framework of their online offering. Foursquare users challenge each other to become mayor by checking in to various venues regularly, and NBC’s network loyalty program Fan It explicitly rewards those who promote its shows online.
Dean Wright, Reuters’ global editor for ethics, innovation and values, explained the reasons behind this new move on his blog, For The Record. He said that he was becoming “increasingly worried” about the quality of comments submitted to news sites and that so-called conversation is in fact “little more than partisans slinging invective at each other under the cloak of anonymity.”
Wright’s concerns are certainly valid. There are countless users who post comments to deliberately cause controversy, confrontation and offence to others. Reuters’ new game mechanic ensures only those that are valuable are rewarded, which means that the conversations given most attention on the user-generated sections of the site should in theory be more constructive.
However, the suggestion that this improves the community’s experience is contradicted by the fact that it’s not other users who have a say in whether comments are appropriate or not – it’s Reuters’ moderators. This means that the subjective views of a select few will pass judgement, instead of its readers.
Earlier this year, The Huffington Post unveiled HuffPost badges, which the team suggested were “a fun new way of recognising and empowering its community.” Like Reuters, The Huffington Post was also keen to eradicate offensive content – but instead turned to the community to help, offering them points, badges and incentives to adopt moderator roles.
Reuters’ plans will certainly encourage users to think about the way they’re commenting online if they want to continue to contribute to the community. If content and conversation improves, this will certainly have a positive impact on Reuters’ online reputation. Even though the two media giants have very different personalities, Reuters could be missing a trick by not giving its brand ambassadors an opportunity to get involved.