Whohoo I'm a Purple Belt! I have 2 inaugural questions?

Congrats on the Purple Belt! Inaugural? I must've missed all the parades and ceremonies.

:) Hoping for some fireworks later... 1) What do you think has the most value here and why? I wouldn't presume to say any of the measures have some kind of objective value for all. There are some things that I personally value and get a kick out of, but others might value different things, and fair enough if they do.

Points - Seems to be the overall Mahalo measure that rolls up all different kinds of contribution into one score. Also you see points moving up every day, so it's nice to get the feedback of that. Points do mean something to me, but there are other things that I value more.

Tips Given - Not sure why that's a measure at all. Sometimes I feel: " am I supposed to be asking more questions and giving more tips? Are people going to think worse of me if I don't give more tips?"

But generally I don't think about it. I ask questions that I want answered, and offer tips that seem to be the "going rate" for those type of questions. Not something that I have goals for.

Tips Received - I certainly value these. Probably one of the most important measures as far as I'm concerned. The value comes from a variety of factors... a) Indicates that my answers and comments are found to be of value, b) gher tip general corresponds to difficulty or value of the Q&A, and I get more satisfaction out that sort of challenge c) I don't answer huge numbers of questions, so I might as well pick ones that move the needle on points and tips, as long as they're interesting d) Tips can be withdrawn for real money, e) I can use my M$ balance to increase the chances of getting my own questions answered, and reward people for helping Best Answers - Not so much the number of Best Answers, but the best answer percentage is the most meaningful measure to me.

Like tips, it means my answer was valuable to the asker. I still like to pick up Best Answers via voting, but not nearly as much as being chosen by the asker, when you often also get some feedback and thanks. There is another aspect here, and that is the aspect of community.

There are people here that I interact with more than most, and answering their questions is more like helping out a friend. Points, tips and best answers are a secondary consideration then. At the other end, sometimes there are people that are just dropping by to get one question answered, and I've never seen them before.In that case, it's more like a transaction, and the tip is more significant.

2) Are Mahalo Dollars (M$) developing a value that is more complicated than the real U.S.D. That you could receive? Yes, although real USD also have a complicated psychological aspect to them as well. I'm interested in economics and in psychology, and in something called behavioural economics which is a combination of the two.

And I'm finding the M$ economy quite fascinating from that point of view. A while back when I was almost a total newbie I asked when people tip, and how much they tip. See here: http://tinyurl.com/c7bh5g Some things I noticed about the answers, and what I've since observed myself: - People generally do have a sense of "the rate for the job" - But different people may have a different idea of what that rate is - That rate has nothing to do with the kind of rates they expect for their time in other areas of life - Because there is monetary value attached, sometimes people feel what's offered is not enough for the question and don't answer.

Yet in another environment, say a Forum with no money involved, the same people might have answered that question with the same amount of thought for free. - For this reason, I suspect that you sometimes might get more and better answers with an untipped question than a M$1 question. Untipped questions engage different motivations than tipped ones.

I don't know if there is a trend for the M$ to be devalued. I think what may be happening is that as there are more and more M$1 questions around, you need to tip at least M$2 or M$3 to make a question stand out, and it's becoming more common to see M$5 as well, when only a few weeks ago they seemed less common. If that's true, then in that sense the M$ is devalued as you can't get as much for M$1 as you could a few weeks ago.

Overall the whole "economy" is evolving, and it hasn't settled down into any kind of order yet, where I could know for sure what tip to offer to ensure my questions get the number and quality of responses that I want. There is actually an analogy from economic theory called "the theory of lemons".(Lemons being used cars that suck.) Roughly translated it would mean: I can't be sure when I ask a question if I'll get a brilliant answer or only answers that suck. Accordingly, the tip I offer is on the low side for a brilliant answer, but possibly overpaying for answers that suck.

But now the kicker is that it is not worth anyone's while to write a brilliant answer for my low tip. Hence the entire market becomes a market for lemons only. Until someone figures out a "Approved Refurbished" scheme or whatever.

Luckily we don't quite have a market for lemons here, and there are many excellent answers to questions! :).

For me if I read post a question and get an answer that fills in gaps for me in what I know about a particular topic, then that is important to me. If I post a question and get information that saves me time and money then that is valuable to me. The same goes for answers that I read from questions that I have not posted.

I believe the points and Mahalo money do add value to an answer in the sense that if someone is shooting for the goal of rank and reward they will put a better effort into it. I have posted some poorly thought out answers (sorry, not always perfect) and have had it be known to me by the result of an unhelpful answer check, and again to me this adds value to an answer, because also with the rank and reward the ratio of helpful vs unhelpful will influence how a person views how helpful and valuable your answers are. So to answer your first question I say it is the Mahalo money that has the most value to the site more so than the points because reward is more valuable than rank.

Tips received and given again is a reflection of the value of the reward. And to answer your second question I would say no, Mahalo money is not more complicated than real money for the reason being you can reach the forty dollar amount and cash it in for real money. I do agree with what you say about regular forums and also with the difficult to answer questions valued at one Mahalo dollar.It is like your someone asking you to clean all the garbage out of their garage and hall it to the dump for for your effort I will give you one dollar, I believe the reward should have continuity with the task.

But is it fair to regulate how much an answer should be worth or what percentage a tip should be? All in all I think M.A.Is a lot better than a lot of other forums, I like the respect people have for the site, this adds a lot of value also. I know a huge majority of the answers are going to thoughtful and insightful and ultimately that is what keeps me coming back.

In regards to the first part of your question, what has the most value. I don't think one thing is the most valuable. That could be because I'm #1 in everything except questions asked and tips given.

However, I don't consider myself the "best answerer" here on Mahalo. I'm good, but I don't think one person here could be considered the best...Points indicate a person's participation on Mahalo AnswersTips given indicate the commitment to the community as a whole (in most cases)Tips received depends on the user. For some it indicates their desire to earn money here.

For others, such as myself, it is simply an effect of answering a lot of questions. Best answers is another one that depends on the user. While I have the most, I don't always feel that it was a fair judgment.In the beginning, a few users answered the untipped questions and I ended up getting best answer by default.

Winning a race when there is only one entry is not always an indicator of quality. However, sometimes you can answer a question so thoroughly that no one else bothers to try. Now to the second part of your answer.

Tipping for a question is a weird thing. Most people regard the $1 range as something "I want an answer" question. I usually try to ask one or two every couple of days and most of the time they fall into the "irrelevant questions" section.

I do that to give more people an opportunity to answer and win best answer on tipped questions. More than $1 questions fall into the "expert and research" only section. Still, some people expect $5 answers on $1 questions (or even untipped questions).

I typically won't answer a question that I have to research unless I feel it is worth my time. Meanwhile, other people will. Consider them the "India and Mexico" of our world--there is always someone out there that will do it cheaper.

This doesn't mean it's less quality. What is the value of a M$? I think it all depends on how you view Mahalo as a whole.

I am very committed to Mahalo Answers. I want to see it work.So in some regards my Mahalo money is more like Monopoly money--it doesn't have any real value as I slowly recycle it back into the system. I am sure not all users view this as the same.

But then, our diversity is what make Mahalo work.

Just to brush on your second inaugural question as a purple belt, by the way congrats, I too have noticed that with all the motivational factors and stimuli that have been developed by the Mahalo Answers team, the experience has been made to be somewhat like high end gaming or gambling. I notice that inspite of myself I find myself driven to answer the questions that are not only challenging and are within my sphere of knowledge but also those that offer larger tips as well. I could attribute this to the fact that the Mahalo Answers System has evolved a very complicated system of evaluating performance, that ultimately it might make a very good study on the psychology of Human motivation.

Re: question 1, I wish the site has some measure of quality other than pure volume. Points ends up meaning nothing, there are a small handful of people so far in the stratosphere now that if they took a month off they'd still be in the top 3 when they came back. Â Tips received encourages people to compete only for the highest tipping questions and ignore the rest.

 Tips given is only valuable to Mahalo, since it means money pumped into the system (even if you recycle a tip you got, somewhere at the beginning that tip was brought into Mahalo dollars by someone).  Best answers is good as a percentage, I think - it's fairly easy to swoop in and answer one esoteric question that you happen to know, get best answer because you're the only one that answered it, and be at 100%.  But there's a clear difference between someone who gets 40 best answers out of 200 questions answered - and someone who gets 40 best answers out of 2000 questions answered.

The point/belt system to me basically means, hopefully, credibility. Â I'd like to think that as the color under my icon changed, people have more confidence in the quality of my answers. Â I don't expect to ever see purple belt, I just don't have the time.Re #2, interesting question.

 When I first felt the need to offer a tip for a question I had to pull Paypal money to do it, and was hesitant to waste it - not unlike buying a new iPhone application and having to decide whether it's worth 99cents or $2.99.  Something about the virtual money makes you pay more attention - if something was a dollar or 3 dollars in teh real world I wouldn't think twice. But here's where it's different -- as my balance hasÂ.

Points and to an extent, percentage of best answers. I'm not real happy about the belt system. Also, I think awarding points for giving and receiving tips is WIDE open to abuse.

Maybe I tip you a dollar for asking this interesting question. Maybe you tip me a dollar back because i'm such a nice guy. Lather, rinse and repeat.

1. I think that all of these variables are signals of quality, but frankly many of them can be gamed in the short term. That's why we require a five person review and test to reach brown belt.In six months Brown Belt will be the signal of quality, and yellow to purple will represent someone in training.

So, a Brown Belt or better is the true indicator of quality. From there the number of tips and best answers by category is going to become important. For example, you might have 10 best answers in food while Darcy has 20 best answers in health... over time we'll figure out not only who's a good research, but who's a good researcher in each vertical.

That's when things will be amazing. 2.In terms of the tipping it's not intended to be a job at this point obviously, but rather an incentive for both people asking questions to stand out and for people answering those questions to take them a little more seriously. It's sort of a signal of quality as I've said above.

If you're willing to give a buck or two it's a more serious question than one without a tip in most cases.My belief is that people are going to participate here because a) it's fun, b) they are part of a really cool community of nice people and c) they might make a little extra money. Right now folks are making $50-250 a month which is really nice spare change, and if it keeps up like this I could see it being $50 to $500 in six months and maybe $50 to $1,000 a year or two from now. I know that sounds crazy but it's possible... I witnessed it at Weblogs, Inc.

When blogging started out as a revenue share, then $1 a post and eventually $10 a post. The most important thing right now is too OVERSERVICE the folks asking questions. If we make people feel really good about this they will come back and give bigger tips.

I suggest giving ABSURDLY great answers to people giving tips. This will signal to them that they should tip more.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.