New pling system promotes quantity, not quality

@opendesktop

First, I 'm sorry if I misinterpreted the pling-system you are trying to implement. The initial info on your blog suggested this however. You’ve set up a rather complex system for rewarding the plings. I understand the necessity of it, but of course it lacks the transparency needed for everyone to understand.

I realise the uphill-battle you are facing to fight off the misuse of the existing pling-rewarding-system. And trying to make people pay for rewarding others is commendable. But in order to make this work you need a sizeable number of paying contributors. Otherwise allot of products will simply not get enough attention. Each pling-giver has its own idea what he likes, and thus rewards his favorites. This is not a problem if the group is large enough. The larger the number of pling-givers, the more evenly spread the plings will be. This is ultimately your end-goal, I presume.
I just fear you will never get that far. Why? Because the large majority of people visiting Open-desktop only do so a couple of times (correct me if I am wrong). Only some of them do the effort of voting up (or down) and even fewer leave a comment. Because most of them do not do the effort of registration. So, the majority of the users of our products are simply not available to act as quality-contributors.

In fact, those that do register, mostly have a vested interest in doing so. Because, usually they are the ones that upload a product. So you might end up in a situation where the contributors= product-uploaders . In other words: we judge ourselves. This incestual relation (sorry for the phrasing) is not going to get us any further in the idea of promoting quality in free software. Because we end up paying ourselves for our work.

I may exaggerate the situation a bit ( I do not have the statistics to back me up), and perhaps I’m to blunt about it. But I do genuinly care about this site. I’ve been a member since 2007 (as paulubuntu) so I am a big fan. I just want to make you aware of the consequences of your plans, so you can adjust whatever you would feel you need to do.

Yours sincerely,
Paulxfce.

@opendesktop
Addendum: You might want to re-read the last sentence of your last comment…

@paulxfce
Thanks for your feedback, it raises and highlights valid points that we may not see in the team as obvious. The way the platform and plings worked for the past year were exactly what you describe, that most contributors=product uploaders, but also we see new users registering to comment and give feedback without having their own products, as they report ideas how to make the product better or let the creator know about issues or maybe just how much they appreciate anyone of the contributors efforts.
We see this as a good sign and want to emphasize this in the next 12 months to come with adding the option to also pling a product, which gives any supporter a real purpose to do.
Plinging helps the product become more recognizable being on the startpage and also may allow to follow up with ranking for the most active supporter or most plinged contributor. It is a bit harder to gamble than most other systems, as it requires an investment. At this point, it doesn’t seem to make much impact, but as you said, as it grows it could become pretty valuable. So like on other platforms with stars or likes, creators can now ask users to pling their products, instead of asking for a donation each time. Plings have a lasting memory effect, they don’t drain someones resources further and they don’t need accounting, like keeping track and adjusting plings as it would be for monthly commitements to always support a creator on other platforms.
It will be crucial though as you said if people other than contributors will becoming supporters and show their support for the products they love. As all things new, it’s an experiment, so given the full year time to transition, we can evaluate how it goes in the next months to come.

@x-varlesh-x, @Shenron, @elbullazul,@Rokin05,@charliehenson
We maybe complaining allot, but let us not forget that @opendesktop has given us much. So lets put the money where our mouth is and become a supporter (as I have) And try to convince others to to do the same. It is actually very rewarding for yourself given out plings to artists you like…

Yup, been a supporter since the day it was offered.

That’s the spirit ! now try to convince others…