Larger task-contingent rewards do motivate more people to take on the tasks, but they do not incentivize higher effort (no apparent relationship between size of rewards and amount of effort).

Considerations for task-contingent rewards

- Performance-contingent rewards are offered based on the quality of a user's contributions
- Task-contingent rewards are offered solely based on effort (not quality)

University of Virginia, Charlottesville

Feedback: tells people how other users feel about their participation in a community.

Rewards and sanctions: give or take away something that users find valuable based on their behavior.



Feedback and rewards (and sanctions)

Kraut, Robert E., and Paul Resnick. Building successful online communities: Evidence-based social design. MIT Press, 2012.

Building successful online communities: Evidence-based social design (Kraut and Resnick)

- Whether the community the community has an informal or structured feedback system

- Does the community have a ratings, likes or upvote system; what is it used for?

- Is there a user status established? (e.g. reputation score)

- Can users receive an increase in privileges, money or prizes?

Examples of feedback and rewards (and sanctions) decisions in OCs

- Feedback about one's performance 
- Can be verbal (comments on a post) or nonverbal (likes/upvotes on a post)
- Can be particularly motivating, especially when positive, though it must be appear sincere (best if it reflects a general consensus instead of one opinion)

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