Ideal status system

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Posted by Sir Four at 11:54pm Dec 29 '10
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If you were designing a status system, for users of a web site, how would you go about it?

One flaw in the 4K system (and many other status systems) I was thinking about today is that long-time members will always and forever have an advantage over newer members, because more time on the site means more opportunity for accumulating status has occurred. We can imagine someone who signed up five years ago, was highly active (accumulating status) for three years, then virtually disappeared for the last two years. That person will continue to rank higher in status than most newer members for years to come, which doesn't accurately reflect the current state of affairs on the site.

The thought I had for correcting this (note: I don't plan to implement it) would be to segment status points into monthly intervals, and increasingly discount them as they age. So if you had earned 100 "points" toward your status this month, they'd count in full, but 100 such points earned two years ago might only count for 60 points toward your current status. With the passage of time, the old points would count less and less, so recent activity would play a larger role in status calculation than old activity.


What other flaws do you see in status systems (4K or otherwise), and how would you design the ideal one?

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