A "stock exchange" for members

[xanaftp]

So this is a very wild idea I'm tossing out to the community. I'm probably not going to implement it (who knows?), but I wanted some thoughts on this idea.

The idea is this... so my website operates on a virtual currency just like FP does, called "Yang". The idea is to have members "invest" in each other, as if it were a stock exchange (kinda). The invested Yang is stored in a virtual bank, separated by member invested to. The members are informed they have X Yang invested in them. When they make quality content, they not only earn the normal Yang for posting, but also the Yang that was invested in them. As a return on investment, those who invested will get a "dividend" depending on how active the user was and how much credibility (reputation / likes) they earned within the 30 days following the investment.

Thoughts on this out-of-the-box idea?

 

[Shole]

Sounds interesting, if you can code it I think it is a good idea.

 

[Lord Saru]

This is a great idea provided the community has a reason to invest and look towards dividend. What can they use the forum currency for?

 

[xanaftp]

Sounds interesting, if you can code it I think it is a good idea.

I'm not that advanced in my coding skills (specifically I'm not that good at front end UI elements) but I do work as a web developer, so I'm pretty sure I could code in something like that.

This is a great idea provided the community has a reason to invest and look towards dividend. What can they use the forum currency for?

Yeah as stated, the reason to invest would be to encourage each other to produce more/quality content. And an investment is returned when the member being invested in publishes more content and especially if it's quality content (receives likes etc.).

I have an FAQ page about what the currency can be used for: https://lovinity.org/catalogues/entry/website-functionality/what-is-yin-and-yang.htm . There are numerous things, with more uses planned over time.

 

[Tucker933]

Cool idea, but how is "quality" determined? If it's based on a "like" system I could see that working, but could be very problematic if judged simply by staff. Whether or not there's bias, it could always be argued that there is, and it can be quite off-putting.

 

[xanaftp]

How is "quality" determined?

It would probably be based on the number of likes / amount of good credibility (reputation) received from that content. Not quite certain yet as this is just an idea. This could be abused a bit is my concern.

 

[Tucker933]

How is "quality" determined?

It would probably be based on the number of likes / amount of good credibility (reputation) received from that content. Not quite certain yet as this is just an idea. This could be abused a bit is my concern.

Hah, sounds good. I added to my post just before you responded.

 

[xanaftp]

How is "quality" determined?

It would probably be based on the number of likes / amount of good credibility (reputation) received from that content. Not quite certain yet as this is just an idea. This could be abused a bit is my concern.

Hah, sounds good. I added to my post just before you responded.

Lol sorry. But anyone can like a content, not just staff. However, staff could feature content, which would give that piece of content approximately 2-5X more good credibility than a single like would. But content is only featured if staff deem it something with high potential community interest and is well put together.

 

[Tucker933]

Having staff feature something sounds like a bit of an over-complication in the process for something like this, and could still be accused of bias. Having a particular threshold for likes to determine quality would probably be the best route.

My forum has a pretty unique economy system as well, which tackled that potential problem with the "like" threshold. Our system can be seen at the top of the index here. It's been running for about 6 months now, without issue determining quality of diverse content (where other qualifiers become cumbersome).

 

[xanaftp]

Having staff feature something sounds like a bit of an over-complication in the process for something like this, and could still be accused of bias. Having a particular threshold for likes to determine quality would probably be the best route.

My forum has a pretty unique economy system as well, which tackled that potential problem with the "like" threshold. Our system can be seen at the top of the index here. It's been running for about 6 months now, without issue determining quality of diverse content (where other qualifiers become cumbersome).

Are you talking about the reputations system? I feel like I'm missing something from the website 😛

 

[Tucker933]

Having staff feature something sounds like a bit of an over-complication in the process for something like this, and could still be accused of bias. Having a particular threshold for likes to determine quality would probably be the best route.

My forum has a pretty unique economy system as well, which tackled that potential problem with the "like" threshold. Our system can be seen at the top of the index here. It's been running for about 6 months now, without issue determining quality of diverse content (where other qualifiers become cumbersome).

Are you talking about the reputations system? I feel like I'm missing something from the website 😛

The big main block at the top called Monthly $50 Raffle. Tickets are earned through contributions and can be exchanged between members, but at the end of the month count towards a couple cash prizes, while the tallies reset. What I'm referring to in particular is the "Popular Content" listed under the ways of earning tickets. Once someone gets 5 likes for something, it's highlighted as "popular" and they earn a ticket.

 

[Page]

I'm not that advanced in my coding skills (specifically I'm not that good at front end UI elements)

You can also get help form more people then build an plugin for it.

Having staff on the list with points can be an good idea as the staff will have allot of points to able to give them the points to the members. Then what marketplace have you got in place and away for members to use the points as in buying system

 

[xanaftp]

So I've been thinking about this idea for some time now. Before I come across with my thoughts, I want to clarify first that points are now called "Yin" and "Yang". "Yang" is the spendable currency, and "Yin" is the currency you cannot spend but can give to other members (which then becomes spendable "Yang" for them).

I personally never cared for the default separation of "spending" currency and "giving" currency that came with Composr CMS. However I am also reluctant to get rid of it because I have a leaderboard set up that lists various users depending on the amount of Yin given to them for various roles.

I was thinking about transforming Yin into something else... namely turn it into the member investment system I was thinking of. So, here's my idea, and I'd like some feedback on it (I admit, this does sound very complicated, but I think it's a good system unless you can think of something just as good that's less complicated):

• Users must have at least 10 credibility points (reputation) before they are open for other users to invest in.
• The amount of "share capital" each user has is the number of credibility points they have (1 point = 1 share). Credibility points are earned through good reputation... eg. receiving likes on content, getting content featured, and so on. So for example, if I have 150 credibility points, then my capital is 150 shares. This means that members can invest a total of 150 shares in me. The more credibility I earn, the more members can invest (because it is implied that the more credibility I have, the more reputable and the higher quality my content is).
• Users can invest in each other using their Yin (Yin cannot be used as spending currency, nor can it be earned any other way except daily and through donating to the website). I'm thinking since regular users earn 5 Yin per day (donor status users earn 10 per day in addition to the Yin they get depending on how much they donated), then the cost will be 5 Yin per share. Of course, users can only invest in other users who have shares that are open for investment. If, say, members have already invested a total of 150 shares in the member from the example above, then no one can invest in that member until that member starts generating content and getting positive feedback on it.
• When a user invests in another user, it is a form of encouragement for the user invested in to generate some content which can be given feedback on (eg. forum topics, posts, gallery submissions, blogs, etc.). If a user has shares invested in them, and they generate positive feedback (likes and ratings 3+ stars), they will earn bonus spendable Yang. Now, users have credibility influence depending on how long they've been active and how many posts they've made as well as how many disciplinary actions they've received. So, let's say a user with an influence of 3 (meaning they can give or take 3 credibility points for each good/bad rating they give) gave a thumbs up for something this user made. This means that 3 of the shares that have been invested in the user turn into spendable Yang for that user (so they earn 5 Yang per share... in this case 15 Yang for that one like). Those three shares that turned into Yang are also then freed up and put back on the market so other users can invest in this user again.
• When a user invests shares in another user, their investment is put in a queue. So the oldest shares in that queue get action first (for example, if member 1 invested 5 shares 3 days ago, and member 2 invested 10 shares today, and the user received a positive rating for a recent post... the shares that member 1 invested in are awarded first before any shares from member 2 are awarded). This is important when it comes down to the next couple bullet points.
• If my shares end up earning the user I invested in bonus Yang, then I get a return (dividend) for my investment with the rate of 1 Yang per share as a "thank you" for investing in a high quality user. I obviously don't get as much as the user did because a) the user made the content, not me, and b) My other "payout" is considered to be the content that the user submitted.
• Now, here's where the risk taking comes into play... just like a real stock market. Say I invested 5 shares in a user, and my 5 shares are at the top of the queue. And suddenly this user does something against the rules and thus loses 5 credibility points. What happens is my investment becomes a total loss. The user didn't get any Yang for it, and I didn't get any Yang dividends. This system is to encourage users to invest in trustworthy and highly reputable users and not ones that will probably generate poor content. It also serves as encouragement for users in general to follow the rules and make good quality content (if I have bad marks on my credibility, then other users won't want to invest in me because of the risk they are taking).

What are your thoughts? If you need me to try and explain this better, I can.