[OSM-talk] user rankings (was: Re: featured image)

[Stephan Knauss]

Hi Maurizio,

On 07.09.2011 14:24, Maurizio Napolitano wrote:
> maybe what I presented at State of the Map Europe in  Vienna can be useful.
> http://www.slideshare.net/napo/mvp-osm

it sounds quite interesting. Unfortunately I was attending a parallel track.

I thought about "user rankings" some time ago as well. I have mixed 
feelings.
On the one hand it might be a way to motivate users to contribute more 
and to reward users having contributed "more useful" things than others.

On the other hand I fear it can easily drift into something worse. 
People editing specific for the ranking.
Have you heard of the "cobra effect"?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobra_effect
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perverse_incentive

It could actually create worse data when people try to improve their 
ranking by "cheating" the statistics.

Stephan