Improving Indexing Involvement
In order to improve youth involvement with indexing I propose that the system of which the number of records indexed be revamped in favor of an Experience Point (XP) system. The system would work like this: for each record or name which you index or review you would receive a certain amount of XP. For example you would get +1 XP for each name you review on the Get Involved app or the Name Review on the website, +2 XP for each Full Name Review you complete, +5 XP for each beginner record you index or review, +10 XP for each intermediate record you index or review, and +20 for each advanced record you index or review. Obviously these points in this example is merely arbitrary and if implemented could be scaled based off the difficulty of each individual project.
Many different ideas could be incorporated into this new system such as a ranked leaderboard from the ward, stake, or global level. Achievements can be unlocked depending on what or how much indexing you have completed. (For example an achievement for completing 100 beginner records or reaching 10,000 XP, etc.)
The benefits of the new system are as follows:
1. All Get Involved activities will count towards set goals- whether it be your personal goal or a ward or stake goal, any contribution doing any sort of activity would count towards the final goal.
2. Youth will be more likely to participate in the work of family history- by making it a game it will make these activities more engaging thus boosting engagement from younger audiences
3. It will reward those who complete tougher projects- as it stands right now you get just as much value from completing a beginner record as you do spending much time over an advanced record. This new system will reward those that put in the time and effort to complete more difficult projects.
All in all these are just a few ideas contained within the larger idea of revamping the system which we now have. This may be taken in several different directions but no matter where it goes, the benefits will stay the same.
Please comment if there are any improvements to be made on this idea as well as if there are any foreseeable problems.
Comments
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Each person can now see their person impact by participating in indexing and reviewing activities. Here they can see how their work has helped others and they can see their own statistics. https://www.familysearch.org/getinvolved/your-impact
Indexing and reviewing are not games. They are integral processes for adding searchable records to FamilySearch. Many youth are already involved in doing these activities.
There are already reports for wards/stakes to see how many people are participating in indexing and reviewing each month and the number of records that are being indexed/reviewed. They can use this information to compare to goals.
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I love the 'Your Impact' feature that has recently been added. That is a great and fun way to see that no effort goes to waste. However I believe that you're misunderstanding my intentions. The comment which you have left did not seek to clarify any points of my idea rather it negated the idea completely stating that it could never happen.
And why can it not be turned into a game to make it more engaging and fun for the youth, and for a wider audience in general? You don't want more people to help out with this "integral processes for adding searchable records to FamilySearch"? As a youth myself, there is but a very limited number of youth who contribute to the indexing effort and I for one want to see that improve.
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For a wider context see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamification
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@AndersonMB Just as a bit of background and to take a look at some philosophical frameworks as well as maybe give people reasons to discuss and develop thoughts about your post, I'll make a few comments.
Whenever posts have been made about gamification of indexing, and you are far from the first to have done so, the concerns that generally come up most prominently are generally over what is being rewarded and what behavior is hoped to be reinforced. Quantity? Speed? Accuracy? How would any system overcome the human tendency to want to be first at any cost? What anti-cheating systems need to be in place?
If I could get a ton of points by indexing 10,000 records a week but my accuracy is abysmal, I could be first on a leaderboard and create a useless final index.
If I submit a batch of very difficult records in hopes of getting my +20 points, when that batch is reviewed and 50% of my indexing is wrong, should I then be awarded -40 points?
If a leaderboard shows my points, should it also show my grade? A - over 95% accuracy, B - 95 to 76%, C - 75 to 50%, F - under 50% accuracy?
Many of the points in this article about step challenges apply directly to indexing: https://www.makeuseof.com/why-avoid-competing-step-challenges-fitness-tracker/
Doesn't take much though to imagine how the comments in this article could also crop up in indexing challenges: https://astepaheadchallenge.com/fix-health/the-first-rule-of-cheating-in-a-walking-challenge/
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I agree that some might take the opportunity to boost their numbers and of course this is something to be avoided. I am aware that in the beginning of online indexing there was a grade assigned. If a new system is to be introduced based upon points the grading system would be an integral part of its success and accuracy of the indexing. I have reviewed countless records with the current system we have and the accuracy is still abysmal. That is why a reviewing process is so important. Under the new system it would be just as important.
There are many tweaks that should be made to the idea that has been proposed, of course. If the idea of a leaderboard would cause concern, throw it out! The behavior that is being addressed and reinforced is making indexing more fun in order to get more involved.
Think of the system that is in place currently for this commenting community. Here is an example of analytics that are available for all people on this platform to see:
Does counting these statistics cause you to make more posts with less accurate information in order to boost your own numbers? Do the points make you want to become more involved in this community?
Look at a good example of gamification, Duolingo. Of course they are different at the heart of what they are accomplishing but the ideas remain the same. Because it becomes a game, with achievements, goals, etc. it becomes something that you want to do each day. Every time you complete a lesson you feel you are closer to those achievements, to your goals, and to advancing leagues.
I appreciate the ideas and concerns that have been brought up. One final comment for all who read this. As you participate on this online platform, do not seek to dismiss ideas out of hand simply because you think they are out of the possibility. If this platform could become a community seeking for improvements rather than complacency it could become much more effective than it is now.
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When the leaderboard was in place here in Communities up until a week or so ago, my general impression is that the people most likely to be on top rather detested it and are happy to see it gone. Personally I tend to ignore my statistics here and find the badges to be rather meaningless. That whole system could vanish tomorrow and I wouldn't care. I do find the stars by people's names useful as a rough measure of how experienced those people are with FamilySearch.
I do have to say I like the badges on Garmin. Like Duolingo they are for personal reinforcement and encouragement to continue with personal goals. But those goals have no actual impact on a wider society. Indexing on the other hand impacts millions of other people. So the encouragement given through any system would have be in the proper direction with far more points and accolades for quality than for quantity without discouraging people from participating when they discover that a lot of records really are hard to read.
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Since you brought up Duolingo: I stopped using it exactly because of all the gamification. It adds a whole lot of unnecessary stress, for me. I find I cannot enjoy it. (I also cannot learn anything from the little nibbles of information it deigns to provide about a language. I need much bigger pieces to be able to make sense of any of it, and if I haven't made sense of something, there's no hope of my retaining it.)
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Which brings up a feature that any type of gamification for indexing should have. It should be optional so that people who don't care about such or find it annoying can turn it off completely to the point of having no statistics recorded about them and not being able to see those for anyone else.
That would also allow FamilySearch to kick someone out of the game by turning off that person's statistics and all display of them the first time a person submitted a batch for credit and the entire form was full of just junk information as someone reported on these boards years back that occurred when a group held a local indexing challenge based on number of records completed.
I'm not inherently against against gamification or other ways to encourage participation in indexing, but just would want the designers of any such thing to keep in mind the law of unintended consequences, not to mention Murphy, which seems to strike FamilySearch on a regular basis (just search for the term auto-standardization on these boards) and basic human psychology in regards to competition and be very, very careful.
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I don't think it happens very often that ideas posted here are dismissed out of hand. Sometimes it may appear so, but my general impression is that on those occasions it is about ideas that were previously posted, thoroughly discussed, sometimes actually had input from FamilySearch employees, and dismissed as impractical or problematic or not needed or not the role of FamilySearch. When the same idea gets posted the fiftieth time and the basic situation has not changed, the replies do tend to get fairly abrupt but only because it has been discussed to death previously. The original discussions are really hard to find. I've never had success with the search system in Communities.
The other thing about posting ideas here, is that we have been assured multiple times that they do all go off to the designers and engineers if appropriate for consideration. The views of other users here really don't matter much. I've certainly posted ideas here and never bothered to come back to view any comments on them because I really don't care what other users have to say about those particular suggestions and there are never comments by the designers (except in the specific groups that have been used recently to help in the design of new features such as this group: https://community.familysearch.org/en/group/316-new-person-page where there has been a lot of fun back and forth discussions with the designers and engineers. There are several features on the new Person pages that were directly influenced by user input.)
So keep posting all your ideas. If deserving of consideration, the right people well see them. Then just ignore the rest of us. Or just take the viewpoint that you don't really want anyone to agree with you. That's kind of worthless. You want them to disagree with you so you can see the weaknesses in the idea then refine, clarify and strengthen them until there are no possible disagreements left.
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