WA Gold - The Official Response!
I originally posted this in response to a blog post called "How do you feel about WA Gold?", but wanted to add to my blog as this response was something that I have been planning on publishing.
WA gold and the 0.10 value associated with gold has been removed in OEP, but replaced with a much more valuable, and in-depth system. In the new WA (OEP), every time you visit another member's training resource, comment on it, or like it, you're giving them a lot more opportunity than Gold could have ever provided.
Training Center: People who educate others earn credits based on the user calculate value of their resources. Comments, Likes, Visits among other metrics are used to determine if others find a training resource valuable or not. As these metrics add up the authors gain points towards achieving the credit level. When this is achieved they earn dollars not cents.
Followings: one of the most powerful aspects of WA is building your following and offering value so others will follow you. As you build your following your actions within the system gain exposure and reach more people. If anyone wants to say thank-you, following the user is the ultimate form of praise! 10 cents means nothing when you've only got 10 pieces to give out each month. In the WA Platinum system gold was not being used, was not being exchanged, and this is why it has been removed.
Every aspect of the OEP platform has been thought out in great detail and has been done with a purpose. Showing appreciation happens by simply being active in the new system
Ambassadors: let's not forget about the Ambassador system where everyone has the ability to achieve this status and unlock many doors. Followings, quality of resources, activity, and interactivity within the community are what contribute to becoming an ambassador. This cannot be achieved without the input of others...and this again happens without having to click a button.
Show your appreciation by interacting with others, liking their training, following their actions.
I understand 1000% that the ideologies, methodologies, and direction behind the Open Education Project are difficult to comprehend because we are only in version 1.0 and a few days into the system. As the weeks and months pass it will become more clear why decisions have been made and why certain aspects have been changed.
Accomplishment happens when someone interacts with you. I log into the OEP probably 50+ times a day now to check up on my dashboards, to interact and reply to comments. Not because I have to, but because I'm now greatly immersed in the system. Before OEP, I would be logging in but had absolutely no way to know what was happening, and really couldn't even find where people were trying to communicate with me. When someone replies to my comments now in OEP, that is a sense of accomplishment worth 100x what a tiny piece of gold could ever do.
Engagement stomps monetary reward in every way, furthermore in OEP we offer a lot more monetary reward than the Gold system ever could - this will become clear with time.
Leave me a comment!
Carson
The WA gold system was a fun game. It was an affectionate gesture to give someone gold, at least that's the way I felt about it. It was a very positive give and take. I thought it was brilliant on your part.
However, my curiosity is piqued from Carson's blog and Kyle's comment.
Quite candidly, I do miss many of the features that once were, such as the most recent forum posts on the dashboard and blog of the day. I would totally miss seeing many of those blogs if they weren't showcased. By showcasing them, I read them and commented. In fact I tried to comment on as many blogs as I could. I believe when people take their time and energy to write a blog, it deserves a comment. In that we are all so busy, it's hard to read everything.
My initial reaction to the OEP change is fear that past outstanding contributions from fellow members will be erased. I see that number counts have been erased, such as buddies. People's followings are starting from scratch. Don't understand why.
I recognize the need to update and edit information, especially in a learning platform. I just hope the forum info isn't erased because I refer back to it often. It's like Googling to me.
Guys, you are respected for your ambition to be on the cutting edge of IM education. It's a perfect goal. Just don't throw away the baby with the bath water.
These thoughts came to mind when I read what you wrote.
1. You say - 'As the weeks and months pass it will become more clear why decisions have been made and why certain aspects have been changed."
In my experience if you're introducing change to your 'customers' then you explain more before the changes so the transition is smoother than what happened with this change when Kyle and yourself - constantly kept hinting that there were big changes on the way but the majority of us didn't know what they were.
All you've succeeded in doing is annoying quite a few members even if they like the changes and now a quite a few of us are spending a lot of time telling people where to find things.
Even letting people know - when the change was going to be - a view of what the new interface would look like and how they could find things would have been better. As I know from the chat - not everyone finds it instinctive to find their new ways round new systems.
2. You say "I log into the OEP probably 50+ times a day now to check up on my dashboards, to interact and reply to comments." - All I can say for that is good for you. It's your company, but for most of us that amount of engagement would not be an efficient way of working. (And a lot of us had no problem in finding where people were engaging with us previously.
I am here a lot and engage a lot as do some other people. But relative to the number of members, we are a small band and I am sceptical by the implication that lots of other people are going to be doing lots more interaction because of the changes. Too many people don't have the time, the inclination or feel that they have the knowledge. Of course it may well improve but by how much? I look forward to you publishing the improved figures in the future.
3. You say - '" If anyone wants to say thank-you, following the user is the ultimate form of praise!" - Perhpas it is - but as I had no idea what the new system meant - I have followed all the people who followed me - becuase I thought it was the polite thing to do - praise had nothing to do with it. And that's what happens when you don't explain systems properly.
4. You may think that my rant means - I don't like change, but that wouldn't be the case at all. I don't particularly like the new interface, but it doesn't matter to me one way or the other. I found the old system perfectly easy to navigate and I find this one likewise. No my real rant is that the introduction of it has been poor which I find rather ironic when improved 'engagement' apears to be your main aim.
My experience of WA has always been that you are not nearly as good at the 'engagement' as you think you are, nor understanding of your 'customers' experience or viewpoints.
So I look forward to things becoming clearer. Apologies for the length reply.
This means that what you see know are our ideas from a year ago (a bit less actually), but what you see now is only a fragment of our vision. A vision that I think will blow everyone's mind when we come closer to fruition.
Yes, we removed some aspects of the old system and yes, we didn't do a good enough job to clarify. Our goal was not to make such a big deal about the OEP and roll it out in a much more subtle matter, as it really is in a BETA period, but the BETA is happening to go extraordinarily smooth.
Our goal was to deliver training on the new system, which we did roll out with the new system to explain how it works. I think it does a good job, but moreso from the perspective of someone that has used it. At first, anyone is going to have to learn how to use the system, believe it or not, I found Twitter confusing as hell when I first started using it, but now it is second nature.
It is a very raw and flexible system at this point and I think you are going to find that within the next month it is going to undergo a lot of small, but very important "systematic" tweaks that make it easier to use and far more engaging. The whole package and picture will start to fit together.
As for Gold, everyone will be paid out. Sorry we didn't lead people up to the phasing out of this, but we knew that what we were coming out with would offer users far more potential as a "helper" within the community than Gold could ever accomplish. Definitely our fault for not articulating this in advance and letting people know about it right away, I guess we didn't think people would be so upset. That was oversight of us being caught up in the roll out and probably some tireless hours.
I can assure you, that everyone here at WA is our first and foremost. We want to give everyone the best opportunties as possible. This starts with the opportunity of being a member (which there are going to be a ton) and the opportunity of being the best educated group out there. ;)
Thanks for your feedback, critical is fine...one thing I would suggest in the future is criticism that is a bit more constructive...ie, "I don't like the interface because of .....", "I liked the old interface because....". This helps us improve based off a feedback. Telling us something sucks isn't helpful without the reason why.
