Reputation, badges and points
Why do we have to collect points, badges and a reputation?
4 Answers
It's not a have to, it's a feature at SD. Some people like it. Some don't pay any attention to it. Some base their achievements by it, and some don't. It's there, but it's not a have-to, if you don't want to.
You have to have at least a little reputation to do certain things on the site. The rest is just to help you learn. It's a motivational part of the site. I like it and it helps me, but many others don't really care if they have it or not. It depends on your learning style and what motivates you personally. At first, it helped a lot to keep up with which lessons I'd done and which ones to go back to review. If you click on your numbers for each of the badges, reputation and points, it will tell you what you are able to do & the privileges you gain as your points for each goes up.
This link will explain some things:
I always vote for other people that help me out with questions. It's all volunteer and peer support here on SD and so it's a way that I feel I can say,'I saw your note of assistance and I appreciate your help in my learning'. On the questions, it helps to see if several agreed with a person's answer by accumulated points. I generally look at the ones with the most votes first, then check their profile to see what their Spanish level is.
Excellent question, RDRO and thank you for asking it! I will attempt to answer it briefly.
Blockquote "Reputation points and rewards can be viewed as a distraction by some people while others see them as an incentive to learn, but however you see them, it is probably best not to take them too seriously and to remember that neither giving them nor receiving them is compulsory! You are no better or worse a person... if you choose to use them or not use them!"
I am writing the rest of this to people in general who might be seeing the question as an attack on the points syetem!
While I like using them and enjoy giving them to people in the form of votes as a form of encouragement and affirmation, I am able to recognize their limitations!I used to work as a teaching assistant with young children in a primary school wher we used stickers with infants up to 7 years and team points for junior aged children but in reality children should be expected to work hard and behave in an appropriate manner without them; otherwise how will they manage later in life when society does not acknowledge their every success with a pat on the back, a friendly, 'well done', or a sticker saying best worker of the week?! By the way I am helping as a volunteer in a different school opposite my house, in another county and the infant school does not use stickers! People here, especially beginners in learning Spanish, should not become addicted to them: that is, not become dependent on receiving them.
Pablo was also right in expressing concern about this, in his comment below the question, since we should not need extrinsic (outward) signs of progress...indeed we should NOT measure our ability to communicate effectively in our new/second language by the number of votes we receive. There are native speakers here who are fluent in Spanish who have fewer reputation points than those of us who have reached an intermediate level like myself so please don't judge a person's ability to speak Spanish well by the number of points or which page they are on!
Finally, I would say, learn to be guided, in the early stages of learning much more by the comments that you receive from native Spanish speakers who correct your Spanish you will learn far more from them and your mistakes than from any votes than you receive! Keep the points system in persective, enjoy using them if you want but just remember that they don't make you a better student or even a better person.
Generally speaking teachers of all types in all subjects all over the world use this sort of recognition as motivation.
Motivation is the most important part of any learning process.
For those who "could not care less" - that is just fine.
I doubt anyone would do a degree course without a diploma at the end of it though.
