There have been some changes on WordPress.com, the free blog publishing and hosting site, most notably the messages you receive as you publish a new blog post. They are messages cheering you on for blogging, giving you the word count of your blog post and the what number post you just published.
The other day, I started getting “badges” recognizing my blogging accomplishments of reaching a blogging goal that I didn’t even set for myself.
I find it curious and amusing that a blog publishing company is applying game theory i.e. gamifying the blogging process. To what end? Are they thinking this is going to be motivation for people to blog more? Because they get a “prize” for reaching blogging goals? It doesn’t bother me that it’s there, mind you. I just find it curious.
I’m all for gamification of certain processes, even in business and work which I’ve blogged about before, but can’t imagine it is really going to effective to get people to blog more or blog regularly. And if we start blogging for badges, what will happen to the quality of our blogging? I wonder…
What do you think? Would getting encouraging messages and badges help you blog more?
