Does Top Community Contributor Recognition Discourage Communities

Digg founder Kevin Rose has posted about changes coming (starting today) to the Digg community, including the elimination of the Top Digger list:

"So what does this all mean? After considerable internal debate and discussion with many of those who make up the Top Digger list, we’ve decided to remove the list beginning tomorrow. As for what’s next, we’re currently working on designing and refining the technologies required that will help enable our nearly 900,000 registered users to make real connections that we believe will greatly enhance the Digg experience – whether you’re brand new to the site or have been on Digg since the beginning."

This is an interesting move. If top Digg users are not motivated by being paid, and are no longer motivated by the recognition they receive from their position on the Top Digger list, will they continue to contribute great content to Digg at the same rate?

Will this remove a motivator for future Top Diggers?

Or, could this help Digg by taking emphasis off the Top Digger list? I think this may actually be the case. Digg will likely see the highest quality content from a larger audience of experts submitting stories in their fields of expertise whether that's digital cameras or Oolong tea. Publishing a site wide Top Diggers list has the potential to discourage great contributors with narrow topics of focus.

It's the same problem Technorati's popularity ranking generates. While it's interesting to see where a blog ranks among all blogs on the web, someone with the world's greatest Oolong Tea blog will never be able to compete against top political, tech, or entertainment blogs. Technorati should address this by providing rankings by tag or some other metric that helps bloggers and prospective advertisers determine the authority of a blog within its area of expertise.

Amazon faces the same issue. It's great to see Amazon give recognition to top book reviewers, but are potential book reviewers discouraged when they compare the dozen reviews they've done to the thousands done by top reviewers?

How do you find the balance between recognition and discouraging metrics?

Required fields marked with: *
Name*:

Email Address*:

URL:
Remember personal info?

Comments*:

HTML Tags you can use in your posts:
<b>Bold</b> = Bold
<i>Italicized</i> = Italicized
<a href="http://www.othersite.com">Link to Other Site</a> = Link to Other Site

Please keep comments on-topic. Contact authors or other commenters
directly for off-topic conversations.

Notify me of future comments via e-mail

Technology Evangelist Digest - Free Newsletter

Sign up for the free Technology Evangelist Digest to receive daily updates, editorials, and practical advice on emerging technology trends in hardware, software, webware, marketing and beyond.

Technology Evangelist Digest will keep you up to date on the technology trends that will help make you more productive and efficient both in business and your personal life.

Let's face it: If you made it to this line, you must have found something valuable on this page, right? Think about how cool it would be to have something free and interesting to read every day from Technology Evangelist by signing up today.

1. Fill in your email below,
2. Then click on the confirmation email you receive.
3. That's it. Your first Technology Evangelist Digest will arrive within 24 hours.