What are reward points?

Reward points are a virtual currency users can use to encourage others to answer their questions. Topic authors can decide to assign a certain number of points to their question and then reward the best answer (or answers) with all (or some) of the points. Simple calculations are then done to compute the topic users (by reward point) in certain categories or overall. Reward point summaries are displayed in each user's profile page.

What are the rules for assigning and awarding points?

The author of a discussion topic can assign points to their question as an incentive for other members to respond. The author can choose to award the best responses to that question with all of the points or some. The points can be awarded all to a single user's response or partially awarded to several users' responses. Points awarded in the discussion topic are deducted from the points the author assigned to the topic. In addition, there are a few other rules:

• Topic authors cannot assign points to themselves.

• Users can remove the points assigned as long as there haven't been any replies to their question. This might be necessary if the author assigned the points in error.

• Users can assign points to a question at a later time to encourage others to answer.

Screen Shots

Attached to this Knowledge Base entry are several screen shots showing the Reward Points functionality from a user's perspective.

• No points assigned yet:*

• Assigning points:*

• Points assigned:*

• Reward Points available:*

• Awarding points:*

• Points awarded:* (see attachment "rewards7.JPG")

• User point summary, in user profile:* (see attachment "rewards8.JPG")