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Level 9
Level 9

Tips for Giving Kudos?

There are lots of guides around, tips for reviews, for photos for edits - how about a Google Modgives some quick feedback on giving kudos?

 

The help section says: "Kudos is a content rating system that lets you vote for the messages you think are the most useful or important." It's great to give a post a thumbs up but is the system being abused and therefore rendered somewhat debased?

 

There are quite a few LGs who are simply giving kudos to gain a badge. They're easy to spot by looking at their Connect profile and you can see they have simply opened a thread and kudo'd every post, then opened another thread and done the same. One LG recently gave 500 kudo in four hours - probably in attempt to gain kudos back.

 

@TraciC or @Corrie are you aware this kind of kudos 'spamming' is very regular, do you have advice to LGs engaged in such activity?

48 comments

Accepted Solutions
Former Google Contributor
Solution

Re: Tips for Giving Kudos?

@Pea @JeroenM @MichelChammas @LucioV 

People give kudos for lots of reasons. I give them out of agreement, encouragement, to recognize a great post, or to welcome a new member's first post. Kudos are a lightweight way to engage with your fellow Local Guides. They don't result in points or status. I don't think we need to tell people how they should be using them. 

 

Philip's point about them being a signal for other spammy behavior is noted though. As our community policy says, Local Guides who add low-quality / spammy / fake information to the Map may lose their LG status or even be banned from contributing to Google Maps at all. 

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Level 10

Re: Tips for Giving Kudos?

I think this is part of gamification @Pea; I'm not the best person in this discussion, i've been literally flooded by kudos, but I think this is not a thing to worry about; badges, kudos, etc. are nothing that implies reputation or real importance in LGC, except for best answers badge, maybe.

Level 9
Level 9

Re: Tips for Giving Kudos?


@LucioV wrote:

I think this is not a thing to worry about

I definitely don't worry about it, but thought it might merit a Google Mod's comment to suggest to LGs doing it that their behaviour is transparent and pointless. It may be no coincidence, but the LGs I see kudo spamming are also very often engaged in spammy one or two word reviews on the map. It's basically the same mindset operating in both domains. Click, repeat, must hit target, click, repeat, must hit target.

Level 10

Re: Tips for Giving Kudos?

Hey @Pea @LucioV

Well I have the 5000 Kudos badges and I am still giving Kudos, It is not a matter of having a badge or not but I like to show support for my colleagues and specially the posts and comments that I read. It creates an interaction and show that people are contributing and reading what others are writing. I don't think giving lot of Kudos is a spam since it affects nothing. 

Level 10

Re: Tips for Giving Kudos?

Wow @MichelChammas you gave a lot of kudos! I'm actually far from this goal, i will share here some personal stats, just for showing...

 

 

Total Page Views 40523

Total Messages Read 71177

Topics Started 186

Replies 2,654

Blog Comments Posted 39

Total Solutions Authored 166

Total Solutions Marked Accepted 11

Total Kudos Given 4080

Total Board Views 709

Total Signins 968

Total Minutes Online 56828

 

I can ensure you, i have a full time work.... 😄

Level 10

Re: Tips for Giving Kudos?

@LucioV You are a great contributor 🙂

Level 9
Level 9

Re: Tips for Giving Kudos?


@michelc wrote:

I don't think giving lot of Kudos is a spam since it affects nothing. 


Hi @MichelChammas yes I agree. Let me perhaps draw a distinction between someone who is generous giving kudos which seems perfectly fine, and a LG who simply opens a thread and gives kudos to every post. By definition we are told kudos is for "the most useful or important". If a thread is 20 posts long and the LG kudos every one, then immediately does the same on another thread, that suggests a lack of comprehension. This is often reflected in the way they write reviews - and that does affect things. For example how many times have you seen LGs write a review with the single word "Good" ?

Level 8

Re: Tips for Giving Kudos?

Hi,

@Pea,

I totally get your point when it comes to those that are just hunting for points or badges. I wonder though if it would make a difference if we had a formal article by our LG Team giving tips on how to use the Kudos function in more detail, as the message would probably not reach those people you are referring to..

I agree with @MichelChammas, that the Kudos is a sort of catch all emoticon, like you can give a "like", "heart", etc on Facebook. I mostly use the Kudos as a "thank you for your contribution". This might mean that in a very interesting discussion between 4 or 5 people I kudos all the participants, as I thank them for their opinions and their contribution to keep the discussion going. In that case,  I do not necessary agree with them all (although I am sometimes reluctant to do so, as I feel that giving Kudos also is a bit like saying that you agree). The guideline that you are quoting (I was aware of it) is in my opinion far to restrictive and sounds like an alternative Best Answer solutions for those that did not initiated the thread. To me, it makes no sense to use Kudos for that. 

 

I also like to add to the discussion the point of cultural differences. As a northern European (I am Dutch) it is not very much part of our culture to say "thank you" a lot and it is sometimes difficult to understand (from our cultural perspective) the default "avoiding conflict and always trying to please attitude" that is common in some other cultures on our planet. It might be interesting for an anthropologist perhaps to see the statistics presented geographically with regards to the use of the Kudos function on Connect.

 

Going back to your main topic, I honestly don't have a solution to stop or expose these "abusers". To me, it is like people buying their title or diploma from the internet, without actually having done the work. They are mostly fooling themselves and fortunately in this case do a lot less harm to trusting people.


Thanks for tabling this topic though and it would not hurt to have a best practice guideline, for those that seek guidance.

Wishing you all a nice weekend,

Jeroen

 

Former Google Contributor
Solution

Re: Tips for Giving Kudos?

@Pea @JeroenM @MichelChammas @LucioV 

People give kudos for lots of reasons. I give them out of agreement, encouragement, to recognize a great post, or to welcome a new member's first post. Kudos are a lightweight way to engage with your fellow Local Guides. They don't result in points or status. I don't think we need to tell people how they should be using them. 

 

Philip's point about them being a signal for other spammy behavior is noted though. As our community policy says, Local Guides who add low-quality / spammy / fake information to the Map may lose their LG status or even be banned from contributing to Google Maps at all. 

Level 10

Re: Tips for Giving Kudos?

I think - though maybe indeed it could be partly used as a sign of possible spammy behaviour - giving too many kudos is a cultural thing. There are cultural differences - and I do not only mean regionally but also in other behaviours as well. 

 

In a society where many members keep hanging on Facebook for instance, and you can see almost everywhere "Like us on FaceBook", people get used to express such behaviour excessively. True that doing that on FB seems to be unhealthy, too, but let's face it; we are all different. Some people are more rational while others are more emotional. 

 

(Also true however that giving 500 kudos in just about an hour is way too extreme - one cannot even read so many posts in that time frame).