The catch. There is no catch. We're here to build a different type of network, a different type of community, and a different kind of algorithm. And we do it one iteration at a time. The algorithm we are building taps straight into valuing every community interaction, it's open, and there are no secrets about how it works. We are not modelling social media algorithms, we're building something completely different.
It's not even been a year. In February, we shared how we were creating a community algorithm via our Community Stars system. It's hard to believe we were doing that all manually behind the scenes. Thankfully, in March, we were able to start building the tech foundations of the Community Star system, and every day it continues to demonstrate meaningful value and credibility.
The path is transparent. You can view the Community Algorithm and in our Slack we share MoTifications as they happen. No secrets are held here, we add new ones on a regular basis, though we don't always announce them. Our culture is one of shipping fast and monitoring the response.
The most recent Community Star addition was awarding stars to both the learner and teacher when a lesson from a certificate or course is completed.
It shows the activity that is happening behind the scenes and didn't have real visibility, by MoT staff or members. To see it live feels all kinds of amazing.
It celebrates the learner moving along in their learning journey. It also acknowledges the creator of the courses, we know it's not easy going through the process of creating a course and we're exploring how better to give credit for these efforts. Having this feedback loop MoTivates both sides of the experience.
And to see Community Stars on people's profiles increase every day feels like a really positive move forward.
Diversity is key. We're a big believer that people can learn, contribute and gain recognition in many ways. Learning, teaching, doing a talk, posting a meme, a memory, an observatory link, sponsoring an event…they are all important and are considered part of our algorithm.
The community stars is a social capital system that only gets better with time and activity.
