Hello all, your friendly Temporary Benevolent Dictator here. It’s been a while since the last major change to the SourceCred weights, and I think it’s about time we shake things up a bit.
Throughout SourceCred’s history, we’ve only had data about on-platform contributions. The algorithm can see posts on the forum and changes to the code, but has struggled to see emotional labor, or logistical contributions, or all of the work that goes into meetings. This has resulted in a long-term bias in the Cred scores: the top slots have usually been occupied by developers, who naturally do most of their work on platforms. However, other kinds of contributions have been under-recognized.
However, in recent months usage of the #props, #didathing, and #meeting-notes channels in Discord has gone way up. As a result, we now have data about off-platform contributions. Using this data, we can correct some of these biases, by re-balancing our Cred towards the props, didathing, and meeting-notes channels. I think of it as a “change in CredSpective”.
If we’re going to re-balance the Cred, we can choose to do so conservatively, trying to move the weights slightly towards being more level. Or we can make an aggressive change, bringing the weights a lot higher and creating a much larger retroactive reward for undervalued labor of the past several months.
My intention is to do a big shift, and to err on the side of over-correcting by being too generous with these channels. I think it’ll be good to see some volatility in the Cred scores; SourceCred is still young, so we shouldn’t be afraid to experiment with new settings. It’s OK if we over-correct a bit; we can always retroactively rebalance things later. Think of it as a reminder not to take our Cred scores too seriously; there’s still a lot of room to improve them!
With all that said, here are the new weights I’m proposing. (You’ll note I took the opportunity to clean up a few other Discord issues, like turning on role-based Cred minting, and rebalancing the emoji weights.)
Channel Weights
| Weight | Current | New |
|---|---|---|
| channel weights | ||
| #meeting-notes | 1x | 8x |
| #props | 1x | 15x |
| #didathing | 1x | 12x |
| #announcements | 1x | 0.1x |
| #random-chitchat | 1x | 0.25x |
| #questions | 1x | 3x |
| #tech-support | 1x | 3x |
| role weights | ||
| no role | 1x | 0x |
| @ community | 1x | 1x |
| @ contributors | 1x | 2x |
| @ core | 1x | 3x |
| emoji weights | ||
 |
16x | 3x |
 |
8x | 1x |
 |
4x | 1x |
 |
1x | 0x |
| all other emoji | 1x | 1x |
Now, for the most exciting part. Here’s the new all-time Cred with the new settings:
| Name | % Before | % After | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| decentralion | 27.7% | 20.4% | −26.5% |
| lbstrobbe | 6.4% | 7.4% | 16.6% |
| wchargin | 12.9% | 7.3% | −43.1% |
| KuraFire | 2.8% | 6.2% | 116.7% |
| s-ben | 6.2% | 6.1% | −1.0% |
| hammad | 4.6% | 5.7% | 22.7% |
| topocount | 2.8% | 4.1% | 43.5% |
| Thena | 1.8% | 4.0% | 121.0% |
| bex | 2.2% | 3.6% | 66.9% |
| beanow | 6.1% | 3.5% | −42.2% |
| joiecousins | 1.3% | 3.5% | 161.7% |
| panchomiguel | 1.9% | 3.5% | 81.2% |
| sandpiper | 1.7% | 3.1% | 89.7% |
| benoxmo | 0.6% | 1.1% | 85.7% |
| dependabot | 1.8% | 1.0% | −41.9% |
| burrrata | 1.7% | 0.9% | −45.5% |
| yalor | 0.7% | 0.9% | 22.7% |
| mzargham | 1.3% | 0.8% | −39.3% |
| eeli | 0.5% | 0.8% | 57.1% |
| youngkidwarrior | 0.6% | 0.8% | 34.5% |
| Jojo | 0.3% | 0.7% | 156.1% |
| cortanav | 0.3% | 0.7% | 139.8% |
| evan | 0.8% | 0.7% | −15.5% |
| ian | 0.2% | 0.6% | 178.2% |
| brianlitwin | 1.0% | 0.6% | −38.8% |
| vsoch | 1.0% | 0.6% | −46.3% |
| kate-huntoon | 0.2% | 0.5% | 181.4% |
| greenkeeper | 0.7% | 0.4% | −49.2% |
| crisog | 0.1% | 0.3% | 175.0% |
| peth | 0.2% | 0.3% | 59.5% |
Past 4 Weeks
| Name | % Before | % After | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thena | 10.2% | 11.5% | 12.6% |
| KuraFire | 8.6% | 10.1% | 18.1% |
| lbstrobbe | 9.2% | 9.9% | 7.6% |
| decentralion | 9.5% | 8.5% | −10.6% |
| hammad | 6.4% | 8.4% | 31.4% |
| joiecousins | 4.4% | 6.1% | 39.8% |
| s-ben | 5.2% | 5.3% | 1.4% |
| Jojo | 3.9% | 4.7% | 20.2% |
| topocount | 5.1% | 4.5% | −11.5% |
| sandpiper | 3.4% | 3.3% | −2.8% |
| eeli | 3.1% | 2.7% | −11.9% |
| kate-huntoon | 1.3% | 1.9% | 49.6% |
| kstone | 1.3% | 1.9% | 42.9% |
| peth | 1.4% | 1.8% | 32.7% |
| panchomiguel | 3.4% | 1.7% | −48.3% |
| Willow | 1.5% | 1.3% | −9.1% |
| bex | 1.1% | 1.0% | −13.2% |
| wchargin | 1.5% | 0.9% | −37.7% |
| Felix | 1.3% | 0.9% | −29.9% |
| dependabot | 2.1% | 0.6% | −69.1% |
| benoxmo | 0.6% | 0.6% | 14.5% |
| prose11 | 1.0% | 0.6% | −36.1% |
| BrianBelhumeur | 0.9% | 0.6% | −31.9% |
| saintmedusa | 0.6% | 0.5% | −18.3% |
| owocki | 0.3% | 0.5% | 82.6% |
| cryptouf | 0.2% | 0.5% | 122.6% |
| monstrosity | 0.7% | 0.5% | −31.7% |
| magwalk | 0.6% | 0.4% | −26.3% |
| Felipe-Duarte | 0.6% | 0.4% | −28.6% |
| youngkidwarrior | 0.5% | 0.4% | −15.9% |
Past 12 Weeks
| Name | % Before | % After | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| decentralion | 12.2% | 11.0% | −10.1% |
| Thena | 9.1% | 10.7% | 17.4% |
| KuraFire | 7.9% | 9.7% | 21.8% |
| lbstrobbe | 7.6% | 8.0% | 5.3% |
| topocount | 6.9% | 6.4% | −8.1% |
| hammad | 5.1% | 5.7% | 12.5% |
| panchomiguel | 6.4% | 5.4% | −14.5% |
| joiecousins | 4.0% | 5.4% | 33.9% |
| s-ben | 5.2% | 5.1% | −2.5% |
| bex | 3.1% | 3.5% | 12.7% |
| sandpiper | 2.9% | 3.3% | 13.1% |
| Jojo | 1.7% | 2.2% | 31.3% |
| eeli | 2.7% | 2.2% | −20.4% |
| yalor | 1.2% | 1.7% | 41.2% |
| kate-huntoon | 1.0% | 1.4% | 44.2% |
| cortanav | 0.8% | 1.2% | 60.2% |
| benoxmo | 0.8% | 1.1% | 38.1% |
| dependabot | 3.0% | 1.0% | −66.8% |
| wchargin | 1.6% | 1.0% | −38.1% |
| youngkidwarrior | 1.2% | 0.8% | −31.4% |
| kstone | 0.5% | 0.7% | 41.2% |
| peth | 0.5% | 0.7% | 37.0% |
| Simple-Poll | 0.7% | 0.6% | −11.3% |
| Felix | 0.7% | 0.5% | −27.0% |
| Willow | 0.5% | 0.5% | −4.4% |
| BrianBelhumeur | 0.6% | 0.4% | −27.5% |
| amico | 0.4% | 0.4% | 6.6% |
| crisog | 0.3% | 0.4% | 25.8% |
| pablomendez-95 | 0.3% | 0.4% | 33.9% |
| lanski | 0.3% | 0.3% | 32.3% |
Past 52 Weeks
| Name | % Before | % After | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| decentralion | 21.2% | 16.0% | −24.7% |
| lbstrobbe | 8.9% | 8.7% | −2.2% |
| KuraFire | 4.4% | 7.5% | 73.0% |
| hammad | 7.1% | 7.0% | −2.0% |
| s-ben | 7.7% | 6.7% | −13.0% |
| topocount | 4.3% | 5.0% | 14.6% |
| Thena | 2.8% | 4.9% | 76.5% |
| bex | 3.3% | 4.4% | 35.2% |
| joiecousins | 2.1% | 4.3% | 109.0% |
| panchomiguel | 2.9% | 4.3% | 46.2% |
| sandpiper | 2.5% | 3.8% | 51.5% |
| wchargin | 3.9% | 2.5% | −35.8% |
| beanow | 4.7% | 2.3% | −50.1% |
| benoxmo | 0.9% | 1.4% | 48.3% |
| dependabot | 2.6% | 1.2% | −53.4% |
| yalor | 1.1% | 1.0% | −2.0% |
| eeli | 0.8% | 0.9% | 25.5% |
| youngkidwarrior | 0.9% | 0.9% | 7.4% |
| Jojo | 0.4% | 0.9% | 104.5% |
| cortanav | 0.4% | 0.8% | 91.4% |
| ian | 0.3% | 0.7% | 158.0% |
| evan | 0.9% | 0.7% | −25.0% |
| kate-huntoon | 0.3% | 0.6% | 124.7% |
| mzargham | 1.3% | 0.6% | −55.9% |
| crisog | 0.2% | 0.4% | 119.6% |
| peth | 0.3% | 0.4% | 27.3% |
| Simple-Poll | 0.3% | 0.4% | 32.1% |
| brianlitwin | 0.8% | 0.4% | −54.1% |
| vsoch | 0.8% | 0.3% | −55.5% |
| amico | 0.5% | 0.3% | −35.8% |
This is a big shift in Cred! Looking at the weights, we can see why. The weights apply multiplicatively, which means a emoji from a Core team member on the props channel is now worth 3 * 15 * 3 = 135 Cred. This is super high! It’s equivalent to 8 merged pull requests, or 33 Discourse likes. These weights will likely come down in the future, for example when we start to use the Creditor instead of Discord channels to keep track of props. (Or, if we keep high props weights, we’ll want to go back and retroactively-props old contributions from before the props channel!)
But for now, we can enjoy some freshly re-biased Cred.
Next Steps
As TBD, I’ve have final say over any weight changes. However, we should start working towards a more decentralized process. As such, I’d like to see whether we have ‘rough consensus’ for these changes. Please share your thoughts: do you think these changes go too far? Or perhaps they don’t go too far enough? If there are no major objections, I intend to roll these out by end of the week, so they’ll be live in our next Grain distribution.
emoji’s from core team would be 405 cred, which is roughly 24 PRs. This certainly holds devs accountable, but I can’t help but scratch my head here.