Q&A support forum/Earn karma points

''The OERu and the WikiEducator community is an international philanthropic collaboration to widen access to free learning opportunities using open educational resources (OER). We rely on your help to support each other.''

''You determine the quality of our support. Through the Karma system users earn rights to perform a variety of moderation tasks:''
 * As a learner, you can reward and thank our volunteers by voting on questions and answers you find particularly useful. This is how our volunteers build reputation and earn "karma" points.
 * Share the gift of knowledge by providing answers to the list of unanswered questions.
 * If you don't find a question you are looking for, you can help future learners by adding your question to the data base.

''In this section we explain:


 * how community members earn karma points, and
 * the reputation system for unlocking moderation features of the software.

How do academic volunteers earn reputation points?
When a question or answer is voted up, the user who posted them will gain points. These reputation points are called "karma points". Karma points serve as a rough measure of the community trust in the user. As community members earn more "Karma", various moderation tasks are gradually assigned to the users based on those points.

For example, if you ask an interesting question or give a helpful answer, your input can be voted up by a community member. On the other hand if the answer is misleading - it can be voted down. Your participation in these community voting activities is important for moderating and improving the quality of our volunteer learner question and answer support forum.

Each vote in favor will generate 10 points, each vote against will subtract 1 points. Over time the best questions and answers emerge through your participation.

Point thresholds for different moderation tasks
The points accumulate provides a rough measure of the community trust in the user. The responsibility level of moderation tasks increase as community trust is earned through participation in question and answer community. The thresholds for different moderation tasks may change over time as our community experience matures. Changes in the thresholds will be determined by the community and updated on this page.

The table below explains the minimum reputation thresholds for increased responsibility and corresponding moderation privileges provided by the software.

How can academic volunteers monitor their karma points?
When you are logged into ask.OERu.org your Karma points are displayed next to your username. Karma points are also displayed on the profile pages of registered users. A list of users can be accessed by clicking on the "People" link at the top right-hand side of your screen.

Users can also access a public history of their Karma from the individual's personal user page by clicking on the "Karma" link which displays a graph and Karma change log.