For example, take the comment section of the post that was sitting at the top spot of the /v/all when I posted this. Every single response (at least right now) is a low-effort, low-content one-liner joke just rehashing the content. I'm sure these are people just trying to up their comment contribution points.
By strongly incentivizing reaching 20 or 100 CCP, people will try to comment whether or not they have something to say. For a lot of people, that means posting anything they can, over and over, until they reach that sweet, sweet threshold.
This works great for a small community! People become involved and aren't afraid to comment or fear rejection. Except when that community grows—especially when it grows rapidly—now peoples' voices are being drowned out by a whole lot of junk. It's becoming quantity, not quality.
Encouraging discussion and limiting the down-vote-filter are two of the site's strong points. Still, I wonder if there is a way to incentivize meaningful contributions.
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[–] [deleted] 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago (edited ago)
[–] Ujo [S] 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago (edited ago)
Right, but shouldn't we incentive upvoting, too? If someone's already said what I wanted to say, wouldn't the community be better off if I just upvoted it, rather than repeating the same point in different words? I'm not saying that it's an either/or situation, but that's the way the incentives are balanced.
EDIT to address your EDIT: I would argue that an upvote is also a contribution.
[–] [deleted] 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago