over on his fadedpage forums, rfrank asks "what motivates users?"

it's an excellent question, one that deserves a thoughtful answer...

so here's my take on it, which i give partly because i have some
disagreements with _some_ conclusions that roger has come to.

i phrased these all in an affirmative way, so this could be used as
a mission statement (e.g., for my own site, or by others), although
the reverse-phrasing will often have made more sense to people...
(for instance, "i do not want to be asked to do _unnecessary_ work.")

i'd guess that most people would approve of most of my items, so
i'd be interested to hear if anybody would challenge any of them...

***

what i want as a distributed book digitizer...

i want to proof, yes.
i want to format too.
i want to finish pages.
i want to finish books.
i want to smooth-read.
i want to do a great job.
i want to do necessary work.
i want to select what i work on.
i want to have unambiguous rules.
i want to know if i am doing a great job.
i want to know when i am making mistakes.
i want to see solid proof if i've made a mistake.
i want to receive fair credit for work i have done.
i want to work in a system that's very transparent.
i want to work with others who're doing great work.
i want to know my energy is being used productively.
i want to know how to improve the quality of my work.
i want to know exactly what data the system has on me.
i want to be able to challenge the system if acts unfairly.
i want to let the world know when i have done a great job.
i want to let the world know when i have done a lot of work.

-bowerbird