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Do not add micro-privileges

Micro-privileges intrinsically fail criterion #1:

Be desirable for people who have been active on the site for a long time

Micro-privileges are disappointing. This is particularly visible with one of the existing privileges, the 15k (3.5k on beta) privilege to protect questions. This is an oft-repeated scene:

Sweet, I have 15k, I have a new privilege! Huh, what's a protected question?

 

Hmm, ok. Let me go find a question to protect!

 

Huh, why would I ever protect a question? What's the point? <Asks on meta or in chat>

 

Pfff, that's disappointing. I waited so long for this privilege and it's basically useless!

(Or worse, #3 is go off and protect a question that shouldn't be.)

Most of the existing privileges have an effect that's visible immediately. You can observe them passively or quickly find a way to use them, at least if you participate in activities other than asking and answering.

• 100 and below: at this stage, with the discovery of new features, pretty much anything is new. Commenting at 50 makes a huge difference.
• 250: view close votes on your own questions. A common source of disappointment because it's often mistaken for “view close votes on any question”, due to the description.
• 500: access review queues.
• 1k: click on the score and see the breakdown.
• 2k: edit without supervision.
• 2.5k: honestly, who knows about this one? And even if you do, tag synonyms without moderator intervention are kinda mythical. But it's between two privileges that are relatively close, not like the fairly long droughts between 3k and 10k or between 10k and 20k.
• 3k: new close button on questions, reopen ability, close review queues.
• 5k: much more minor, but you'll start seeing tag wikis to review. Still a bit disappointing.
• 10k: see deleted questions, vote to delete questions, /tools, …
• 15k: disappoint!
• 20k: edit a tag wiki without supervision, delete button on negative-scoring answers

If you're going to add more privileges, please make them substantial enough. It should be a feature that can be experienced immediately, or at least soon after getting the privilege. It doesn't have to be an important feature, it can be a cosmetic one, but it should be one that lets the user validate their accomplishment by doing or seeing something.

Do not add micro-privileges

Micro-privileges intrinsically fail criterion #1:

Be desirable for people who have been active on the site for a long time

Micro-privileges are disappointing. This is particularly visible with one of the existing privileges, the 15k (3.5k on beta) privilege to protect questions. This is an oft-repeated scene:

Sweet, I have 15k, I have a new privilege! Huh, what's a protected question?

Hmm, ok. Let me go find a question to protect!

Huh, why would I ever protect a question? What's the point? <Asks on meta or in chat>

Pfff, that's disappointing. I waited so long for this privilege and it's basically useless!

(Or worse, #3 is go off and protect a question that shouldn't be.)

Most of the existing privileges have an effect that's visible immediately. You can observe them passively or quickly find a way to use them, at least if you participate in activities other than asking and answering.

• 100 and below: at this stage, with the discovery of new features, pretty much anything is new. Commenting at 50 makes a huge difference.
• 250: view close votes on your own questions. A common source of disappointment because it's often mistaken for “view close votes on any question”, due to the description.
• 500: access review queues.
• 1k: click on the score and see the breakdown.
• 2k: edit without supervision.
• 2.5k: honestly, who knows about this one? And even if you do, tag synonyms without moderator intervention are kinda mythical. But it's between two privileges that are relatively close, not like the fairly long droughts between 3k and 10k or between 10k and 20k.
• 3k: new close button on questions, reopen ability, close review queues.
• 5k: much more minor, but you'll start seeing tag wikis to review. Still a bit disappointing.
• 10k: see deleted questions, vote to delete questions, /tools, …
• 15k: disappoint!
• 20k: edit a tag wiki without supervision, delete button on negative-scoring answers

If you're going to add more privileges, please make them substantial enough. It should be a feature that can be experienced immediately, or at least soon after getting the privilege. It doesn't have to be an important feature, it can be a cosmetic one, but it should be one that lets the user validate their accomplishment by doing or seeing something.

Do not add micro-privileges

Micro-privileges intrinsically fail criterion #1:

Be desirable for people who have been active on the site for a long time

Micro-privileges are disappointing. This is particularly visible with one of the existing privileges, the 15k (3.5k on beta) privilege to protect questions. This is an oft-repeated scene:

Sweet, I have 15k, I have a new privilege! Huh, what's a protected question?

Hmm, ok. Let me go find a question to protect!

Huh, why would I ever protect a question? What's the point? <Asks on meta or in chat>

Pfff, that's disappointing. I waited so long for this privilege and it's basically useless!

(Or worse, #3 is go off and protect a question that shouldn't be.)

Most of the existing privileges have an effect that's visible immediately. You can observe them passively or quickly find a way to use them, at least if you participate in activities other than asking and answering.

• 100 and below: at this stage, with the discovery of new features, pretty much anything is new. Commenting at 50 makes a huge difference.
• 250: view close votes on your own questions. A common source of disappointment because it's often mistaken for “view close votes on any question”, due to the description.
• 500: access review queues.
• 1k: click on the score and see the breakdown.
• 2k: edit without supervision.
• 2.5k: honestly, who knows about this one? And even if you do, tag synonyms without moderator intervention are kinda mythical. But it's between two privileges that are relatively close, not like the fairly long droughts between 3k and 10k or between 10k and 20k.
• 3k: new close button on questions, reopen ability, close review queues.
• 5k: much more minor, but you'll start seeing tag wikis to review. Still a bit disappointing.
• 10k: see deleted questions, vote to delete answers, /tools, …
• 15k: disappoint!
• 20k: edit a tag wiki without supervision, delete button on negative-scoring answers

If you're going to add more privileges, please make them substantial enough. It should be a feature that can be experienced immediately, or at least soon after getting the privilege. It doesn't have to be an important feature, it can be a cosmetic one, but it should be one that lets the user validate their accomplishment by doing or seeing something.

Do not add micro-privileges

Micro-privileges intrinsically fail criterion #1:

Be desirable for people who have been active on the site for a long time

Micro-privileges are disappointing. This is particularly visible with one of the existing privileges, the 15k (3.5k on beta) privilege to protect questions. This is an oft-repeated scene:

Sweet, I have 15k, I have a new privilege! Huh, what's a protected question?

Hmm, ok. Let me go find a question to protect!

Huh, why would I ever protect a question? What's the point? <Asks on meta or in chat>

Pfff, that's disappointing. I waited so long for this privilege and it's basically useless!

(Or worse, #3 is go off and protect a question that shouldn't be.)

Most of the existing privileges have an effect that's visible immediately. You can observe them passively or quickly find a way to use them, at least if you participate in activities other than asking and answering.

• 100 and below: at this stage, with the discovery of new features, pretty much anything is new. Commenting at 50 makes a huge difference.
• 250: view close votes on your own questions. A common source of disappointment because it's often mistaken for “view close votes on any question”, due to the description.
• 500: access review queues.
• 1k: click on the score and see the breakdown.
• 2k: edit without supervision.
• 2.5k: honestly, who knows about this one? And even if you do, tag synonyms without moderator intervention are kinda mythical. But it's between two privileges that are relatively close, not like the fairly long droughts between 3k and 10k or between 10k and 20k.
• 3k: new close button on questions, reopen ability, close review queues.
• 5k: much more minor, but you'll start seeing tag wikis to review. Still a bit disappointing.
• 10k: see deleted questions, vote to delete questions, /tools, …
• 15k: disappoint!
• 20k: edit a tag wiki without supervision, delete button on negative-scoring answers

If you're going to add more privileges, please make them substantial enough. It should be a feature that can be experienced immediately, or at least soon after getting the privilege. It doesn't have to be an important feature, it can be a cosmetic one, but it should be one that lets the user validate their accomplishment by doing or seeing something.

Do not add micro-privileges

Micro-privileges intrinsically fail criterion #1:

Be desirable for people who have been active on the site for a long time

Micro-privileges are disappointing. This is particularly visible with one of the existing privileges, the 15k (3k on beta) privilege to protect questions. This is an oft-repeated scene:

Sweet, I have 15k, I have a new privilege! Huh, what's a protected question?

Hmm, ok. Let me go find a question to protect!

Huh, why would I ever protect a question? What's the point? <Asks on meta or in chat>

Pfff, that's disappointing. I waited so long for this privilege and it's basically useless!

(Or worse, #3 is go off and protect a question that shouldn't be.)

Most of the existing privileges have an effect that's visible immediately. You can observe them passively or quickly find a way to use them, at least if you participate in activities other than asking and answering.

• 100 and below: at this stage, with the discovery of new features, pretty much anything is new. Commenting at 50 makes a huge difference.
• 250: view close votes on your own questions. A common source of disappointment because it's often mistaken for “view close votes on any question”, due to the description.
• 500: access review queues.
• 1k: click on the score and see the breakdown.
• 2k: edit without supervision.
• 2.5k: honestly, who knows about this one? And even if you do, tag synonyms without moderator intervention are kinda mythical. But it's between two privileges that are relatively close, not like the fairly long droughts between 3k and 10k or between 10k and 20k.
• 3k: new close button on questions, reopen ability, close review queues.
• 5k: much more minor, but you'll start seeing tag wikis to review. Still a bit disappointing.
• 10k: see deleted questions, vote to delete answers, /tools, …
• 15k: disappoint!
• 20k: edit a tag wiki without supervision, delete button on negative-scoring answers

If you're going to add more privileges, please make them substantial enough. It should be a feature that can be experienced immediately, or at least soon after getting the privilege. It doesn't have to be an important feature, it can be a cosmetic one, but it should be one that lets the user validate their accomplishment by doing or seeing something.

Do not add micro-privileges

Micro-privileges intrinsically fail criterion #1:

Be desirable for people who have been active on the site for a long time

Micro-privileges are disappointing. This is particularly visible with one of the existing privileges, the 15k (3.5k on beta) privilege to protect questions. This is an oft-repeated scene:

Sweet, I have 15k, I have a new privilege! Huh, what's a protected question?

Hmm, ok. Let me go find a question to protect!

Huh, why would I ever protect a question? What's the point? <Asks on meta or in chat>

Pfff, that's disappointing. I waited so long for this privilege and it's basically useless!

(Or worse, #3 is go off and protect a question that shouldn't be.)

Most of the existing privileges have an effect that's visible immediately. You can observe them passively or quickly find a way to use them, at least if you participate in activities other than asking and answering.

• 100 and below: at this stage, with the discovery of new features, pretty much anything is new. Commenting at 50 makes a huge difference.
• 250: view close votes on your own questions. A common source of disappointment because it's often mistaken for “view close votes on any question”, due to the description.
• 500: access review queues.
• 1k: click on the score and see the breakdown.
• 2k: edit without supervision.
• 2.5k: honestly, who knows about this one? And even if you do, tag synonyms without moderator intervention are kinda mythical. But it's between two privileges that are relatively close, not like the fairly long droughts between 3k and 10k or between 10k and 20k.
• 3k: new close button on questions, reopen ability, close review queues.
• 5k: much more minor, but you'll start seeing tag wikis to review. Still a bit disappointing.
• 10k: see deleted questions, vote to delete answers, /tools, …
• 15k: disappoint!
• 20k: edit a tag wiki without supervision, delete button on negative-scoring answers

If you're going to add more privileges, please make them substantial enough. It should be a feature that can be experienced immediately, or at least soon after getting the privilege. It doesn't have to be an important feature, it can be a cosmetic one, but it should be one that lets the user validate their accomplishment by doing or seeing something.