Squidoo

Squidoo just released a barrel full of (no, not monkeys) new systems designed to plus your experience on our site.

Plus? Yes. Squidoo, plus an innovative new system of experience points and Levels. Squidoo, plus trophies. Squidoo, plus Quests. Squidoo, plus new opportunities for you to do more, learn more, get found more, publish more. Plus.

What you're seeing right now is just the first phase of a very sophisticated new system that we will be continuing to build out and release in phases over the next few months. We believe the opportunities we can unlock for lensmasters, newbies and saltydog veteran Squids alike, will be pretty significant.

In this first launch, you will notice several new features that are designed to give lensmasters of all levels bitesized, motivational, real time feedback about how to thrive. It's kind of like a new roadmap for learning and 'play' on Squidoo

New features you will see

An Experience Points system

You earn points for doing good things in the site. You earn a few points for doing small things, lots of points for doing big things. Earn enough points and you Level Up. You don't always earn points for doing something, and you don't always earn the same amount of points that you received the last time you did the action.

A Levels system

Levelling up is a helpful way to track your own progress through the site, since Levelling is basically an algorithm of doing good things, ranging from Participation to Publication to Promotion. When you gain enough experience points you Level Up, which unlocks new 'items 'for you. The best way to think about items that a user can unlock is this: They are opportunities. Opportunities to do something more in the site, opportunities to give someone something, opportunities to get and use something. At lower levels we will unlock tools and opportunities for learning something new on Squidoo and for making your own lenses better. At higher levels we will unlock promotion opportunities, quests, and more influence.

Inquiring minds wonder: Is this a game?

Squidoo is a web platform for you to publish the best content you know how, and enjoy the boost your pages get from being part of a very successful, active community.

And now you're seeing monster trophies, +points, Levels and Quests. When did Squidoo become Farmville?

Fair question. Only, Squidoo's not a game. Not classically so. We know that. It's a site that very talented people use to publish pages about their interests, hobbies, passions, jobs and more. You don't join Squidoo in order to play a game, you don't publish a lens in order to 'win' something.

What we've come up with is a system that helps users of all levels learn and publish and interact with these pages (your pages) even more. These systems are drawing from eons old theories about human motivation and learning. They're also taking into consideration a lot of what we've heard and understood from our lensmasters over the years. And, yes, mixed in, game mechanics that probably feel familiar to anyone who has ever played any kind of game.

What's innovative about this is that no web publishing platform has ever ventured this far into game mechanics to fundamentally help people achieve their goals. It's one thing to slap a badge on someone's page, introduce a new leaderboard and call it a day. That's just flair. It's another thing to support the core behavior of people on the site, and leverage that for them, to their own benefit.

I'd encourage you to make your own game out of Squidoo. Don't just roll the dice and try to get points and see what happens. Set your own win state -- is creating 100 amazing lenses a win for you? Is making $500 a month a win for you? Is changing people's minds with an important debate lens a win for you? Great. Then play that game and win on your own rules. I think our platform can help you do that.

Or, ignore the new stuff and just keep creating pages on things you love. If you don't care about unlocking a new trophy, or celebrating your 75th lens, or unlocking a Quest that can teach you how to do something new, then ignore it.

Here's what I think. I think we all play games because there is intrinsic satisfaction, even joy, in mastering a skill. We like to learn new things and we like to do well at them. The new systems and tactics on Squidoo have a win state of awesome, active content. We're not trying to get people to click on treasure chests or sit at slot machines. We're guiding them to mastery of specific skillsets on Squidoo. This is as good as reason as ever to do this: We're helping people feel good about creating great content. I'm pretty proud of that.

Poll

It's not really about the trophies, of course. This is just a fun question!

Tips and Tricks

How to get trophies