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Overview

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Rules

It's OK To:

counter facts attack the logic of an argument defends position

It's not OK To:

attack people, individuals or groups promote violence or illegal activity

FAQ

Points

Our scoring system is constantly evolving and subject to change. Our current system works as follows:

There are 3 kinds of points in Direct Change: Issue Points, Post Points and User Points:

Issue Points: Issue Points are based on the sum of (a) all the importance ratings on Direct Change, (b) facebook activity for that issue, (c) twitter activity for that issue, and (d) valid complaints as follows:

(a) Direct Change Importance Ratings:

Cap	Issue Rating Points	Vote Points (for Posts, References, etc.)
5	25	5
10	10	4
25	5	3
200	1	2
99999	0	1

For example Direct Change users can only designate 5 issues as Most Important (4 stars). Each of those issues will receive 25, and each time he or she votes on ideas for this issue, it will add or subtract 5 points to help bubble the best ideas to the top.

(b) Facebook Points: Issues receive additional points for each Like (5 points) and Share (10 points) on Facebook.

Post Points: Each time a user creates a post, orther users can vote it up or down . Each vote up increases the post's pont value, and each vote down decreases a post's point value. The amount of this increase or decrease is not constant. It depends on how much the user cares about the underlying issue and other factors. For example, someone who thinks the issue is most important could sway a post's point value + or - 5 points, where someone who does not care would only sway the point total + or - 1 point with an up or down vote.

Other factors will also impact a post's point value including:

(b) Facebook Points: Posts receive additional points for each Like (5 points) and Share (10 points) on Facebook.

User Points: User points are calculated by adding the user's post points, vote points, rating points, action points, influence points and bonus points. For example:

Post Points: Every post on Direct Change has a point value. Add up the points from all the posts you created and that's your post score.
Vote Points: Every time you vote a post up or down, you get points.
Rating Points: Every time you rate an issue on the "Most Important" to "Not Important" scale, you get a point.
Action Points: Every time you participate in an action posted on Direct Change (e.g., volunteer, donate, sign a petition, etc.), you get points.
Influence Points: If your post or sharing leads someone else to take an action... you get points.
Bonus Points: There are additional undocumented ways to get points. Help Direct Change be a productive tool instead of another place for disorganized namecalling - and you may stumble upon some of these bonus point opportunities