currently, you can earn $6 each time you refer another person to use kinopio through a referral or invite link. However, this has a couple downsides:
the net effect is that the most enthusiastic users get kinopio for free, but I’m not seeing a subsequent increase in new user signups. (Not sure of the reason for this)
significantly increases code complexity and decreases maintainability
adds significant enough cognitive complexity and another thing to think about in Share, Upgrade, and UserSettings
the use of this credits feature is pretty low, almost everyone that has earned credits doesn’t have any unused credits outstanding
Ultimately, the feature hasn’t done what it was designed to do. So I’m thinking of removing it.
The other big factor here is that Kinopio should be sticky on it’s own through it’s utility and ease of use like so many other apps which are able to grow without extrinsically/$ incentivizing user sharing
There are other features* which I appreciate more than credits, and sometimes when I share with a friend I feel like they might think I’m MLMing them somehow? I got the lifetime subscription, which also feels weird with the credits. Like what am I supposed to use them for now, lol
*Being able to invite someone to edit a board of mine and that not counting towards their card limit (if I’m understanding correctly) is a really good feature that I appreciate a lot. I’m not sure how it feels to someone being invited, but it feels good to me, like I can invite a guest to my house and they can use all my stuff freely and comfortably while they’re here.
Not sure I understand what you mean by ‘extrinsic motivation’, it feels more like a removal of barriers – it’s only useful when I am already motivated to get someone to collaborate with me in kinopio, but in these cases it is very useful
