OK Now you are just confusing me, is this some sort of strange alternative reality kong that I am not aware of?

Seriously.

I want to know.

You’re absolutely right. The patterns that we published definitely have an ‘online community’ bent to them (rather than gaming, and when you think about what Yahoo! typically produces, it probably makes sense.) In fact, Josh Porter specifically asked me about Gaming-Vs.-SocialSoftware rep systems tho’ it didn’t make his final edit (I suspect because it was a long and lame answer) — I posted that response on my site: http://soldierant.net/archives/2008/06/the_bokardo_intervie.html

And, I hadn’t realized until I read this, but you’re right — the interview at least, and possibly the patterns themselves seem to imply that there’s value in honing in on ‘the one RIGHT’ pattern to employ, but I agree — sometimes the right pattern may be several, additive ones. (This was kind of implied in my praise for Yelp and their numerous ways to reward good review-writers, as ‘Funny’ or ‘Helpful’ or just ‘First to Review’.)

And I think we’d probably agree, too, on your assertion that it’s okay to use “all of them” (reputation types or patterns) in social gaming. Remember, because our focus is online communities (many of which are non-competitive in nature) we caution those designers to stay conservative. That was part of the impetus to also publish a ‘meta pattern’ (the Competitive Spectrum – http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/pattern.php?pattern=competitive ) … to remind community designers specifically that they’re NOT designing a game, and probably don’t have that lateral range of motion that a game designer would.

Great points all around – I especially enjoyed the “Why One is Never Enough” bullets… Looking forward to the next post on Kongregate! (Subscribing to your feed now…)