GitHub removed activity streaks

You've Been Played: How Corporations, Governments, and Schools Use Games to Control Us All
by Adrian Hon
Published 14 Sep 2022

It can damage workers’ health, dissolve their financial security, and drain the agency and satisfaction from their livelihoods. And removing workplace gamification can improve lives. For years, GitHub, a code-hosting website with seventy-three million programmers, included gamified daily activity streak counters on user profiles.108 In a fascinating natural experiment, GitHub abruptly removed the counters in May 2016.109 The result? Long-running streaks were abandoned, weekend activity decreased, along with days in which developers made a single contribution. The authors of a study on this event noted: “Any game designer must consider that users may engage with new games in unexpected ways.… Some users may focus their efforts on collecting points and badges to the detriment of the actual content of their activity.… It seems unlikely that [programmers] logging in to make a single contribution to maintain an ongoing streak made useful or high quality contributions.

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.… It seems unlikely that [programmers] logging in to make a single contribution to maintain an ongoing streak made useful or high quality contributions. This sort of behavior reflects an optimization of individual behavior for the sake of the game, and not for the quality of the work.” GitHub swam against the tide by removing its activity streaks, but two years later, it would be bought by Microsoft, a company with fewer qualms about gamification.110 Activity streaks seem unlikely to return, but it wouldn’t be surprising if Microsoft’s various productivity scores were integrated into GitHub in the future. Ultimately, workplace gamification misses the point.