Contributor Rewards

To sustain our community, we believe it is essential to support our most active contributors. The Contributor Rewards system is our formal process for retroactively rewarding W3PN Members for the valuable work they have already completed.

This system is not for funding future projects. Its sole purpose is to be a tangible “thank you” that recognizes and rewards the valuable contributions of individuals, trusting them to continue creating impact.

How It Works: A Quick Overview

The system operates in regular cycles, which we call “Funding Epochs” (e.g., once per quarter). The process has four simple steps.

The Funding Pool: A specific amount of funds from the W3PN treasury is allocated to the rewards pool for the Epoch.
The Allocation Phase: Every W3PN Member receives 100 non-financial “Allocation Points” to distribute among their peers (you cannot allocate points to yourself). A brief, public justification must be provided for each allocation.
The Weighted Calculation: This is the crucial step. A member’s “influence” in the allocation process is directly tied to the value of their own contributions during the Epoch. Allocations from members who were themselves highly recognized by the community carry more weight.
Distribution: The funding pool is distributed to Members in proportion to their final, reputation-weighted scores.

The Calculation Explained

The system uses a two-pass calculation to amplify the signal from active, recognized contributors.

Step	Action	Purpose
A: Raw Score	First, we sum the raw Allocation Points each member receives.	To get an initial measurement of who the community values.
B: Allocator Weight	We determine the “weight” of each allocator based on their own Raw Score.	To give more influence to the opinions of those who were themselves highly valued.
C: Final Score	We recalculate the scores, multiplying the points received by the allocator’s weight.	To get a final, reputation-weighted score for each member.

A Practical Example

Let’s imagine a simplified W3PN with four members and a $10,000 funding pool.

Alice (core contributor) gives: 100 points to Bob.
Bob (regular contributor) gives: 70 to Alice, 30 to Carol.
Carol (occasional contributor) gives: 80 to Alice, 20 to Bob.
David (inactive member) gives: 100 to Alice.

Phase 1: Raw Scores

Recipient	Points From Alice	Points From Bob	Points From Carol	Points From David	Raw Score
Alice	(self)	70	80	100	250
Bob	100	(self)	20	0	120
Carol	0	30	(self)	0	30
David	0	0	0	(self)	0

Phase 2: Weighted Calculation

We use the Raw Scores as weights for each allocation.

Alice’s Final Score: (70 * 120) (from Bob) + (80 * 30) (from Carol) + (100 * 0) (from David) = 10,800
Bob’s Final Score: (100 * 250) (from Alice) + (20 * 30) (from Carol) = 25,600
Carol’s Final Score: (30 * 120) (from Bob) = 3,600
David’s Final Score: 0

Phase 3: Final Payout

Member	Final Score	% of Total	Payout
Alice	10,800	27%	$2,700
Bob	25,600	64%	$6,400
Carol	3,600	9%	$900
David	0	0%	$0

Why did David’s allocation have no impact? This is a core feature of the system. Because David was inactive and received 0 points himself, his “Allocator’s Raw Score” was 0. The calculation (100 * 0) correctly gave his allocation zero weight. This demonstrates how the system automatically and transparently amplifies the signal from active, recognized contributors.

Why This Weighted Model is Essential

It Amplifies Signal, Reduces Noise: It gives more weight to the opinions of members who are “in the trenches” and have the most context on who is creating value.
Influence is Earned, Not Held: A member’s influence in the system is not static. It must be re-earned each Epoch through recognized work.
It Creates a Virtuous Cycle: Being recognized as a valuable contributor gives you a stronger voice in recognizing others, which reinforces and rewards expertise.