'But why bother just to produce a 'Most helpful authors' board?'

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I've always been puzzled about the fact that there *is* a 'Most Helpful" and a 'Most Solutions' board.

I know the reasons why such things exist. 

Game-ification.

The pyschology divisiont (all one of him, a part-time psychology under-graduate) of the advertising dept have read that 'game-ifying' something with points, top-of-table etc is a way to keep users on site, and coming back for more, in order to  improve their scores.

BUT.....

Why do ebay want to keep people on the boards?

They've gradually been making it more and more difficult to even find the boards, and the idea of ebay being some sort of 'community' has been slowly brushed under the rug over the last 15 years or so.

ebay would love to just be an automated shopping mall.

Why did they decide to game-ify things to try and keep people hanging around?

Perhaps, once A I can actually get correct answers to questions, the board's plug will finally get pulled...🙁