Note: the AC has reposted this in a new thread: https://www.neopoet.com/forum/25082. Comments are closed on this old thread.

Original text:

This is the discussion thread for the recent proposal by the AC (https://www.neopoet.com/community/news/proposal-the-lab)

“The Lab”

[Note - this first paragraph was updated on June 23rd]

This is proposal to create a different and unique workshop called "the Lab".  Poems posted in the Lab will also appear on the Stream, but with special status.  They will be by poets who have offered thoughtful comments to submissions in the Lab  (praise, critical reviews, suggestions etc). The goal is to encourage responses, which is the best reward and feedback all of us poets can receive from an online workshop.  The lab is open to all.  Here's how it works:

Details:

About “The Lab”

• Poems in The Lab would still go to the stream and would act like any other poem. Neopoet would try to make poems in The Lab especially visible however - this may take the form of color coding, a badge, a special front page block that shows several recent submissions to The Lab, etc.

Submitting to “The Lab”

• In exchange for 3 “credits” a member can submit to “The Lab” – to be detailed later in this proposal
• Submissions to The Lab will only be allowed every few days (initially once per 5 days; threshold can be changed by a vote of the AC).
  
  • The existing 1 (non workshop) poem per 23 hours limit will be unchanged – for a submission to The Lab, essentially the more restrictive of the two would apply. For example, after posting a poem to The Stream, one could post to The Lab a day later. A day after that, one wouldn’t be able to post to the Lab again, however one could still submit a second poem to The Stream.
• There will be a checkbox in the current "submit poem" page that will opt a poem into "The Lab" (near the options for contests, workshops, co-author)

“Credits”

• When members post comments (on any poem – including poems in The Stream or in specific workshop), they get 1 credit per comment/critique
  
  • Exceptions:
    • Posting a comment on your own poem
    • In addition, the AC may vote internally on new conditions from time to time, such as a word count limit
• Over time, the AC will define the qualitative and quantitative (such as word count) eligibility for a credit - initially the bar will be set fairly low (i.e. all substantial comments are eligible)
  
  • In cases of specific and repeated abuse, the AC can restrict a member's eligibility to submit to The Lab, either temporarily or permanently
• In time [this may not be part of the initial implementation due to the complexity] Advocates (and the submitter for a particular comment) can see if a comment has earned a credit. Advocates can "downvote" a comment if it is deemed not eligible according to qualitative criteria set by the AC - a certain number of downvotes will cause that comment to lose eligibility (and the owner to lose a credit)
• Each existing member starts with a blank slate: zero credits. Comments start accruing credits when the proposal is implemented
• Each new member starts with a number of credits to be determined by the AC - initially, as an experiment, we will test 3 credits, and will then test zero credits, to see how this affects new member retention

[Update: we've added an example timeline that showing a member, who is trying to aggressively post as much as possible, would be limited by both the "23 hour" rule and the 5 day timer - this illustration assumes the member is not limited by credits] Example timeline: https://www.neopoet.com/sites/default/files/faq/TheLab-TheStream-Timelin...