Shortly after I updated my MacBook Pro to 10.5.7, Safari began constantly crashing – refusing to stay open for more than a minute or two, even when I only had an empty tab open and wasn’t interacting with the browser at all.

I’d mentioned earlier that I was hoping to incorporate the “achievement” reward model from videogames for our Community Almanac project at work. I think I made a good case, but it’s looking likely that the concept of Deeds is on the chopping block (for now).

The discovery this week that Hunch has a variation of this approach (to say nothing of Slashdot’s announcement today) convinced me to go ahead and write down the list I’d pitched, in the event that it’s interesting to anyone else.

We’re currently working through speccing out the next round of changes for the Community Almanac, a site we’ve produced in conjunction with the Orton Family Foundation.

One of the challenges we’re working through is how to provide better ways to guide users through the ladder of engagement: to move from passively viewing the site, through providing feedback on content, all the way to being a leading participant and real resource for the Community Almanac.