This is a simple ask: If an action is taken that would remove points from a user profile, do not remove points once the user’s balance is 0. It only makes sense to reverse points that were previously earned. The current behavior creates an unnecessary “point deficit” for community members, which can happen purely due to changes in community configuration.
Background:
I recently enabled gamification in our mature community that has been live for 2 years. In May, I introduced points for best answers as a new feature for our members. After the first month, I noticed several users with a negative point balance because they had a best answer marked BEFORE we started awarding points. Then, the points they were not awarded for that answer in the first place were deducted when the best answer was changed after we enabled gamification.
In order for those members to get their balance above 0, they will now have to answer two questions whereas all other members starting from 0 only need to answer 1.
NOTE: this feature request could also be addressed by implementing the below idea, which would allow community managers to mitigate this undesirable situation by manually adjusting the member’s points without the need for a fancy API setup.