Hi John,
Thanks for this great discussion and also thanks to others here who've raised similar points in other threads since we launched gamification. As you surmised and Laure confirmed, we're working to review and revise our missions and hope to implement some adjustments and changes in the new year. So all of the feedback is very valuable as input for that effort.
Your last comment about the Data Geek challenge is also great feedback (something I'm sure Nic Smith, Mitesh Patel and Anita Yuen, who worked on those missions with us in a collaborative fashion, are happy to hear, as I'm sure is our wonderful badge designer, Jodi Fleischman ). Data Geek is an example where I think we really came close to hitting the nail on the head: encouraging folks who otherwise might not have participated to do so in a valuable fashion, and have fun in the process.
The SCN gamification team has learned a lot over the last months. As one of the few professional communities out there to implement game mechanics at all, we've really had to forge our own path, , and some of the things we thought would happen did so--in spades--while others didn't pan out quite the way we expected. The main thing is: we're listening, watching, evaluating, and taking steps to adjust things to bring a better balance overall.
Keep the feedback coming!
--Audrey