[RyJones]

I sent a package of branded stuff to someone once - stuff I bought out of my own pocket at the company store - and got upbraided for sending such shitty gifts. Won't make that mistake again.

I also worked for a startup where we had a handful of users that really went above and beyond reporting bugs. We sent them $25 amazon gift cards as thanks - the feedback was we were being cheap. One of those gift cards has yet to be spent, years later.

[travem]

It's not strictly rational but when you are giving extrinsic rewards, like a gift card, they are not perceived as an added reward but as a replacement. What did they replace? The intrinsic motivation/justification that prompted them to perform the action in the first place.

When the motivation switches from intrinsic (I'm doing this because I'm a good person) to extrinsic (I'm doing this for money) we use a different value of judgment which in this case appears to not have worked as well for you as you would have liked. Instead it may have been better to offer some form of recognition/acclaim to reinforce the intrinsic motivation and promote this behavior. For example helping people on stack overflow rewards you with feeling good about being a productive member of a community; the "reputation" score reinforces that same fact. Now imagine instead of having the reputation score mechanic you were paid 25 cents for every accepted answer instead? Would we have seen the same adoption or would people have not bothered "working" for a few dollars an hour?

[Stormcaller]

Hey, I think sending some cash is cheap too. It is that "you are worth exactly $25" I hate. If it were - - a public thanks, that would be way better than anything. Either send nothing, or do something good. This bug is not major, but as you said "went above and beyond" some cheap giftcard only implies "you got your $25 that you worked so hard for and we are not grateful anymore, it was a nice trade." These people usually do this because they like it.

This is my point of view and not necessarily right nor wrong.