Gamification in feedback tools has a real effect and a real failure mode. It reliably increases volume. Whether it increases signal depends entirely on what you reward.
Reward contribution quality, not activity
Points for submitting anything produces noise: duplicates, one-line requests, vote farming. Points awarded when a submission reaches a status — triaged, planned, shipped — reward usefulness instead.
The same logic applies to voting: reward voting with a comment, not the click.
Where it works best
Communities with an existing identity — developer tools, games, prosumer software — respond strongly. Enterprise buyers mostly do not care about badges but do respond to recognition, such as being credited in the changelog entry they inspired.
The backfire cases
Leaderboards on a small user base turn into one power user dominating the roadmap conversation. Rewards with monetary value attract gaming almost immediately.
Mitigations: cap earnable points per period, require moderation before points settle, and keep leaderboards scoped by segment.
What to instrument
Track submissions per active user, duplicate rate, and the share of shipped items that originated from a rewarded contributor. If duplicates rise faster than shipped-from-feedback, your incentives are pointed at the wrong action.