I wrote a while ago on the topic of implicit versus explicit voting by users; depending on how hard an action is to take, you can measure and model the data about it differently, and being aware of the distinction is important when trying to create prediction systems, analytics, site improvements, etc.

This topic has come back up in a recent post on Sexy Widget which looks at how the simplicity of foursquare’s check-in concept makes the pyramid of engagement (above) more accessible to users. This is good, because the higher up a user goes, the more they get involved, which leads to useful things like: stickiness, community, evangelism, fans, virality, better and clearer data, better conversations, more customers, etc. (Depending what your site needs and values, of course.)

The interesting thing here is the shift from simple one-click actions carrying limited, passive-voting data to carrying far more implications thanks to the wider context of the action. The more we encourage such low-level activity and plug it into a bigger picture, the more data and benefits we can reap from it. So: think about how your app or service can encourage users to take simple-yet-meaningful actions, to explicitly vote for stuff in actions that previously were mostly implicit, and you’ll get better information about your users as a result.