Forum Badges

[UltraAlt]

People like to ding.

 

I think Forum Badges are a bad idea.

It is going to cause a flood of postings simply to achieve badges.

 

It will also create a caste system by labeling the poster openly and obviously so others can make judgement upon them based on the displayed badge.

 

Wasn't displaying the post count enough?

There was no judgemental attachment to the number of posts.

The badge names obviously imply something by the name chosen. Some "names" obviously have negative connotations.

It would be best not to give someone a badge at all versus giving them one that implies a negative connotation.  

 

--

I'm going to go ahead and say it at this point.

I think adding the thumbs-up and thumbs-down was a bad idea.

I wasn't going to say anything, but, since I'm posting about the badges, I might as well say it now.

 

The thumbs-down is just /jranger without a post.

 

Edited November 16, 2021 by UltraAlt

[wjrasmussen]

And yet you created a post about that.  One question:  Did you get a badge for that?

 

[UltraAlt]

30 minutes ago, wjrasmussen said:

And yet you created a post about that.  One question:  Did you get a badge for that?

 

Yes. Which proves my point.

 

So I have two questions,

why was your reply worded as an attack?

Did I do something somehow to offend you by posting my opinion?

 

But I guess you have the right to talk down to me because I'm just a "newbie" with 864 posts and a reputation of 546, while you are apparently superior being a "rookie" with 425 posts and a reputation of 206.

[Glacier Peak]

I will counter this feedback by saying I enjoy the added depth these new forum badges provide to the forum going experience. Not sure how I feel about the post count being converted from 1,000 to 1.0k, but I can learn to live with the change. I'd also say that having reaction emotes is pretty normal across most social and community websites. 

[wjrasmussen]

4 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

 

Yes. Which proves my point.

 

So I have two questions,

why was your reply worded as an attack?

Did I do something somehow to offend you by posting my opinion?

 

But I guess you have the right to talk down to me because I'm just a "newbie" with 864 posts and a reputation of 546, while you are apparently superior being a "rookie" with 425 posts and a reputation of 206.

Nope, I wanted to know.  Plus, I wanted to see if there is a badge for a reply.  Also, I agree with you.

[UltraAlt]

46 minutes ago, wjrasmussen said:

Nope, I wanted to know.  Plus, I wanted to see if there is a badge for a reply.  Also, I agree with you.

 

Thanks. 

I apologize for being defensive.

Edited November 16, 2021 by UltraAlt

[UltraAlt]

47 minutes ago, Glacier Peak said:

I'd also say that having reaction emotes is pretty normal across most social and community websites.

 

I'm not against the reaction emotes in general.

I'm against the added thumb-up and thumbs-down which I saw removed from various gaming forums several years ago.

[Coyotedancer]

I'm just sort of chuckling about being a "Newbie" after having been here for a couple of years and having made as many posts as I have. 

It's more silly than annoying. 😄

[TheZag]

I dont like the thumbs down but i think the thumbs up is fine.  The one you need to be on the lookout for is @Jimmy ,  he has a knife.  He literally stabbed someone right in the post.

[PeregrineFalcon]

1 hour ago, UltraAlt said:

I think Forum Badges are a bad idea.

Wasn't displaying the post count enough?

There was no judgemental attachment to the number of posts.

I think adding the thumbs-up and thumbs-down was a bad idea.

The thumbs-down is just /jranger without a post.

[wjrasmussen]

29 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

 

Thanks. 

I apologize for being defensive.

Not a problem.

[AerialAssault]

I'll take those badges off you if you don't want them.

[Widower]

Cipher will probably have more to say, but I'll just clarify a few things:

 

- Forum rank/badges are part of the latest Invision update that Cipher did overnight (apparently Invision wanted to replace rep with something else, just without actually getting rid of rep?). We can't really get rid of it. The rank names are the default, I think; if they're editable, they'll probably get changed.

- Also, it should probably be mentioned that what you're annoyed about is rank and badges are a separate thing, but that's just the pedant in me. Badges will probably get COHified a little Soon™.

- The thumbs up and thumbs down reactions were added by request of the devs to make it easier to get feedback. We acknowledge the potential for abuse, but people were already abusing confused and sad to suggest the same thing as thumbs down.

[GraspingVileTerror]

I think that the addition of badges to a forum isn't inherently bad, but it carries a lot of baggage, so it should be implemented with extreme care and consideration.

I don't believe this badge system was.  From what I can see, it was bundled with an update package for the Invision software and ended up getting enabled as a batch job with the rest of the update.

 

If it's the Homecoming Team's desire to have a badge system in the forum, then I think there's a critical question for them to ask themselves:

Is it the intention of the Homecoming Team to encourage users here to treat the forum as a game?

 

If so, then what sort of game design principles are being employed to ensure the badge system doesn't become profoundly detrimental?  Do the GM staff feel they have enough time and resources to address conflicts arising from this game?  Do those who implemented this system feel confident that it will reward the sort of behaviour they're intending it to?

---

Ah.  Posted at the same time as Widower.

Thanks for the clarifications, Widower.

[UltraAlt]

1 hour ago, GM Widower said:

We acknowledge the potential for abuse, but people were already abusing confused and sad to suggest the same thing as thumbs down.

 

Understood.

 

1 hour ago, GM Widower said:

Cipher will probably have more to say, but I'll just clarify a few things:

 

Thanks

 

1 hour ago, GM Widower said:

Badges will probably get COHified a little Soon™.

 

Well, you're still showing as "newbie" so I will have to take what you have to say with a grain of salt 😜

 

[Andreah]

I wonder if it's all working correctly. For example, it only awarded me the 500'th post badge after I posted my 527th post.

[Glacier Peak]

Just now, Andreah said:

I wonder if it's all working correctly. For example, it only awarded me the 500'th post badge after I posted my 527th post.

It may be playing catch up with the parsing.

[VileTerror]

Presumably unrelated to the Badges themselves, this update to Invision seems to have also removed the "Title" feature, and changed the quick-profile pop-ups by removing some of the displayed data in the process.

 

What are the odds of a rollback?  How much of this update had important security features bundled in it?

[Greycat]

... in regards to the OP, the sky is not falling, DOOOOOOOOOOOM is not upon us, there won't be a "caste system" and if someone gets spammy, report it to the mods and go on with life.

 

If there's an option that can be added for people to ignore them, fine. If not... just ignore them.

[Coyotedancer]

39 minutes ago, VileTerror said:

Presumably unrelated to the Badges themselves, this update to Invision seems to have also removed the "Title" feature, and changed the quick-profile pop-ups by removing some of the displayed data in the process.

 

What are the odds of a rollback?  How much of this update had important security features bundled in it?

 

 

I miss my title... 😞

[VileTerror]

You'll always be the Orenbegan Ziggy Stardust Fan, @Coyotedancer.  Title or not.

 

Also also, related to this latest version of Invision ...

I just started a new topic and saw this little box had changed.  What's the "or All / None" thing about?  Those both appear to be clickable, but I didn't get any hyperlink or context clues as to what they'd do.

 

[justicebeliever]

I'm curious about the Ranking system.  Will prior posts be taken into consideration or is everyone starting over?  Seems like the latter at this point, but not sure if there are data shenanigans that'll happen to update it further.  

[VileTerror]

So, Badges and Ranks seem to have disappeared, but the other changes I mentioned above are still present.

[Cipher]

The Achievement systems (Ranks & Badges) were introduced by Invision in update 4.6.x which was included in a set of updates I applied to the forums overnight. I wasn't anticipating this system would be as divisive as it appears to be -- if someone wanted to attribute a form of 'status' based on forum metrics and use that as a basis for judgement, they could have done so through the existing Post Count and Reputation metrics available and displayed on each post already.

 

That said - I understand where you're coming from with your feedback and it's clear that it's something we need to address. Perhaps the discussion we need to have is whether disabling the systems altogether is the right approach or if we can adapt the system to be something that more people are comfortable with. There has been a lot of positive feedback around the new systems as well, so finding a middle-ground that everyone (or at least the majority) are happy with is something we should work towards, if possible. Some of the changes I had already planned included swapping the names and art for the ranks and badges out for badges from the game itself, for example.

 

For right now though, and until we figure out what we're going to do with it, I've gone ahead and disabled the systems. Let's try to keep this thread civil please 🙂

 

---

 

29 minutes ago, justicebeliever said:

I'm curious about the Ranking system.  Will prior posts be taken into consideration or is everyone starting over?  Seems like the latter at this point, but not sure if there are data shenanigans that'll happen to update it further.  

 

The ranking system is started from the day that the update is applied. Because of the way that the point system works, I do not believe it is viable to try and calculate these values retroactively -- and it seems that Invision came to the same conclusion. Badges, however, have a set of rules and triggers associated with them and will automatically be granted next time you interact with the feature related to that badge -- things like responding to threads, posting a new thread, etc.

 

 

1 hour ago, VileTerror said:

Presumably unrelated to the Badges themselves, this update to Invision seems to have also removed the "Title" feature, and changed the quick-profile pop-ups by removing some of the displayed data in the process.

 

What are the odds of a rollback?  How much of this update had important security features bundled in it?

 

We will not be rolling back the updates. These updates included a number of other feature releases, bug fixes, and security patches. Additionally, pinning the forum software version would mean that we are unable to upgrade in the future and receive security patches for new vulnerabilities that are discovered.

 

 

1 hour ago, Andreah said:

I wonder if it's all working correctly. For example, it only awarded me the 500'th post badge after I posted my 527th post.

 

See above -- the badge system works on a set of rules and triggers, and badges that you qualify for will be automagically granted the next time that your interact with the system related to that badge. (Note that this no longer applies as the systems have been disabled; however if they are enabled again in the future, this will still apply).

 

 

34 minutes ago, VileTerror said:

You'll always be the Orenbegan Ziggy Stardust Fan, @Coyotedancer.  Title or not.

 

Also also, related to this latest version of Invision ...

I just started a new topic and saw this little box had changed.  What's the "or All / None" thing about?  Those both appear to be clickable, but I didn't get any hyperlink or context clues as to what they'd do.

 

 

The All and None options there only apply if there are multiple options that can be applied to the thread. If you had moderator status, this would include things like pinning the topic, featuring it, etc. Since you only have one list option here, those links don't really do much.

[GraspingVileTerror]

Thanks for the clarification.

 

Also . . . QUWHA?!

 

Is there now an automatic double-post-condenser in Invision, or did a GM do this manually?

Interesting feature in any case.  Might cause some issues with intentional multi-posts, such as those detailing a series of discrete-but-related elements.