Are Badges still a thing?

[Danj86]

A fellow member mentioned something he wasn't sure about, in regards to badges. I thought maybe it'd be worth asking.

Maybe I'm wrong, but it does seem like there's not as much group activities on the forum as what they used to be. When members take part in these fun activities, they would often be rewarded with Badges. Fun little markers that you can see under the members information and on their profile page. You can still see them, but it seems like when activities do take place these days, Badges are no longer given out.

Which is pretty much my question.

Is handing out Badges for taking part in activities still a part of the SSMB?

That's pretty much the only question I wanted to ask. I figured maybe instead of wasting peoples time with PMs and possibly contacting the wrong person who can't answer the question, I'd openly ask like this. I'm sorry if this isn't allowed. It's not really a bug report or member feedback...

[Tornado]

The problem is mostly that group activities take time, and to get badges they generally need to be run and/or helped out with by a member of staff, and most of the members of staff have been pretty buried under piles of stuff called self-loathing life. Badges in particular and the backend of handing them out is also a sizeable undertaking. For example, I was going to attempt to do another Top 100 (even after the disaster from 2014) last year, but now I work nights and have two cars to work on, so...

 

 

If you guys want to do community events, we're open for suggestions and could probably throw a hat or two in to give a hand with them, but most of us don't have the time to actually run them nevermind conceive them.

 

4 hours ago, DanJ86 said:

That's pretty much the only question I wanted to ask. I figured maybe instead of wasting peoples time with PMs and possibly contacting the wrong person who can't answer the question, I'd openly ask like this. I'm sorry if this isn't allowed. It's not really a bug report or member feedback...

 

[Teoskaven]

I take this is the reason why the Kirby-themed badges haven't been handled yet?

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

2 hours ago, Tornado said:

If you guys want to do community events, we're open for suggestions and could probably throw a hat or two in to give a hand with them, but most of us don't have the time to actually run them nevermind conceive them.

I take it, that admins are often the ones who call the shots on badges and what's allowed to get badges as opposed to mods, correct?

2 hours ago, Tornado said:

 

4 hours ago, DanJ86 said:

That's pretty much the only question I wanted to ask. I figured maybe instead of wasting peoples time with PMs and possibly contacting the wrong person who can't answer the question, I'd openly ask like this. I'm sorry if this isn't allowed. It's not really a bug report or member feedback...

[Zaysho]

3 hours ago, Ini Miney Jovahexeon said:

I take it, that admins are often the ones who call the shots on badges and what's allowed to get badges as opposed to mods, correct?

While you do, and always had to, have staff approval for events and badges, I think it's important to remember that even implementing and keeping track of who gets what is very time consuming and tedious. On top of our duties to the board already, to which we volunteer a decent chunk of our time, we have other things going on in our lives. Badges are meant to be a fun, cosmetic addition to our profiles, given out for occasional events that cater to the community's shared interests (or because occasionally we want to have some fun with people), not necessarily for every little niche thing that comes along. But lately it feels like they are being demanded, typically by the same people who think they are owed them, and it's gotten to a point where just have to put our feet down and occasionally say 'no' both because of the time and because we also have to figure out if the expected turnout is going to be worth the work. If an event really only matters to a select few users, it seems exclusionary; even if they're billed as "open" if the turnout is the same handful of people, at that point it looks like we're giving certain people special treatment because others have no interest in the niche thing that's outside the board's general purview.

This is not to say badges are never coming back, because that's simply not the case. It's something we're still looking at, and eventually the actual awarding of badges will have clearer guidelines. Right now, I think you'll just have to be patient.

 

EDIT: What I'm saying doesn't apply to stuff that we DO owe people, and there are probably other factors involved in getting those done that are a bit out of our control at the moment.

[BlueSky]

I think badges are cool, but if it takes too much effort to make things work I suppose it really isn't worth it if it feels like a burden to get those out. I'm really in no position to ask staff for anything additional effort after all, I'm pretty thankful about the fact this forum even exists. Thanks a lot for that alone!

That said, I find it unappealling when something's already promised and then it's not given, the completely common level considered, be it anything between the sky and the land. I got traumatised about empty promises as a kid. Go figure.

[Chris]

The usage of the awards system has slowed significantly as of late by my request. There are several concerns that I have with its use - most of which will be addressed in the guideline revisions I've been preparing for staff review. Rather than make it a messy transition with events sitting*, I've been asking the staff to slow down on the use of extra functions such as this module until after we've reviewed the changes.

Tentatively, these changes include minimum event size estimations, award quantity, participation requirements and forum restrictions.

As for your Kirby* awards, I'd suggest that you take that up with the event coordinator. I'm being told that we haven't received the list of members for the awards.