Summary
Around YWS, you see people in six different colors (seven counting the default blue). Those colors represent ranks, and this proposal is about replacing the Instructor and Greeter ranks with a badge system. I've included what the badges will look like below:
- badges.png (11.65 KiB) Viewed 1243 times
Why would we do this?
There are a lot of good things about the current rank system. I like how it provides members with recognition of their hard work, and how it allows all to easily spot someone who may be helpful. But, there are issues as well.
The primary issue is that the ranks cause stress. Upon becoming an Instructor, one feels a duty to review. This may sound good, but it's not. Eventually, life gets in the way and reviewing goes by the wayside. When this happens, one feels guilty. As one feels guilty, he/she begin avoiding YWS. As a result, we lose an excellent member who otherwise may have stuck around. I get an e-mail at least once a week to this effect, and that's just those who contact me.
Moreover, badges will still provide recognition. And since badges don't carry a duty with them like a rank, we won't have so many excellent people ditching YWS anymore.
There are other reasons of course as well. One reason is just to simplify matters; if you've noticed, there's been a trend since the new YWS opened to make things simpler. Yet, the primary reason is just to get rid of stress. YWS should be about fun and helping; not stress!
How would the badges work?
The badges would be managed by a nomination process open to all. We'll have a forum for nominations, and in that forum there'll be a thread for each badge. Once any user receives five nomination, the nomination will then be sent to the JMs and mods for final review. The final review is meant just to ensure against abuse (such as popularity contests).
Outcome of Poll
As with all major changes on YWS that cause some controversy, a super-majority (60%) is necessary for passage. The poll will remain open through January 6, 2010 (my time, US East Coast).
Gender:
Points: 11417
Reviews: 425