Young Writers Society

We've been living with badges for almost a month now, and so I'm interested to hear what people think of the badges thus far. Do you like them? Any changes you'd like to see? Is approval too, just right, or too fast?

In particular, do you think the badges are better than having the Instructor & Greeter groups? Or is it about the same, or worse?

One last note, the nomination process will receive an overhaul to a more user-friendly version. The current forums method is merely an intermediate step to something easier to use and thus better.

I didn't really notice any change, things just continued as is, besides that the forums are a little less colourful.

No real problems here.

Kamas

One last note, the nomination process will receive an overhaul to a more user-friendly version. The current forums method is merely an intermediate step to something easier to use and thus better.

Thank you!

I like the badges better than purps and blues. Mostly because it breaks reviewing down and includes storybooks. The storybook inclusion is really something nice, because it rewards people who have writing and plotting knowledge, but might not review.

I don't know. It mostly feels the same, with a few additional things I like. For instance, I like that those who excel in storybooks can now get recognized, and I like that those who excelled in both reviewing and greeting can now be recognized at the same time.

My only problem with the badges is that they're basically only different in colour, so you have to hold your mouse over them to see what they represent. I wish they were more distinctive.

Otherwise, seems fine to me.

Pork

I really like the badges, Nate, although I think Prok has a point. It's not terribly important, since you can tell the badges apart by mousing over them, but if somehow we could find different little symbols for storybooks, reviewing, 1001 posts, and greeting, it might make each badge more easily recognizable. I'm sure we could come up with something for each of them.

But, other than that, they seem to be working well! Thanks.

I like 'em. I already know what each color represents without mousing over them. I don't really care for making them any more different from each other than they already are. Of course, if you have something in mind, go for it!

Overall, I like 'em!

I don't really care for the badge system, but I think that it would be nice to streamline them...a design a little classier, a là writerscafe.org. Something aesthetically pleasing.

-Kylan

I don't actually like them better than having instructors and greeters for one reason and one reason only. The colours of our names helped the new members know who to come to with questions. I can't tell you how many messages I got saying something along the lines of "hi, I'm new here and I saw you were an instructor, I was wondering _____."

I love the badges because they give members a reward that won't go away if they leave the site for a while. But I always felt that being an instructor or greeter was sort of more than instructing and greeting, it was also about being a helper to people that were a little lost on the site or confused about the rules. :]

I like them. I do agree that it could be made a little more obvious which is which, maybe with a letter on them - 1K for 1,000 posts, S for storybooker, G for greeter, R1 and R2 for reviewers, perhaps? But that's just a little thing. I think the system itself is working pretty well and it does what it set out to do - creates more level within the site and doesn't seem to evoke feelings of guilt. Plus, if anyone needs help, the mods and JMs are still green and easily found.

I think it's all good. I like that there's no longer the feel of exclusivity that was linked with the coloured names. This way everyone who earns the badge has to meet a very exact list of criteria and everyone can easily read what it is. There's no longer the ambiguity of the rank or the disapointment and questioning of why an application was refused. There also isn't the need for moderators to review application forms, another minor plus.

Eh. I never felt there being an exclusivity previously, and as for an exact list of criteria that everyone knows, that was there before too and only a few people have the badges right now anyway, so it remains a select group. All that's changed is that it's less obvious and I don't think it's all that deserved actually, I think I've seen a few people say 'I'm nominating so and so, they're the only one I know' and I get the feeling some names are being repeated for the sake of it...

But that's not the point here - I don't think they're worse or better, honestly, they're essentially the same except now, for me it feels like there's no system whatsoever (which might not be such a bad thing - I'd be fine with it actually) because I don't bother checking to see what badge someone has by mousing over the little symbols. If they're there, they're there...that's all. I'm just lazy like that - if I weren't a mod, and thus involved in the process, I don't think I'd have a clue who had what or why. Not very helpful I know...I should probably not respond to things beyond midnight haha...Right, I'm off to bed!

I love them! Unlike having instructors and greeters, the badges offer an obligation/pressure-free way for members to feel rewarded and achieve that sense of accomplishment for contributing to the site. I remember that, in my very first month on YWS, I was so worried that I wasn't an instructor yet, and I thought that I needed to be in order to be recognized as a worthy opinion. I tried out to be an instructor within those first few weeks. It made me feel left out...I mean, it was almost like a clique in high school, the way it felt. Then I started noticing that members who had joined around the same time as me were becoming instructors and greeters, and that just made it worse. Obviously I got over it right quick, but I can imagine the same thing scaring away less determined new members, which would be a bad thing, clearly.

My only qualm about the badges would be that there are only five. I think that there must be a ton of badge-worthy things that deserve recognition that we simply haven't thought of yet. That being said, I have no idea where to start. But I'm patient, and will be sure to suggest anything I come up with.

I like the badges and the recognition they give people. I do echo Prok and Evi in that they are all sort of the same and thus not too interesting visually. But that's just an aesthetic thing.

By the way, I agree with everything Jiggity and OverEasy said. To what Kitty15 said, there are people who are nominated that don't meet the technical criteria for certain things. Maybe in the new nomination process, if someone doesn't meet the criteria, they could get an error message, like, "this person cannot be nominated" or something, which I think would make the workload of mods a lot easier. Don't know if you were already planning something like this, but I figured I'd just throw it out there.