Part of the fun of a forum is earning some street cred by becoming a frequent contributor.
(By the way, I’m in the role of helping to set up and improve the layout of this forum.)
We have the ability to a) set criteria, to them b) award achievement badges to users who earn them, and c) display the badges next to the user’s avatar on posts and profile.
We can set criteria based on a) how long the user has belonged to the forum, b) how many new topics created, c) how many posts (aka replies) created.
So… Please let me know your thoughts on how to make the system meaningful and fun.
Good names for badges, to show a progression from brand new member to salty old veteran. Given your expertise with knife sharpening, I think you'll have some great suggestions (like 'pocket knife' for nubes, and 'hairsplitter' for experts?)
Good image ideas for badges; we can try to find a workable image based on your ideas, although the images have to be tiny, so there's not a lot of detail available).
I’d prefer a simple system like many other forums have. So based, for example, on number of posts. Themed is a nice idea, but ain’t we making something simple too complex then?
Mark, you dont want to be known as the ninja samurai warrior of sharpening? Josh would be a Jedi for sure…hmmm Jedi Josh kinda has a ring to it. LOLOL
Just kidding it may indeed be too much…I do like the encouragement system to be helpful in posts somehow. Always felt the “karma” thing did that previously for myself.
We’re not able to use the Thanks count, unfortunately. That value (the number of Thanks) isn’t available for the badge system; the badges are only able to use the standard database columns in bbPress. But I agree it would make a great criteria to earn a badge.
I do agree though we need a special badge for the category “Josh”.