Badges are live.... beta rollout!

No.

This sounds like merits we used to get in Year 7.

I do not wish to be labelled anything without my permission

Too late. The poll is closed.

SHIELDS. Please call them shields. Can we have swords and bows and arrows and crossbows and axes and staffs too?

x

Well, you'll have at least one supporter of that

Why do you bother?

This is just another in the long line of badly thought out developments trying to remedy a problem that didn't really exist.

No matter how badly this goes down it will be hailed as an unqualified success.

Any idea linked to quantity rather than quality is going to end up in carnage. The moment this system is put in place you'll get people spamming in certain forums with what could be deemed helpful but really isn't anything other than an obvious attempt to gain badges.

Well, the report system should pick up on spam in sections like Study Help. And considering Study Help and Unanswered Threads both require the post(s) to be repped, people will gain very little from spamming unhelpful answers.

The report system won't pick up on spam unless you change the definition of spam to include posts which are pre-scripted and factually incorrect. And even if you did extend spam to include these things, how will a moderator judge whether a post is wrong or not? Will they have to research the answer themselves?

Well, if people are posting pre-scripted answers, they presumably won't be relevant to the thread. But I maintain that the fact the higher level badges need the post to be repped will compensate for this - an unhelpful or incorrect answer is unlikely to be repped.

Well, if people are posting pre-scripted answers, they presumably won't be relevant to the thread. But I maintain that the fact the higher level badges need the post to be repped will compensate for this - an unhelpful or incorrect answer is unlikely to be repped.

Well that clearly isn't that case given that someone who has recently posted nothing but unhelpful advice still managed to place in the top 10 of the most repped competition. The person asking the question doesn't know the answer they've received is wrong so they have no reason not to rep it.

The problem in the uni/ucas forums is that it isn't obvious immediately that advice is unhelpful.

Eg on results day if someone replies to a thread about getting into clearing with "call ucas" the user concerned will likely spend 30min+ on hold and a bunch in phone bills before finding out that ucas can't help. They may well rep the person offering that advice before they realise.

The unanswered thread competition resulted in a lot of "help" advising users to ring ucas when in fact there are only a handful of situations that ucas are able to help.

Of course, it would be different for the UCAS & Uni forums, but I don't think the system is being implemented there yet?

I think there's a different opportunity here though. I think it might be helpful for users who consistently provide a lot of help in one area to be awarded a kind of badge that certifies that they probably know what they're talking about, to help members seeking help to filter through information. I don't think this kind of a badge could be automatically allocated, it would need to be allocated by a section moderator. For instance, in the study help forums, people who consistently post high quality and helpful responses (i.e. not 'the answer is 5x') could get some kind of a badge to let users seeking help know that you might be able to provide them with genuine help. Or something.

Honestly, not a fan. With no offence meant, this feels a bit gimicky and unnecessary. We've already got the rep system based on quantitative numbers, we don't need three new systems based on three new sets of arbitrary numbers.

I think there's a different opportunity here though. I think it might be helpful for users who consistently provide a lot of help in one area to be awarded a kind of badge that certifies that they probably know what they're talking about, to help members seeking help to filter through information. I don't think this kind of a badge could be automatically allocated, it would need to be allocated by a section moderator. For instance, in the study help forums, people who consistently post high quality and helpful responses (i.e. not 'the answer is 5x') could get some kind of a badge to let users seeking help know that you might be able to provide them with genuine help. Or something.

So with awarding badges manually, the only way you'd get it if once you're recognised as a credible source? I suppose that works because if you often post helpful stuff then your name gets recognised (I'm sure certain users come to mind when it comes to helpful answers).

I know having an automatic system makes it easier for the staff because they don't have to think about awarding badges on top of all their other duties, but there's always room for exploits. Currently it seems a bit like an achievement list, especially because you've got 'potential' badges faded on the profile, maybe if you don't show what's available it makes users less likely to 'unlock' them all (via exploits) and give themselves an ego complex?