User awards

[Kaneki 1,072]

I'm not sure if we have this already, or if it would seem like a bad idea or not, so feel free to say no if you need to.

We all like to feel good sometimes, and to be encouraged. It's just human that when we feel good, things tend to go more positively for us mentally, and emotionally. That said, have you guys thought about launching some sort of user award thing to showcase shining examples of users on the forums? And I'm not necessarily talking about like some award, but perhaps recognition on an awesome thing the user has done to contribute to the forums. Perhaps have different categories on different accomplishments or activities, to widen everything. If just the right person gets one and is having a bad day, it would really cheer them up, and encourage more people to perhaps go out of their way on the forums - not all, but some!  

I can understand why this would possibly not be a good idea, but I wanted to get your guys' input. It wouldn't even have to be held by the staff, if that's a problem, but I can see it being a better idea if the staff choose it.

[TwilightPomegranate 324]

I think this a good idea, and the forums would be an amazing place to do it!

 

Sorry Kyoshi, looks like I'LL get the prize for "Best Signature Maker" Heheheheh...

[Jeric 46,834]

User awards you say? 

 

Pssst ... Admins and Mods ... Pssst

@PathfinderCS @Fhaolan @Yellow Diamond @Fresh Nonsense 

I recall a staffer with an adorable hummingbird filltering around her incessantly creating a little something something about this very concept. I recall that it had some promise, but technically tricky. Is this something that the new board's architecture will allow to be revisited?

> Realizes I may have to go into the witness protection program now

To the RFC where they will never think to look. 

 

 

[Ruddboy Olaf 10,627]

You mean something like wiki badges?

Edited April 20, 2017 by Panzy

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 40,228]

15 minutes ago, Turquoise Tomorrow said:

Sorry Kyoshi, looks like I'LL get the prize for "Best Signature Maker" Heheheheh...

You probably would, to be honest.

 

Anywho, depends on what it would be about. The only bad thing is the inevitable opposites where some users might feel left out of the equation, comes with the territory of anything that at all be considered competitive in any way. I guess that is human nature.

 

[Jeric 46,834]

1 minute ago, Kyoshi said:

You probably would, to be honest.

 

Anywho, depends on what it would be about. The only bad thing is the inevitable opposites where some users might feel left out of the equation, comes with the territory of anything that at all be considered competitive in any way. I guess that is human nature.

 

This is true, however I think when combined with unique events/contests, and the leaderboard concept, we may be able side step some of the hurt feelings. 

Also you make good sigs Kyo, I grab one quite often.

 

#needdetectiverarity 

[Rikifive 23,472]

Not a bad idea to be honest.

There could be some awards for participating in unique events and such. Kinda like there was an MCM donor badge, but it could be that tiny icon displayed below the rank. Besides that, it would be a nice way to award great artists and such. There could be some contests as well.

Another problem I see, could be a potential spam with these. If there would be events, where you could get awards happening pretty often or if there would be many possibilities to get those, it could get really spammy after some time. Many users would have tons of little icons, that would be drawn all over the place in threads giving a slightly messy look. Imagine tons of shiny icons below the badges. However, if that would be fairly balanced, then it could look nice.

 

Personally I don't mind if there will be awards or not, but generally the idea isn't bad.  

Edited April 19, 2017 by Rikifive

[碇 シンジン 27,427]

I think if its implemented well it could really benefit the forum and give people something  little fun to participate in. Though i feel that it largely depends on how it is implemented so it could have more positive and encouraging effect on the community rather than something that encourages competition too much and breaks the friendly atmosphere I think forum like this should have.

[General Solar Magus 469]

I'd vote against it. The forum already has a very nice vibe going, and adding some kind of achievement system will cause users to want the status more than actually enjoying themselves. 

Remember the episode when we met Trixie, and Twighlight was scared to compete against her because she may look like a self centered boaster like Trixie was? Twightlight eventually learned that it's okay to be proud of your accomplishments, so long as you don't rub it in.

It's not what you have, it's how you use it .

The same concept applies to life.

 

I've probably gone too deep, but you get my point XD.

Edited April 19, 2017 by General Solar Magus

[Le Trotteur Sauvage 13,049]

4 minutes ago, General Solar Magus said:

I'd vote against it. The forum already has a very nice vibe going, and adding some kind of achievement system will cause users to want the status more than actually enjoying themselves. 

Can't agree more. You don't need to know who is the best on which category, we just here to enjoy and, we already know which user is already popular and which one is not

[Jeric 46,834]

Interestingly enough, part of me agrees with @General Solar Magus and @TrotteurFuneste on a few of their points regarding the competitive nature of people and on popularity. We unfortunately see the negative side of it in this very topic with an unsolicited challenge that did impact someone's overall enjoyment of the forum. If I saw more of that nonsense, I would be right with you saying, "hold off on this.'

That said, even though the brohoof and post count always threatened to become a popularity contest, I've know the top contributors of those specific stats for a while and I've never seen or heard them mention having 'x' posts or 'y' brohoof as a source of pride. Hell, I've never seen those individuals talk about their standing once. That tells me that for every Trixie there are far more Twilights. 

Another thing to lend some weight to my trust of this community. The staff sneakily turned on the Leaderboard feature with no fanfare. There wasn't a peep out of the users here, even though the system can lend itself to ... uncomfortable moments of boasting, I have yet to see anyone say "Yay me ... I got first place today!" 

So, seeing that we've already had features that could lead to annoying boasting, by and large we haven't. That makes me lean on something I've said for years, bit this is the first time it isn't directed at the staff;

Trust the community to do the right thing. Trust the users. 

 

Hnmm. I wasn't a huge fan of posting this (because my name is apparently in it for some sort of favorite staffer thing) and whenever it came up I pulled the fastest damn disappearing act you'll ever see ... but the users did run a few award based contests before with tacit staff approval. 

2015 MLPF Awards

No drama came from that either. If a user wanted to do that again they could, assuming that staff didn't change their mind in the years that followed. 

I'm my mind, these aren't the awards I meant when I was talking about ideas being floated around by staff about a year ago. This kinda thing is fine I suppose. 

[General Solar Magus 469]

@Jeric Your right that in what you said that there are many Twightlights for every Trixie. 

It's true that close to no one in this community would actually bother about "having the status", and that's a really cool thing. That's why it would be okay for this community to have such a system, because it would be used playfully and not argumentatively.

The main reason I guess for 'not' making such a system (and not my previously stated one about boasting [which is admittedly wrong XD]) would be that if the community would take it so lightly or not at all, then why even put one in place? The answer, for fun .

Either way, this community itself wouldn't change so it really is just up whether or not we would want to have a fun kick out of it .

[Rikifive 23,472]

Competitive nature... Popularity... These are good points.

It happens extremely rarely, but I had an occasion to see some disputes happening in contests, especially when hosted and judged by normal members. Not on these forums of course. You see, when somebody loses and disagrees with that, then the chaos begins...

Though the bigger problem is popularity. As silly and harmless as it seems, it's a pretty sensitive subject for some people. @Jeric mentioned '2015 MLPF Awards', which reminded me of exactly the same thing, that happened somewhere else. While it was a great time to say good things about people and everybody in the thread was nice towards each other (complimenting, nominating etc.), it had its dark sides. The negative emotions were noticeable, especially in ones, who tried their best, yet they weren't skilled enough, therefore didn't had enough friends. Some people have expressed their opinion, that they don't like that idea, as it's a simple popularity contest. There were some troubles with that as well. Seeing everybody happily saying good things about the others, while just sitting back and being 'out of the range' was triggering not-nice emotions for some members. Anyway, that really was making me sad, while it should do the otherwise. It wasn't that bad, don't get me wrong, it's just a tiiiny thingie to consider. On these forums people like other people and that's what is the most important. Somepony having one or two amazing friends can't be worse, than somepony having some kind of a fanbase, rather than true friends. On these events, sadly the quantity overcomes quality, though if approached properly, it doesn't really matter. Sadly, not everypony approaches that correctly. On the other hoof, as I said, it's a great time to appreciate the hard work of the staff members and the 'niceness' of the others, so it has its pros and cons.

 

Though awards focused on participating in events would be much less harmless I believe, though it still depends.