ca patron icon request...ideas?

[Jason Manley]

Heya!

I would like to have an icon for those peeps who show support of what we are all doing around here that could go in the user profiles as a show of thanks. I was wondering if you all have any thoughts or suggestions. The best smilies came from ca members and I was wondering if u all thought this was a good idea...or had ideas.


1. donated!
2. downloads!
3. workshop!
4. all downloads! (Francisco...Benzo...I know there are others too!)
5. workshop/download
6. paintover master!
7. crits - the eye icon is occasionally given for this.
8. workshop/download/donated
9. I got a job by participating in CA! (there are ton of these peeps!)
10. what else?


Kind of one way to think of it is like achievements for xbox live...except not for wasting time but education, improvement, sharing, and success.

I dunno...sometimes little things matter...and are a good way of showing thanks.




Jason

[Jason Manley]

another idea is a star with a five on it and a star with a four on it for those who get the thread recognition too. hmmm...what else...

[Hyskoa]

Problem would be that you'd have some people a giant list of sometimes matching icons.
Instead, maybe use this system. If a person does one of these things, they get a certain number of points and then you get a corresponding single icon according to what points you have. If you then click on the icon, it shows a list of accomplishments.
So one could go from a black star or other base value all the way up to a gold star with a nickname/name matching the color of the star to put further emphasis on the importance of that member without cluttering up the forum's personal information sections.

[yoitisi]

hehe I second what Hyskoa mentioned there...ahem. I think having a sort of 'medal case' roll down menu might work best for it combined with an icon thingy, otherwise threads will start to resemble christmastrees very quickly :P

More practical, there is only limited space for characters in ones users' subtitle, something we found out when trying to put in the winners icons for the weekly activities. The icons of three activities fills this out, unless someone already has a written usertitle too. If I remember correctly, the eye symbol is a whole lot of html code in that line as well (it's also no longer being given out I think).

Anyway, some ideas for it...uhm..

- Something to show whether you're working in a studio/full time job - freelancer - student? A for-hire sign?
- Something related to the amount of Thanked posts?

[Hyskoa]

Or maybe this structure, 3 symbols,
1) All your accomplishments, maybe a star with a number on it or so to indicate amount of accomplishments and when clicked on, points you towards a page with all the accomplishments in a list (this way you save some bandwidth on not having to load every icon on every page.)
2) Donor status (when you hover over the symbol it shows how much was donated or how often, or if you want to preserve a bit of privacy, add in the black to gold star/dollarsign system here).
3) Current status of the user (Seeking work, employed, freelance, student, ...)


That way, you'll never have more than 3 symbols.

[Slash]

I second an "employment status" icon, making it easier for potential employers to check if that person is available for inhouse/freelance/whatever.

I'm a believer in having to earn achievements. Getting recognition for spending power isn't something i particularly care about. After a little spree yesterday i have most of the downloads, but i don't feel like i should be recognized for that. I like the idea of recognizing teachers, aka people who are helpful and share their knowledge, like the eye icon these days. I also like the idea of recognizing thanked posts, but it seems sort of redundant since there's a counter to the right clearly stating how many times you've been thanked. Workshop attendance could warrant some badge, since it takes more than just spending power to go. a prague fairy, amsterdam joint or austin cowboy hat.. :P Or maybe a SF tenderloin? haha.


The argument against clutter makes sense to me, having a rolldown or something would be great.

Bottom line, i think achievements should be earned, so buying, postwhoring and such doesn't necessarily warrant any stars in my book. Being helpful and nice, and actually make an effort for the community earns most respect in my book.

[Crass]

I can see where you are coming from with this, but I have to ask, will it really make the community a better place? There are people who dedicate time and effort to communities like this and who do make them a better place and they do deserve some recognition for it, but I think stuff like that usually works itself out. It tends to be fairly easy to make out who these people are in a place like this, even without a badge that says "I'm a good guy", isn't that even more of a merit?

[Ninjerk]

How about challenge winners (weeklies and site-sponsored contests) get a little badge? The weekly winners could get a little trophy icon and you could have a couple tiers of challenge participation badges (honorable mention type things).

At 10 weekly challenges they could get a light grey fist or something (some symbol of contest or contention) and then get darker symbols at 20, darker at 30, and black at 40.

The weekly winners' trophies could have a number on them for how many times they've won, or it could be a badge that gets some kind of cluster or bough added to it every time they win an additional challenge (I think that's how the Congressional Medal of Honor works here in the states, always thought it was a cool visual reward system).

The site-sponsored contest winners should get a plain black rooster. Yes?!

Anyhow, do you have a tentative size you're looking for or will that change in a big way depending on the system you decide to go with?

[yoitisi]

Crass: Would it be a bad thing to add? I mean, I wouldn't mind having to go in and fix those badges for people who earned it tbh, as it is much more fun work than banning spambots :P Also, it simply makes those people who deserve to stand out more.

Ninjerk: Uhm, you might want to check my usertitle (and those of many others, at that)...the winners icons for COW have been around for ages, and recently all the other activities got one too :P

[Crass]

Crass: Would it be a bad thing to add? I mean, I wouldn't mind having to go in and fix those badges for people who earned it tbh, as it is much more fun work than banning spambots :P Also, it simply makes those people who deserve to stand out more.

Ninjerk: Uhm, you might want to check my usertitle (and those of many others, at that)...the winners icons for COW have been around for ages, and recently all the other activities got one too :P

Well.. It all depends where you go with it, badges for competitions and good work is one thing, but when you start handing out points for personality, it can start becoming a bit strange in my opinion.

I like the "thanks" system, and I think it is something that could be built upon to distinguish people who make many quality posts and people who do not, that way the users decide who gets recognized and who doesn't based upon how they actually act.

[Duq]

Maybe not a medal. But I would like to see wich vids I actually bought and wich not. Without going through all my old email. Just a quick thought

Nice idea btw :D

[stoph]

729454 = downloads..?

[courtyard]

lol stoph...that's what I looked like this last weekend

[stoph]

729497 = donate..?

[daestwen]

haha, stoph, those are awesome. :P

otherwise, here's some ideas jason:

1. Chow/Cow/pow/eow/etc winners (already have this but thought it could be more formalized)
2. Site-wide contest winners (ie Newborn, LMS, ect), as well as "finalist" ones, perhaps?
3. "activity helper" - not for the mods, but for people that are recognized in a certain activity for being really active/helpful/giving lots of crits etc, though I suppose this could also apply for the eye icon - but having achievements for each of the activities would be cool.

Also maybe a misc badge that you can award when someone does something very useful but that doesn't really fall into the normal categories?