The idea of adding forum awards has been circulating for a while, now. Awards are little images that would be displayed underneath your avatar somewhere, and would be given to you for achieving certain things. There are a few different styles of award system, separated by the style of icon.
First, the MapleTowers style:
Spoiler
- The Golden Star. This award will be given out to any member who has done some exceptional work for MapleTowers. This is done at the Administrator's discretion. - This award will be given out at the end of each clan season, by the Clan Leaders. One person from each clan will receive this award, for putting in time and effort into their Clan and for participating in Clan events and contests. - Member of the Month. Various members will be nominated and voted on by staff members each month. - Super Staff! Every single staff member for MapleTowers will receive this award. Whether they resign, or be demoted, this award is theirs to keep forever. Staff include: administrators, moderators, super moderators, graphics leaders and clan leaders. - Just for fun- the Slaves Award. Very often the Administrators can't do everything themselves, and call upon their staff or members to help them out with some work. In these events, the Slaves Award will be given to those members. - This award is given out to members who have referred 5 people. - This award is given out to members who have referred 10 people. - This award is given out to members who have referred 25 people. - This award is given out to members who have referred 50 people. - This award is given out to members who have referred 100 people. - This award is given out to members who have written 1 guide for MapleTowers. - This award is given out to members who have written 5 guides for MapleTowers. - This award is given out to members who have written 10 guides for MapleTowers. - This award is given out to members who have written 20 guides for MapleTowers. - This award is given out to members who have written 50 guides for MapleTowers. - Bronze Award, 25 posts on a 100 post day - Silver Award, 50 posts on a 100 post day - Gold Award, 100 posts on a 100 post day
(Please note, I am a former admin on MT, so I have my own permission to borrow these for demonstration purposes).
The second style would be like Neopets avatars, but awarded for similar things as above:
Spoiler
My preference is the MapleTowers take. They look cleaner, more like awards, and more can fit under your avatar. The 50x50 ones work fine as actual avatar awards, as on Neopets, but as a separate system they are too clunky and chunky. In my opinion, anywho. We can also implement awards for the Contest Team's endeavours, SOTW, post count, trading, Codex events, public holidays... even secret methods. It should be a fun time, and we should kick it into gear. Let's go, people, let's do this shit. Yeah!
Perhaps, though, you have an even better idea? Do share, because lord knows we need some fresh eyes on this place.
Or maybe you think the whole idea is dumb. Post why, you miserable fucks.
I really like the first example as well. I like both but I prefer the MapleTowers style ones because they're cleaner, smaller, as you said can fit nicely in our sidebars, and finally the Neopet's style ones are too similar to a competitor forum. We need to have some sort of originality right?
I like the idea of milestone awards. Post count, registered x amount of years, x amount of guides, participants of this contest/event or that, etc.
And as a regular member there are plenty of user ranks to work towards to. ^^; Now that also contest winners get userbars and the private rank already planned, are awards necessary?
But well, I can see how a retired member would like some new achievements xp
And as a regular member there are plenty of user ranks to work towards to. ^^; Now that also contest winners get userbars and the private rank already planned, are awards necessary?
But well, I can see how a retired member would like some new achievements xp
There aren't going to be userbars for anything more than what there is now.
Awards can be for all sorts of things, easy, medium, and difficult things. I'm not a retired member and I would love to have something like this. It gives people goals to work towards and incentive to be more active in the community...
I don't follow your meaning. Are you saying they don't fit the style of the userbars? Because both of those sets of images are just examples of the size, and (for the MT set) a rough implementation. If we decided to style them the same, we could do that. Easily.
And as a regular member there are plenty of user ranks to work towards to. ^^; Now that also contest winners get userbars and the private rank already planned, are awards necessary? But well, I can see how a retired member would like some new achievements xp
Are there "plenty", though? I see three. Advanced+, Private and Retired. Maybe Jr Programmer, for you. Those things don't reward you for participating in contests, or site events, or graphics, or guide writing...
I don't follow your meaning. Are you saying they don't fit the style of the userbars? Because both of those sets of images are just examples of the size, and (for the MT set) a rough implementation. If we decided to style them the same, we could do that.
Easily.
Yes, I meant style. If we're just talking about style, I think the size of the MT icons is appropriate.
Are there "plenty", though? I see three. Advanced+, Private and Retired. Maybe Jr Programmer, for you. Those things don't reward you for participating in contests, or site events, or graphics, or guide writing...
Three is not plenty but it will take a long while to get there for a normal member. Okay, I get your point though. It's to encourage participation in special activities in the forums instead of overall good behavior (which is covered by the existing user rank promotions).
I'm pretty sure they could be placed in the signature area instead of under the userbars, so I wouldn't worry about how things look against the userbars or with the profile pics right now.
I'm pretty sure they could be placed in the signature area instead of under the userbars, so I wouldn't worry about how things look against the userbars or with the profile pics right now.
Also like Sweeney said, they can be made to sort of fit the current userbars too. The ones he posted in the OP are just examples of size/style.
Yes, I meant style. If we're just talking about style, I think the size of the MT icons is appropriate.
Three is not plenty but it will take a long while to get there for a normal member. Okay, I get your point though. It's to encourage participation in special activities in the forums instead of overall good behavior (which is covered by the existing user rank promotions).
If the userbars take a long time to aquire (which Adv+ really doesn't, but still), then having more minor, intermediate motivators can only be a good thing. Awards should fill this role.
The smaller ones go better, and they should definitely be placed under the user bars, think: pokemon gym badges.
Putting them in signatures would be very irritating - most signatures are too big anyway, really.
I'd definitely prefer to see them under our userbars too. It looks more official that way, right?
If we put them in sigs, well people could claim any award they wanted without actually earning it, lol.
My main reason for voting the way I did is to limit the clutter. If you only have 2 user bars, and 2 forum awards able to be displayed, it won't look as cluttered as some of the other sites that have several different user titles and pages of awards.
I'd definitely prefer to see them under our userbars too. It looks more official that way, right? If we put them in sigs, well people could claim any award they wanted without actually earning it, lol.
Oh lord. They'd not be going in signatures. They'd be awarded with a forum extension, and definitely go somewhere in the side box.
Personally, I think they'd look best between the member title and the userbars, rather than under the bars.
My main reason for voting the way I did is to limit the clutter. If you only have 2 user bars, and 2 forum awards able to be displayed, it won't look as cluttered as some of the other sites that have several different user titles and pages of awards.
That's fair enough. I don't think a single row of either would necessarily look more cluttered than the other. So, I'd rather see more awards in that row than fewer.
No, I don't think that's how they'd work in signatures. There's one of those plugin thingies that gives the mods power to put them in signatures instead of on the side. It wouldn't be people putting them in however they want.
No, I don't think that's how they'd work in signatures. There's one of those plugin thingies that gives the mods power to put them in signatures instead of on the side. It wouldn't be people putting them in however they want.
That's neat and all but I think they'd look waaay better on the side. That's just me though.
Hmm...I don't know. I like how clean and minimalistic Neocodex looks compared to other forums, and I worry that adding more crap the sidebars is going to look tacky. I'm not opposed to the idea of having forum awards in general, just not sure if I want to have to look at them all the time.
Hmm...I don't know. I like how clean and minimalistic Neocodex looks compared to other forums, and I worry that adding more crap the sidebars is going to look tacky. I'm not opposed to the idea of having forum awards in general, just not sure if I want to have to look at them all the time.
That's fair. We might be able to make them toggleable, in the same way you can hide everyone's signatures.
Also the idea of milestones as Kate mentioned is great 
