Suggestion for the forum from an old user

[Andredal]

*sits down in rocking chair. Places cane on lap. Picks a up a jug of moonshine*

Listen here boy, I used to be a moderator back in the early days of the internet when forums were made of dreams, and pirating wasn't so gosh darn easy to track. Back probably '02. Maybe even earlier than that. Anyways, badges might be fun. As far as areas inaccessible to newbs, I dunno.

i didn't suggest areas inaccesable to noobs though

[Andredal]

Solid suggestions. The rep system is very popular on a lot of forums and can work here. It is a bit of a double-edge sword: veteran posters may flaunt their "titles," but rep can also keep some shitlords in check especially if they've managed to accumulate a hefty amount, so the fear of loosing "something" may keep peeps in check (possibly).

I do believe that initial EG Site backers may get some sort of forum insignia ... not a 100% sure tho.

It doesn't need to be a badge to bash people, it can be an achievement for longer time users or active users. You can also use this during special occasions. Perhaps like Reddit does it currently

[Andredal]

While incentives might appeal to some what are they going to be based upon and what kind of activity is that going to lead to? If you do it just on posts then we’re gonna end up with a bunch of those lame “first!” posts to people’s comments. If it’s only tied to time, its nice but how much does it add besides bragging rights? If it could be based upon a combination of some of these things it could be useful. Maybe a badge system combining your number of posts and the number of likes you receive? Then we could see if people consider what you say to be relevant.

These are just general ideas. What you suggested is actually a good idea. I don't want people just to spam and get a badge. Something where the mods or admins decide a poster has well thought out meanings or bloggers that get blogger badge. It's just a general idea. I know spamming threads is the last thing i want. I want the posts themselves to be the qualifier, not the amount

[Tom]

Exactly, yet people are losing oxygen because their shirts are too buttoned up, "unbutton that damn shirt! you're gonna die like this!"
It's time TO CHILL and think about things without hypoxia

[LiamC]

Thanks Andredal, I appreciate that. Would like to add one other thing to this conversation. We should have something to indicate who the mods and Admins are. I've not met everyone here yet, is there already a mods badge?

[ad_victoriam]

I don't think it's a bad idea to try and implement some kind of badge or achievement system into the forum. In terms of modern forums that have such a system and do it nicely, you can look at Beamdog:

https://forums.beamdog.com

They give little achievements that use icons from the Baldur's Gate game depending on how long you've been registered.

That said I think that if you want do distinguish yourself visually your best options on message boards are the tools you have at hand - e.g. avatars and signatures.

[trashfire]

Hey guys, I've been using the internet for a long time. I suggest that we call the Forum a BBS instead. Also, we should all log on to the internet using CompuServe or Prodigy.

[LiamC]

Light the fires and close the gate! the trolls have arrived! Well played trashfire, well played. ; )

[Andredal]

I don't think it's a bad idea to try and implement some kind of badge or achievement system into the forum. In terms of modern forums that have such a system and do it nicely, you can look at Beamdog:

https://forums.beamdog.com

They give little achievements that use icons from the Baldur's Gate game depending on how long you've been registered.

That said I think that if you want do distinguish yourself visually your best options on message boards are the tools you have at hand - e.g. avatars and signatures.

that's kind my idea. for the forum at the moment. I do have some ideas for reviews as well but i will do another post for that. But i also think there should be a blog forum and console forums to seperate discussion

[Village Idiot]

I too wonder who the mods / admin are. That said, isn't this about the games. Every gamer playing the same game I would imagine has a different experience. Does how long they've been here or how often they post make their view any better or worse than another view? Would not badges tend to skew perceptions? But what do I know?

[Saskia]

I respectfully disagree. We don't need any form of forum levels, tiers, badges, or any other rewards for participation.

If you're talking to a person or a group of people in meatspace, do you ask for some kind of reward or tchotchke for your comments? No, so why do we feel the need for it in cyberspace? People usually just want these things as a status symbol, to feel more important.

We're all adults here, can't we just talk about games and have intelligent discussions without resorting to using forum status to push our opinions on others?

I prefer quality over quantity. Judge a post on it's content rather than the post count or join date of the poster.

[ethansito]

Be honest, What you really want, is to be able brandish your registration date, and "badges" to future users.

flaunting "I've been a member longer than you, n00b!!" .. Correct ? .. "i've been a forum user since the early 2000's"

Why don't you simply man up and outright ask: "Can i haz be moderator?" ..

There's nothing more fun than flexing your made-up titles and badges on other people.
Not that you would know, with your measly post count.

[Broken Mirror]

I agree with Saskia here.

A badge or level system (based on whatever) doesn't add anything useful to the forums nor would I be inclined to be active more often because of it.

I think it creates just another artificial divide and reason for someone to dismiss someone else post because of his “level” or the number of badges he got. It also seems to punish less active users in this regard.

For me, there are more pressing issues (highly subjective) than some e-peen-enlargement-measures like levels or achievements:

• Get rid of Yahoo, AIM or even ICQ integration in the profiles and add either free form fields or at least try to integrate modern platforms (Steam, PSN, Microsoft, YT, Minds, etc.).
• Integrate more tags in the editor (like spoiler tags to make content visible selectively)
  • I remember the vBulletin editor to be way more feature-rich... what happened in all those years?

[Aidy]

Agree that a spoiler tag would be incredibly useful.

[LiamC]

I do not particularly care for additional images, If they make people happy fine. I don't think people should be afraid to engage here because someone is a 15th level Firebrand or whatever, but I do know some will think that way if we support the idea that those badges add power or prestige. However the more I think about it the more I realize we should have the join date, post count and a mod/admin badge. If we do get the grief some are expecting being able to show that some shit poster joined yesterday and was dealt with correctly by the mods goes a long way toward supporting our core concept

[Andredal]

I too wonder who the mods / admin are. That said, isn't this about the games. Every gamer playing the same game I would imagine has a different experience. Does how long they've been here or how often they post make their view any better or worse than another view? Would not badges tend to skew perceptions? But what do I know?

It's just an addition, something fun to do on the forums. And no, it should not take away the experience from the forum overall. As i said, they're just suggestions

[aileron]

Add badges but let people turn them off. If I could I might turn mine off. People don't need to know I'm "senior"because I've got X posts. But maybe someone else wants to show that off. If people were trying to use their creds to silence others that's not cool and I assume a mod would step in.