Lead: Every comment a tribute to its author’s vast and superior understanding of nothing so much as killing conversations with triviality and rule mongering.
You know, I’m not sure, but I like both those ideas!
“Unicorn Chaser” would be a good name for contributors, since their work will generally be posted in proximity to something horrible posted by an(other) editor.
A good name for the “credited a link” one might be “Unicorn Hunter”
perhaps a “respectfully disagree” badge, it would be hard to do/assign/track programmatically but those who are really good at disagreeing without name-calling and laying out counter evidence without shaming, (or at least keeping the balance of substance to tone at a healthy ratio…) are excellent for keeping the conversation moving. I’ve enjoyed, heart-ed and been glad for responses that do cross the line, and there are circumstances that certainly call for more of an edge, although pretty much any time its worth it to get angry enough to disrespectfully disagree, mods are close behind… in any case, it’s a tough skill, and worth recognizing and encouraging.
Perhaps a badge of contrition. In the spirit of encouraging desired behaviour, an award for those who demonstrate the courage to correct the dialogue, even when it requires temporary humility.
No conflict of interest here. Phttt! Like I’m ever going to earn that badge.
How about:
Likeable: User accumulates an average of at least 1 like per post. You must have 50 posts before this badge can be awarded.
Engaging: User’s posts are replied to on average at least once. 50 post minimum again.
However, I’m a little bit hesitant to put badges in, because they tend to encourage people to game the system or create threads specifically for grinding badges. Even well intentioned badges can be double edged swords. Reddit’s moderation system is pretty sensible sounding, but it brings out a lot of karma whores who vote up and post low effort copypasta just because they get points for it even though the points are as worthless as the points on Who’s Line.
Frankly, I’m not convinced that badges encourage good behavior anyway. Quality posters don’t need the encouragement and trolls don’t care.
Agreed, but the point of the basic badges is just to “finish the tutorial”. The basic Discourse V1 badges we are putting in now are intentionally super basic, essentially the equivalent of reading the FAQ, or playing the first level in Halo, which is a de-facto tutorial, right, even though it doesn’t say that?
The extended, longer term badges are various forms of incentivizing behavior you don’t feel you see enough, but should.
So the question should not be
Hey let’s think up some cool new badges!
but
Hey what kind of nice community friendly behaviors do we see here, but not often enough – and how can a badge encourage those specific behaviors?
