BBS Regular recognises the group that had regular status before the removal of the lounge. Unlike the “Regular” badge, it is not dynamic and irrevocable.
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It’s also pointless. Unless there’s some ineffable benefit in being able to show people “look what I used to be.”
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It’s kind of astonishing how You manage to focus on the style to the utter exclusion of the substance. It’s almost like You (capital Y, referring to BB in general) have no clue that you already had a functional, vibrant community, until you executed it.
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I understand your position: badges/trophies/certificates/achievements/etc are pointless. You are more than welcome to ignore them. Others may choose differently, and now they have the option to do as they please: Display their BBS Regular title, their Regular title, or their Anniversary title (or indeed, no title at all).
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If there are going to be new titles for each anniversary, military seems like the wrong metaphor. Sailors don’t automatically become commanders by reenlisting four times.
Something like “Sophomore,” “Junior,” “Senior” might be more appropriate for anniversaries.
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You misunderstand my position. They are not pointless in an environment wherein they’re just fun recognitions of contributors to a fun, healthy community. They’re pointless in an environment wherein they are the only recognition the recipients get, and in the case of “BBS Regulars” specifically, all it does is highlight benefits gone by, for a group of people now divested of the thing that distinguished them from the rank and file. Merit badges are not actually the point of scouting.
It was nifty to be a Regular, once upon a time. Some Regulars didn’t feel comfortable wearing the title next to their username, feeling perhaps that it made them look like they were trying to be some kind of big shot or something, but I kinda liked wearing that badge. Not so I could lord it over the lowly TL2s or anything, but so that I could show by example that you could put in the time and effort, make it to TL3, and then enjoy a perk or two along with the responsibility that came with the title. I felt like an active gardener in the community garden, a volunteer at the museum, a contributing member of the PTA, or maybe a mid-level Boy Scout happy to help the Cubs learn the ropes and show them a reasonably positive example, someone who enjoyed cleaning up the occasional dog turd, and liked giving uncounted hours running a Badass door game for the community because I felt encouraged to take a slice of ownership in the community. And you know what happened to that.
We’ve discussed this before. This is somebody else’s party. And it’s no fun anymore.
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I believe the term is “inpatients” now.
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Ah, see; He said healthy community.
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Amen to this! The militaristic titles bother me hugely. They seem to me to directly contravene the stated (paraphrased) desire to not separate community members as much. Ranks, whether military, quasi-military, or pseudo-military (i.e. i’ve heard about the relation to Trek) inherently separate.
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No, I do understand your opinion and respect your choice to assign them whatever value you wish. I’m not sure what you want by bringing up that fact though? As others use them, I’m certainly not going to remove them, as they have every right to choose to use them as well. Some users did ask me to remove the badge - would you like it removed as well?
Fair enough, and I did ask for suggestions but didn’t get any, so I chose Sci-Fi related titles. Just abaout every sci-fi show there is uses military titles, and the one I chose is specifically focused on exploration and peace, so clearly they mean different things to different people (I’m also not American, which may also play a role). Sci fi is a big part of what’s covered on Boing Boing, which is part of why I chose them.
Same issue applies now, though - people are using them, I’m not going to remove choice from the users who have chosen to use them. You may additionally choose not to use them. 
“it’s an imperfect universe.” --G’Kar, Babylon 5, Convictions
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So… not actually “irrevocable” as such? 
Look, I don’t want to give you or anyone any more shit about this. Do what you must. Have as much fun as you can. Keep earning that paycheck (whatever it is, it ain’t enough). I’m gonna shaddap.
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they really are not the first three, they are very much tongue in cheek that last one.
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Trek was quasi-military. They used military titles and ranks and the concomitant social hierarchy and while the fictional characters in the Trek universe may have grown up in a truly equal society where those sorts of titles can be worn casually, it is my belief that we cannot. Titles such as these wear heavy in our world and imply a ranking of people that is antithetical to what i understand to be the purpose of this blog and this bbs.
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I don’t think that implication is the responsibility of our hosts. I think it’s about as innocuous as red orange yellow green, which would likely annoy someone too. It’s not like a 3 can order a 2 around. Besides, who wants to be an Alpha, they work so hard. I am so much happier as a Beta.
If it were military the captain would have lost his job the first time the boat got scratched. Star Trek was a comedic space opera. Camp.
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If we’re going to have a metaphor of achievement, they should be based on something other than a calendar date.
Maybe total likes, or total posts read, or something.
As it is, when I see somebody labeled “Lieutenant Commander,” all I know about them is they had a working email account three years ago.
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Huh. That seems a lot like what @codinghorror built into discourse. A rather crude metric, but possibly more meaningful than “how old is your account?”.
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Conveniently, we now have both algorithmic and age-based titles.
I believe users who have spent years with us deserve recognition. As to whether or not individual users wish to display that recognition is up to them.
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I’m not really all that concerned with titles, but I thank you for the effort.
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