I was feeling a little blue the other day when I got the “Read Guidelines” badge, and for a solid minute interpreted it as “Go read the guidelines, you Moran” :D. I am sure 99.9% of peeps that get that badge won’t interpret “read” the wrong way, but if the badge curators are ever bored on a Sunday, with their fourth cup of earl grey going cold, it may be a title to wordsmith.
Completely off topic, my nexus wants to autocorrect wordsmith to swordsmith, which I admit is waay better.
I always thought that ‘pick your own strawberries’ signs were farmers telling the public to leave their crops alone.
Also, since I lived in and have lots of family in Reading, I almost never interpret that word the way it’s intended.
Perused Guidelines?
Ha! I know what you mean. Not to derail into a mispronunciation thread, but there is a town in Oregon spelled Aloha that isn’t pronounced like you think :). I was born in the Willamette valley, which natives say “Will Am Ette”, but visitors say " Will Uh Metty".
It gives it a much more genre feel when you hear people pronounce it “a Loa”. In the nearby foothills there are temples.
another “low-priority” badge beef:
first of all, the badges don’t really appeal to me. I get why Discourse wants to implement them, but I don’t view my social interactions as a contest, either IRL or online. anyway, we’ve all got 'em, so that introduces the following politics (groan.)
the overwhelming majority of badges aren’t all that significant and are just place-fillers/gimmies/participation trophies.
further, given my participation in this community pre-dates Discourse, I would actually have a few “cooler” badges if that history was factored in. I feel pretty cheap mentioning it, but, if I’m stuck with having badges forced on me, then it’s a bit of a rip-off to not have them reflect my username here in toto.
So, my specific beef: Given the above, I find this menu (not sure what it’s called) kinda annoying:
if I was new here and vetting the community, I’d view this the same as the kid with his little league trophies on display and all of them said “participant.” the badges that I can actually take pride in aren’t represented. clicking through to the rest isn’t that big of a deal, but it just rankles me.
That is all.
I don’t want to change the very, very, very low priority opinion that one person mispronounced a word in his head to a larger discussion on badges as a theme… But since you brought it up… 
/*
I like the badges. I have only been reading BB since 2004/2005 I think, and have been a lurker. I don’t really play video games any more, I have zero concept of how Ex Box even works, but even though these was a defcon/level set of the comment system I can’t say I’m unhappy.
After I vigorously fought through my individual confusion of what the Read Guidelines badge meant, I felt it was a sweet, thoughtful gesture. Seriously, who reads guidelines? I only do if it is a thing or place I care about. So in the end I was a little chuffed I got a ‘participation’ award in something few people participate in :).
Badges are not the point. Take 'em or leave 'em. And longer time readers (er, zine?!) are not reflected by them. But that’s okay, cause they are ephemeral.
Also, I like 'em 
*/
Usians who don’t speak a lick of French do that. It’s how we end up with the accepted pronunciations of Detroit, Des Moines, Illinois, and so forth. I would say “Will am ett,” but only because I studied French back in the day. 
But USians do pronouce Fillet (Mignon) correctly, as opposed to the English, for whom it rhymes with skillet.
do people actually say Mignon as “Mih-Net”?
(have i ever mentioned i honestly love the english language, precisely because of the impreciseness?)
Heh. I wondered if I’d confuse there. They just call it ‘fill it’ steak.
On the other hand, Americans pronounce “clique” the same way they pronounce “click”.
You win the Gameification Badge 
i feel so dumb right now. i’m an anglophile, and i affect ‘fill it’ as well (mostly to irritate my family, who doesn’t get it), and i totally failed.
?
the last character isn’t rendering on my end
but anyway, I wish there was an opt out feature. like, you could turn them all into one “philosophically opposed to badges” badge.
AKA the “steenkin’ badge”.
Round here you often see signs that say “Hidden Driveway”. It always seemed mean to point that out, when the owner’s gone to a lot of time and expense to cover it with a nice grove of trees.
Those badges probably taste sour, anyway.
You don’t have any silver badges? Those should sort to the top and be shown first versus the bronze badges.
http://bbs.boingboing.net/badges
Oh. well. I see.
anyway, of the ones I’ve got, “reader” and “nice post” reflect on stuff I’ve actually done instead of just “I made an account and have used it” but w/e. that you are aware of my feelings on the subject is enough.
and since you’re here, i agree japhroaig is right about the “read guidelines” wording.
