Long Service Badges, Make them harder to get?

[silentbogo]

I think it's fine as-is. Maybe move them under user profile pic, so that it's more in-line with other stats.
Otherwise, I see no reason to increase/decrease the "barrier of entry", cause years of service does not necessarily mean something good. We still have people that's been here for over a decade and can occasionally s#$tpost, and we have some new members that occasionally post some useful and interesting info, which makes me happy and optimistic about the new generation.

I agree, good incentive for users whose reaction score exceeds post count by a good amount, or who have verified solutions. Unfortunately very few people who ask questions mark their threads as solved

Yep, I don't think I even have a single "solution" on my profile. Reaction score is also not perfect, cause I can "farm" it just by randomly posting kitten gifs in popular threads
But at least for me - I don't really care about having a "badge of usefullness" in order to post some useful stuff, or help a fellow TPUer in need. We are a community, and that's what community does.

 

[Space Lynx]

I think it's fine as-is. Maybe move them under user profile pic

this might also fix the visual OCD I am having with it. great idea

 

[Wirko]

Badge becoming 10 pixels wider every year? Here's where I got the idea:

 

[Nuckles56]

Guilty of being a long time lurker, the badges should be at least 10 years

 

[_roman_]

I vote for the not available option

• I do not care.

 

[Splinterdog]

Ten years seems about right to me because contributing to a forum for that long shows appreciation and dare I say, a kind of reputational gravitas.
I mean, when you visit a particular forum every day for that long, it means something. In fact, I've been on TPU longer than my own expats forum.

 

[FoulOnWhite]

We currently have 5, 10, 15 and 20 years.

https://imgur.com/7tRyFBu

Make it so that it's just 15 and 20 years to get a badge?

I'd agree, but i only have a 5yr

 

[A Computer Guy]

Badge becoming 10 pixels wider every year? Here's where I got the idea:
View attachment 399778

I like this idea.

 

[ShrimpBrime]

What if I reach 5 years and don't want the banner displayed? (That's a serious question)

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

My vote is for removing the badges. Having a bunch of time registered here only means that you don't consistently tell people to go **** themselves, and act like a crappy human. Otherwise, this is a forum and you get every stripe and flavor of human and opinion.

When looking at the service badge, I can only consider that as an indication that people are at least that and a few years older at least...so the 15 year service members at least lived through the late nineties and early 2000s as a frame of cultural relevancy. Sometimes it's nice to know that somebody may or may not have experience with things like jumper pins resets and a time when this was a hobby for niche users rather than a thing that everybody on Twitch and in the media could pretend to do for a living. Even then though, this is not a barrier for somebody in their seventies, who lived through the seventies, to make an account tomorrow. Besides, the user info blurb to the side already has "Joined: xxx xx, xxxx" for anyone who feels as though there is value in that.

 

[Space Lynx]

My vote is for removing the badges. Having a bunch of time registered here only means that you don't consistently tell people to go **** themselves, and act like a crappy human. Otherwise, this is a forum and you get every stripe and flavor of human and opinion.

Keep in mind my toggle on and off idea would solve this problem too. People that want it can toggle it on, people that want it off like us can toggle it off.

 

[Frick]

FWIW I had to scroll around a bit to even see the badges. I don't even see them anymore.

 

[Space Lynx]

FWIW I had to scroll around a bit to even see the badges. I don't even see them anymore.

Same for me in light mode, my brain tuned them out. When dark mode got enabled (and I ended up liking it) is only when I noticed them again. So maybe over time my brain will just filter them out, I don't know, they are really prominent in OLED dark mode...

 

[OneWithMisery]

IDGAF. I have no idea how long I have been lurking here and ended up making an account for some reason. At least it's easier to keep up with Ghetto mods -thread

 

[Steevo]

My vote is for removing the badges. Having a bunch of time registered here only means that you don't consistently tell people to go **** themselves, and act like a crappy human. Otherwise, this is a forum and you get every stripe and flavor of human and opinion.

When looking at the service badge, I can only consider that as an indication that people are at least that and a few years older at least...so the 15 year service members at least lived through the late nineties and early 2000s as a frame of cultural relevancy. Sometimes it's nice to know that somebody may or may not have experience with things like jumper pins resets and a time when this was a hobby for niche users rather than a thing that everybody on Twitch and in the media could pretend to do for a living. Even then though, this is not a barrier for somebody in their seventies, who lived through the seventies, to make an account tomorrow. Besides, the user info blurb to the side already has "Joined: xxx xx, xxxx" for anyone who feels as though there is value in that.

I used to regularly tell people mean things. Also recently used a screwdriver tip to reset the BIOS on AM board since there was no jumper. I did have to take my glasses off to read the print on the board.


I think it's fine the way it is. Being here 5 years long ago was a way of showing that you were part of the community, many members joined to get 1 question answered back then or for a few things before leaving. The community of bios mods, software, Anti-virus and malware tools, networking, all things computer is what made the place. I miss Dan. I would take back calling him names to know he was good.

Lastly you are right, many of us (older people) grew up with the birth of technology, we witnessed it grow from the infantile almost uselessness to the toddler destruction of the late 90s and early 2000s drive by downloads, and watching this "child" grow into a useful teenager with bouts of angst (retarded AI) and more sophisticated GUIs with uneducated (windows search, Siri, Gemini, calling programs "apps" as if they were an appetizer and not an application) interfaces and features, wondering what the future brings, from AF/AA being such a large part of gaming fidelity to generated frames that reuse vector and edge detection upscaling (https://www.techpowerup.com/review/ati-hd-2400-xt/) that existed for years before being bastardized as "AI" and now I'm done with my rant and will retire to my front porch to yell at kids to keep off my grass.


* this comment was put together over multiple hours of phone calls, emails, research for my actual job and life so is probably slightly incoherent.

 

[Veseleil]

Why?

To reveal how flawed the voting system is? To show that all of the members that voted for 10 years are 10+ years old accounts?

I don't really care for this feature anyway, but I voted for it to be moved to the other GUI element, so it's not wasting usable reply space on a forum pages, as Chrispy already mentioned:

Can I vote away the badges altogether? It just takes up a line in the post and reduces page density. We already have the join date and message count in every single post so the badge is utterly redundant info. I call that "pointless clutter", but that's just my opinion.

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

To reveal how flawed the voting system is? To show that all of the members that voted for 10 years are 10+ years old accounts?

I don't really care for this feature anyway, but I voted for it to be moved to the other GUI element, so it's not wasting usable reply space on a forum pages, as Chrispy already mentioned:

Man, I understand your bias. That said, I'm nearing 15 years. What the thing is, is a gamer points, achievement points, etc... banner. It is that little hit of "I matter" to some people that makes it somehow worth doing. I, on the other hand, voted with those near 15 years to remove it. Call me old, but every time that little achievements thing pops up I have a small pang of contempt. That same pang that loved when I was actually rewarded for playing, and now sees this is losing the reward but trying to keep people engaged.

Remember when, in Time Splitters, you unlocked the monkey as a multi-player character for doing that miserable trial...and it felt good? You got to run around as an angry little gun toting imp...and that was something to work for. I now see ID giving us gamer points, and forcing engagement by play time or money to get unicorn skins for the Doom Slayer.

 

[Space Lynx]

To reveal how flawed the voting system is? To show that all of the members that voted for 10 years are 10+ years old accounts?

I don't really care for this feature anyway, but I voted for it to be moved to the other GUI element, so it's not wasting usable reply space on a forum pages, as Chrispy already mentioned:

10 year badge owner here, what I want to vote for isn't listed, aka a toggle off and on switch for all badges. not sure your claim is fair minded, because I only voted 10 year badge and above simply because I am tired of seeing it pop out so much on dark OLED background. so no the voting system is not flawed, we all have different reasons for voting 10 yrs and above badge.

 

[freeagent]

I am fine as is.. I have a 5 year badge and you aren't going to take that from me

Unless you want to.. because that is ok too

 

[chrcoluk]

Changed vote to as is now the option has been added, but my suggestion of adding it as an icon next to avatar is an option you could consider to appease those who dont like it. I see also other similar suggestions of moving it to that area. Also agree with toggle suggestion, these are better options than removing it for 5 years.

 

[Veseleil]

10 year badge owner here, what I want to vote for isn't listed, aka a toggle off and on switch for all badges. not sure your claim is fair minded, because I only voted 10 year badge and above simply because I am tired of seeing it pop out so much on dark OLED background. so no the voting system is not flawed, we all have different reasons for voting 10 yrs and above badge.

I salute your sense of humour. I'm not sure how much effort you invest in it, but damn, you're a natural.

 

[Space Lynx]

I salute your sense of humour. I'm not sure how much effort you invest in it, but damn, you're a natural.

eh? there is no humor in this response? I literally only voted 10 yr cause the remove one isn't getting enough votes and won't win, and there is no toggle vote option.... so if I can reduce the amount of badges I have to see it will be easier on my eyes in dark mode OLED and maybe more tolerable that way.... how is that humor?

 

[ZenZimZaliben]

Most forums don't last 20 years! LOL. TPU is super long in the tooth. I think 5 years of being on a forum is a very long time in internet time. It's not a Bank.

 

[Dr. Dro]

I think it's fine as-is. Maybe move them under user profile pic, so that it's more in-line with other stats.
Otherwise, I see no reason to increase/decrease the "barrier of entry", cause years of service does not necessarily mean something good. We still have people that's been here for over a decade and can occasionally s#$tpost, and we have some new members that occasionally post some useful and interesting info, which makes me happy and optimistic about the new generation.

Yep, I don't think I even have a single "solution" on my profile. Reaction score is also not perfect, cause I can "farm" it just by randomly posting kitten gifs in popular threads
But at least for me - I don't really care about having a "badge of usefullness" in order to post some useful stuff, or help a fellow TPUer in need. We are a community, and that's what community does.

Yup, my thoughts exactly. I must say though, even kitten gifs provide some value to the community, so that's fine by me. Some people share their wisdom and knowledge, some share their spirits, that's equally valuable to me

Most forums don't last 20 years! LOL. TPU is super long in the tooth. I think 5 years of being on a forum is a very long time in internet time. It's not a Bank.

TPU is, in fact, amongst the last of the tech forums on the internet. With the recent demise of AnandTech, and with forums like XtremeSystems being abandoned/in disrepair (if not permanently offline by now), there hasn't really been much going on in this space. There's TPU, Guru3D, OCN (and OCN is... not a very welcoming forum, too much of a stick in the mud IMHO - nowhere near as homely and grassroots as TPU is), and Reddit, which is its own can of worms.

This format of forum has pretty much given way to Discord and other platforms with a more instant type of gratification, even if that comes at the cost of being a lot harder to find previous solutions and not exactly imparting knowledge to the whole internet (but rather, just members of that closed community behind said platform). Tradeoffs, I guess, and not a very good one.

 

[sram]

Most forums don't last 20 years! LOL. TPU is super long in the tooth. I think 5 years of being on a forum is a very long time in internet time. It's not a Bank.

Anandtech forums are still kicking it. Although not as active as before because reviews stopped in the main site. I think they started like 1997, so that's like 28 years.