Badges for local moderators

[Simetrical]

do we have solid evidence for this, based on testing the concept?
or has this been repeated until it has become the official "truth", like once the world was "known" to be flat?

Badges are meant to either be a mark of honor, or to tip people off to the fact that they're in a position of authority. It doesn't take much to become a local moderator (having another local mod ask is often sufficient), so being a local mod isn't an honor. On the other hand, local moderators have no authority outside of one or two forums, so making them look like authorities of some kind outside of those forums would be unhelpful.

You might ask why content staff have badges, since it's pretty easy to become content staff, and they're rarely in any position of authority that matters to typical members. Personally I'd tend to agree, but so many people have content badges already that there would probably be a lot of discontent if they were taken away. I'm not enthusiastic about pursuing this kind of campaign, except as part of a systematic overhaul of rep/badges/awards/name colors. Which would be hard to pull off, since we'd probably want to get Curia approval, which is dicey.

One thing that would make sense is displaying the local moderator badge only in the forums where you're actually a local mod. I'd have to do some coding to get that to work, but it shouldn't be too hard. The question is, how exactly should it work? Users can only choose one display usergroup. There would be a few ways to do it:

1. Badge only displays if you choose local moderator as display group. If you post outside the forum, you have no badge, even if you actually have ranks that should display as badges.
2. Badge only displays if you choose local moderator as display group. If you post outside the forum, you get one of your other badges, picked more or less arbitrarily.
3. Badge always displays in your forum, overwriting any other badges you have, whether you like it or not (except if you have a moderator/admin badge, display two badges).
4. Badge always displays in your forum, in addition to any other badges you have.

#4 seems like the most reasonable, but it would mean a lot of people display with two badges. Maybe the local moderator badge could be made shorter to compensate. Opinions?

I'll split this out to a new thread so it gets more public attention.

[Van Zandt]

In terms of a cost-benefit ratio, how does this work? Right now I dont see any benefit in having special badges for local mods. They are already easy to identify in each of the mod forums.

[Halie Satanus]

4. Badge always displays in your forum, in addition to any other badges you have.

#4 seems like the most reasonable, but it would mean a lot of people display with two badges. Maybe the local moderator badge could be made shorter to compensate. Opinions?

Sounds like a nice touch for the local moderators.

As an added bonus I can already hear seething from (some quarters of) the Curia.

[absinthia]

You might ask why content staff have badges, since it's pretty easy to become content staff, and they're rarely in any position of authority that matters to typical members.

well i do not ask. i consider the content staff badges as promotion for that line of engagement at TWC. were it not for those badges i would hardly even know that such activities existed here.

3. Badge always displays in your forum, overwriting any other badges you have, whether you like it or not (except if you have a moderator/admin badge, display two badges).

#3 seems the most tidy one to me. i would not mind wearing a LM badge in my own small realm.

[Lysimachus]

#2

Having two badges just seems untidy.

[Subuatai de Bodemloze]

1. Badge only displays if you choose local moderator as display group. If you post outside the forum, you have no badge, even if you actually have ranks that should display as badges.
2. Badge only displays if you choose local moderator as display group. If you post outside the forum, you get one of your other badges, picked more or less arbitrarily.
3. Badge always displays in your forum, overwriting any other badges you have, whether you like it or not (except if you have a moderator/admin badge, display two badges).
4. Badge always displays in your forum, in addition to any other badges you have.

3 or 4 would be my opinion... 3 being the best option though. Question though Sim.. We would still all have the text under the badge still? Identifying our other positions.

[Nazgûl Killer]

Either number 2 or number 3.

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

Option #4: This seems a logical choice. Thank you...

[Augustus Lucifer]

I'm in agreement with Lysimachus. I most certainly don't want a local moderator overriding any of my other badges, so #3 seems like it will do more harm than it's worth. #4 would just produce unnecessary clutter, especially for modification forums where the majority of moderators are liable to have an Artifex badge and a Local Moderator badge. #1 seems like it counteracts any utility because in order to post as a 'Local Moderator' you'd effectively lose any recognition of positions important outside that area.

Of all of them I'd say #2 would be the most reasonable solution if we had to do this. People who feel they need to display a 'Local Moderator' badge in a certain forum could, but they'd also be able to display something else outside the forum. And those who don't care to display it wouldn't be inconvenienced by having a second badge forced on their postbit in what can be considered limited utility.

For my part though, I really just can't see the utility of such a badge. If 'Local Moderators' are indigenous to a certain section of the forum, then the people who need information about who manages that section of the forum should be able to get it... at that section of the forum. And they can, because it's stated in the bottom right of that area. If it's still unclear then a sticky saying 'List of Local Moderators' or what have you would perfectly suffice for anyone who needed to know that information. This works swimmingly in modification fora, and you rarely see people confused about who the leaders of that team are; I doubt there's much confusion in other areas either.

Now, what would perhaps be more reasonable is a listing of 'Local Moderator' in the text that goes under the badge, rather than as a badge. If that came to the top of the listing of non-display usergroups within only forums of relevance, that could be useful without being over the top. Though I still might have to go in and exempt my userid.

[Lysimachus]

Now, what would perhaps be more reasonable is a listing of 'Local Moderator' in the text that goes under the badge, rather than as a badge. If that came to the top of the listing of non-display usergroups within only forums of relevance, that could be useful without being over the top. Though I still might have to go in and exempt my userid.

So "local moderator" could operate like the Moderator Emeritus title and simply be displayed under the user's avatar/badge then? Seems like a nice solution. Then on the popup it could say something like:

"Local Moderators are non-staff members designated to moderate specific areas of the forum"

[Subuatai de Bodemloze]

You could probably add in a boulean so as to actually specify which sub forum, forums.

[pannonian]

Something related to this that I'd like the artists to look at. Can you try to do a sigbar, for use in sigs, that looks reasonably attractive, but can take a line of text without losing aesthetic appeal or legibility. It should be distinctively TWC. Avoid fancy backgrounds that detract from the text. Also specify a text colour that works best with the background.

[Swagger]

4

[IVIarkI2I]

Number 2 or number 4 seems as winner to me

those with two badges can use 2nd option

[Seleucos of Olympia]

I'd prefer option 2 or option 4 if the LM badge is discrete enough not to clutter the area under your avatar too much. Maybe the LM badge scroll could be half-height compared to the others, in that case?

[Saint Nicholas]

First I ask that the TWC gods leave Content alone, we like our badges and our blue colours.

Second, I think this option would be optimal with a change or two:

Badge only displays if you choose local moderator as display group. If you post outside the forum, you get one of your other badges, picked more or less arbitrarily.

Would it be possible to be able to pick which other badge you could display in addition to your LM badge, I'm not a fan of a second badge being displayed arbitrarily and the user not having the option to pick.

[Pontifex Maximus]

No badges, local moderators don't need them. There's enough confusion between them and staff moderators already.

[pannonian]

First I ask that the TWC gods leave Content alone, we like our badges and our blue colours.

Second, I think this option would be optimal with a change or two: Would it be possible to be able to pick which other badge you could display in addition to your LM badge, I'm not a fan of a second badge being displayed arbitrarily and the user not having the option to pick.

To clarify my request for the artists, I'd like to see how a sigbar for local mods works. A plainish background with foreground text stating which forum the moderator is responsible for, possibly linking to the forum. Unlike badges, this can link to the relevant forums, and can show multiple sigbars as well. I'm not sure how the logistics of doing sigbars for all the numerous forums, and uploading them to TWC, would work, but that can presumably be tested in practice when some sigbars are available.

[♔Mr.♔L.E.E.♔]

Would it be easier good sirs to add the options to a poll? Perhaps the results would be better kept that way eh?

[Capt. Fozdike]

I reckon No. 2