Forum Rewards

[Max Dirks]

Hello everyone. The staff has recently decided to add a new type of incentive system to Althanas. Most of you probably already noticed Lornius on the main page. Lornius, once released, will be reserved for high leveled characters, core members and staff members. It'll have some unique mini features and provide 1.5x EXP to those who complete threads there. Along with that, we've also installed an award hack. Thanks to Hysteria, you'll now be able to earn custom badges for your postbit when you do something neat. Along with the badge will also be some type of EXP, GP or forum perk reward. The system is installed and the badges are ready to go, but here's the issue: I need some more ideas for them. The staff was especially mum on this point (they're busy!), so I'm going to ask the public at large. Here's some ideas for badges I've had. Please feel free to add your own. I'd also like for you to add suggested forum rewards as well (especially for mine, because I was too lazy on some).

Here are my suggestions:

Althy Winner - GP reward
JC receipient x [X] - EXP reward
Core Member - no reward outside of typical core perks
Lornius Access - indicates which members access Lornius
Level (in rewards of 5 + max) - GP reward
Tournament Victor, Second Place, Third Place - rewards determined per tournament
League/Event Victor - rewards determined per event
CM
Wiki Contributor
CM Completed Quest
Defeated someone greater than 5/10/15 levels higher than you
Workshop Contributor (maybe in stacked numbers)
Chronicle Contributor (more on this later, but I want Althanians to post blog articles on how to write better)

Have at it! I want to know what you guys think! You can sample the "Awards Showcase" by viewing my postbit in either the Darkthanas or Bluethanas themes. They'll be some additional padding between the avatar and the awards splash, so no worries on that front.

[Aurelianus Drak'shal]

I think the above would be better if it were fifteen wins in the Citadel. Not just fifteen threads.

Maybe even just fifteen completed Citadel threads.

[Ell]

Or just scrap the idea entirely. The last rp site I was on had a badge system and it really made the oldbies feel entitled for the more of the rarer or harder to get badges, and there were also people who played favorites because of it

[Rayse Valentino]

The thing people want the most on this site is for their stories to be read. If you make the rewards something that results in higher awareness of the various stories people have, that would be better than little icons under your avatar.

[Ell]

^ that. That is so much better in my opinion than forum perks.

[Krausus]

I personally think those ribbons look horrid.

And Rayse is probably right. We'd just have people set on the reward, and not the story.

[Mordelain]

People are already set on the reward, and not the story as Althanas stands. As long as there's an incentive or feedback system of and kind, there will always be favouritism, competitiveness, and brackish attempts at claiming more favour.

My only personal preference is that the ribbons should be earned through deed, not role. None of the titles should be simply given for getting onto staff, core member, or the like. These roles have rewards enough. So JC, X wins in the citadel, tournament winners and so on are great.

[Hysteria]

I personally think those ribbons look horrid.

And Rayse is probably right. We'd just have people set on the reward, and not the story.

They would be more like:
http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/080/a/1/blue_sword_emblem_by_harlequinhues-d7b0v8t.png http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/061/0/e/jester_s_hat_by_harlequinhues-d76u0ku.png http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/071/c/f/blue_ribbon_by_harlequinhues-d79vo9b.png http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/071/9/9/trophy_by_harlequinhues-d79vo9q.png http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/071/e/9/green_ribbon_by_harlequinhues-d79vo9f.png http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/062/5/3/taurus_by_harlequinhues-d78qe5j.png http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/062/8/e/demon_seal1_by_harlequinhues-d78qe4r.png http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/048/2/7/skull_t_by_harlequinhues-d76u0l3.png http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/048/8/c/sword_t_by_harlequinhues-d76u0l6.png http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/071/2/7/red_ribbon_by_harlequinhues-d79vo9o.png


The thing people want the most on this site is for their stories to be read. If you make the rewards something that results in higher awareness of the various stories people have, that would be better than little icons under your avatar.
The idea of having badges is two fold.

The first is celebrating your successes. This doesn't mean running around shoving your badges into someone's faces, but rather as a visual reminder of some of your achievements. You may have won a Althie in 2012... but who remembers? Now it can stick to your profile like bad stink.

The second is for personal motivation. Our rewards on althanas are very transient. These rewards are not. Getting second in a tournament is a great achievement and a visual reward for such is as much a motivation as a shiny bunch of EXP or a weapon.

That said, I do take your point that people want to be read. I don't mean to suggest by the above that it replaces our existing rewards, or is better than the other rewards we have now. I like it because it is an extra reward for people. We mention people in the Chronicle, have JCs, (although having a JC reward might make people more likely to read your stuff) and more.

For my vote, I think the Althie catagories should have rewards.

[Warpath]

As I said in chat yesterday before I forgot to copy-paste all my suggestions before my Chrome crashed, I think they should chiefly reward activity, actions in and for the community, and quality of writing. For example: completed 10 threads, completed a thread with three people you've never written with before, scored above 75/80/90.

If people are more motivated by badges than anything, that's fine, you just have to encourage the right things. I don't see a problem with somebody shooting for "Oh man, I'm getting all the badges that say I'm an awesome writer." And it could serve to drive others to read your writing. If you saw somebody with a giant stack of badges that say he's got a million JCs, dozens of completed threads, and that he regularly impacts the canon, wouldn't you be more inclined to read his writing?

I'll try to work up that list again.