Medals

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Mystara
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Medals

Post by Mystara »

A couple of times now, I've mentioned the idea of a medals system for giving out to people.

I'm now looking for suggestions for particular medals to be given out. At the moment, I'm considering the following:

Contributor: For people who have contributed articles to the site
Contestant: For those people who took part in the show
Cast: For any cast
Crew: For crew
Donator: For people who have financially donated to the website

I'd like to add another 5-10. Any ideas?
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Re: Medals

Post by Mystara »

Suggestions received via PM:

- Contributor should be separated into Scribe (for articles) and Maker (for anything else)
- Referrer, for referring people to the forum
- Medals based on post count
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Re: Post Count medal

Post by Drassil »

I'm not keen on the last one. Quantity per se is not always worthy of reward. My post count is high but is mainly a reflection of the length of time I've been hanging around here, and I'm actually slightly embarrassed by it. What I'm prouder of is being able to say that I've posted at least once during every full month for which I've been a forum member. Whether that merits recognition, I don't know; and to be honest, having my posts read and treated with courtesy is the only reward I really want; but a medal for sustained activity may be preferable to a medal for post count.
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Re: Medals

Post by Mystara »

Yeah, we can probably manage something like that.

How would you recognise it, since simply having an old account isn't really deserving of an award?
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Re: Medals

Post by Canadanne »

How about a simple 'Merit' or 'Popular Poster' or whatever, to recognise the quality of someone's forum activity? Maybe there could be a thread for nominating fellow members, and if there are enough supporting votes, they get a medal? That way, whether the person's been keeping the forum alive for years or they've just made one remarkably brilliant post, they all receive acknowledgement for their contribution.
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Re: Medals

Post by Mystara »

That's certainly a possibility.
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Re: Medals

Post by Drassil »

Mystara wrote:How would you recognise it, since simply having an old account isn't really deserving of an award?
It could be any non-knewbie who has posted here during say 3 separate years (not necessarily consecutive), including the year in which the medal is given. Off-topic posting would be discounted.

Other ideas:

An award for worthy Knightmare contributions outside Knightmare.com (e.g. a blog article, fanart/fanfiction, an original YouTube video, organising a meetup or other event, a significant role in another Knightmare website);

A From Little Acorns Award for a thread that has extended beyond say ten pages and/or been active for say 3 or more years;

An award not just for contestants but for winning contestants - or would that feel immodest? ;)

Should anyone from Team 9 of Series 2 join the forum and make himself known, a special compensatory MEDAL Medal.
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Re: Medals

Post by Mystara »

Drassil wrote: It could be any non-knewbie who has posted here during say 3 separate years (not necessarily consecutive), including the year in which the medal is given. Off-topic posting would be discounted.
I like the idea of a long-service medal. But this seems a little generous AND non-trivial to award. I don't mind one of these, but not both :)
An award for worthy Knightmare contributions outside Knightmare.com (e.g. a blog article, fanart/fanfiction, an original YouTube video,
I'm less keen on this, because any blog article, fanart/fanfiction or youtube video that appears elsewhere is something that could have appeared on knightmare.com. I don't want to discourage that sort of thing, but I wouldn't want to be actively encouraging it, either.
organising a meetup or other event
THIS on the other hand is an excellent idea. I know how much of a pain it is to organise a meetup.
A From Little Acorns Award for a thread that has extended beyond say ten pages and/or been active for say 3 or more years;
Another good idea. Although I'd be inclined to require both, since neither size nor date alone is indicative of a good post.

Alternatively, or perhaps as well, generating a large number of posts in a short period of time could be one award.
An award not just for contestants but for winning contestants - or would that feel immodest? ;)
I wholeheartedly approve.
Should anyone from Team 9 of Series 2 join the forum and make himself known, a special compensatory MEDAL Medal.
heh
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Re: Medals

Post by Mystara »

Current ideas, including a couple more I've heard or modified:

- Scribe (graded): For people who contribute an article
- Editor: For people who run a regular column/section of the site
- Maker: For people who provide things for the site
- Contestant
- Winning contestant
- Cast
- Crew
- Donator
- Referrer
- Merit (graded): This seems to be the best version of Drassil's idea, suggested by Canadanne
- Social: For organising meetups
- Acorn: For creating a large thread/subforum or alternatively for generating a lot of interest in a thread
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Re: Medals

Post by Canadanne »

(Sorry this is slightly off-topic; move it to another thread if you want.)
Mystara wrote:
Drassil wrote:An award for worthy Knightmare contributions outside Knightmare.com (e.g. a blog article, fanart/fanfiction, an original YouTube video,
I'm less keen on this, because any blog article, fanart/fanfiction or youtube video that appears elsewhere is something that could have appeared on knightmare.com. I don't want to discourage that sort of thing, but I wouldn't want to be actively encouraging it, either.
Is that why there are never any updates about things that are happening elsewhere, like the recent Knightmare parody video or the Dunshelm Players' creations? Because I really think that's doing Knightmare.com way more harm than good. In my other main fandom, there's a fansite I visit every single day, but I don't go there for the original content (though I do check it out) - I go there because it's a convenient place to see what's new in the fandom as a whole. On their homepage they will always mention if there's a cool new video on YouTube or an exciting exclusive on some lesser-known fansite. Yes, it directs people away from their own website, but it also ensures that people visit regularly. As for Knightmare.com? I hardly ever visit the homepage, because there's hardly ever anything new on it, even when I would expect something to be mentioned there. It makes the site seem very out-of-touch. When I look through the archives, there used to be frequent news items (e.g. what the cast have been up to), but you never see any now. James' 25th anniversary documentary hasn't been mentioned at all on the main site. Heck, even having one of the Twitter feeds embedded in the homepage would be something.
I can see why you wouldn't be OK with promoting stuff that borders on copyright infringement, and by all means encourage people to contribute more here, but I think you'd get a lot more traffic if you acknowledged that things exist outside of Knightmare.com. The fandom is very much alive and kicking, yet this site gives the impression there is precious little going on.
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Re: Medals

Post by Mystara »

Canadanne wrote: Is that why there are never any updates about things that are happening elsewhere, like the recent Knightmare parody video or the Dunshelm Players' creations?
No.

The Dunshelm Players have never asked me to publish anything for them, and not wishing to intrude in what is someone else's project, I haven't pushed the point.

I have, however, repeatedly asked people to submit any news or articles that they think would be suitable for knightmare.com. If the Dunshelm players (or anyone else for that matter) wants to write an article or news story pointing to their own project, I am more than happy to publish it.

You may recall that's exactly what happened with Mark Dowling's excellent web-comic series

As I said, I have no wish to discourage people from doing their own things. Refusing to acknowledge other peoples' efforts would be discouragement.

To clarify my previous post, it's better for knightmare.com if stuff is published here. Hence, I wouldn't want to disadvantage people who do publish things here by providing an award specifically for people who publish elsewhere.

The youtube video was acknowledged on our facebook page. It's deserving of a more thorough writeup than a mere link, and I think some commentary would be helpful to distance us from any conceivable copyright issues. But I don't have the time to do this. So unless someone else does, it probably won't happen.

Regarding James' 25th anniversary project, James himself wrote an article on the subject of the anniversary. He alludes to the documentary at the end of the article (which he states is only part 1), but actively refrains from revealing it.
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Re: Medals

Post by Mystara »

I did consider splitting the "articles" into "articles" and "news stories" - since the former is significantly harder.

Aside from that, are there any other thoughts before I get some icons made up?
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