Would this be replacing the handcuffs?

I don't know if I would like that... badges aren't as kinky.

Hey, Nathaniel Hawthorne, ease up on the social engineering, wouldja?

Dag, are you bored? Surely we have enough negative energy around here at the moment. If you want some entertainment, let Choggie back in for a bit.

>> ^RhesusMonk:

Hey, Nathaniel Hawthorne, ease up on the social engineering, wouldja?


Is dag writing a book about all this?

I feel this branding my arm already.

Monkey.

>> ^gorillaman:

Monkey.


*troll

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Well, I've had a few suggestions around negative badges- and wanted to use this as an example. Maybe we keep things happy happy joy joy then.

Bring it. The only problem is that completionists will try to "grind" their way to the negative badges too.

If there's gonna be a bewb badge, you know I'm gonna be all over that.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

^That's very true- some would wear the negative badge with honor- which is not really the intended result.

Oh, a badge of shame! I've got a suggestion.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Don't make break out my Siftler avatar.
>> ^Crake:

Oh, a badge of shame! I've got a suggestion.

Actually, if the "negative" badges were done as a temporary thing, they could work to promote the wanted behavior out of users, obviously there are a few moral quandries about "forcing" people that way, but if done delicately, it could work.

"Spammer/blah blah" - 15+ comments in a row without positive votes
"Uphill battle" - 10 videos went straight to PQ
"Hoarder" - 100+ videos in the PQ
"Doppelgänger" - posted 5+ videos which were dupes (and dupeoffed)
"AWOL" - no videos sifted, no comments made, no votes cast in the last month
"Lurker" - no videos or comments posted
"Big P / Here's what I think" - no videos posted, many comments

Positive:
"on a roll" - X videos in a row gone straight to top 15

I like gwiz' suggestion of an built-in mechanism better, both for positive and negative badges.
Having it as an invocation is just asking for abuse.

I do think, however, that there are subtler, friendlier ways of encouraging good behavior.

In the longer term, I also think that the best way to scale up the Sift while keep coherence and quality, is to allow differentiation and self-regulation of sub-sifts.

Colonial frontier -> independent states -> federal union, something like that. [edit], it's a good cure for imperial overextension.

Value-laden badges do not promote differentiation.

No negative badges, please. I don't feel like elaborating right now, but trust me when I say that it's a bad idea.

^Yeah, probably not good to make all out negative badges, but I do think some of the suggestions I made above could be used, as they're not framed as all negative, more like informative.

We already have sort of a negative branding with the Scarlet P.

Bah. Real men incorporate their shame into their username.

If a troll's job is to troll...and you badge them with the troll badge...that badge may become coveted by trolls. Essentially, you'd be feeding the trolls.

trolls.

Negative badges are a great idea. A good way to balance the bad with the good. To dissuade people from actively grinding for them, you could create a penalty box, wherein folks are limited to a single queued video at a time, or a weekly sift talk post where we could all mock them mercilessly.

(I'm a spammer and a hoarder, so I'd be fair game too)

No.

*controversy

Adding post to channels (Controversy) - requested by MrFisk.

Too easy to create multiple accounts and abuse this system if it were based off invocations. gwiz has a decent automated system idea but negative badges will be grinded and abused just as the positive ones are. You'd be reinforcing trolling behavior when the best strategy is to ignore the trolls.

(andy rooney voice)
how about a badge for when i leave my coffee upstairs and have to make another trip back up to get it

No. Just give one single "Downvote King" badge to Ant and leave it at that.

No. This is a terrible idea. You want to shame people into doing what you wish? Social engineering like that never works.

"I know, if we offer the death penalty that will stop murder altogether! It's brilliant!"

Meritocracy is what you wished for, dag. Stick with that and call it a day.

It's a no from me. Too much of a negative thing that you'd essentially be promoting.

What about a simple overall +/- voting stat? A downvote is -1 and an upvote is +1. I'd like to see Ant's score at a glance.

although...if there were a "horrible idea" badge, you'd definitely earn it on this one, dag.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

And I would wear it with pride- which I guess is a good example of why this wouldn't work. >> ^rottenseed:

although...if there were a "horrible idea" badge, you'd definitely earn it on this one, dag.

I like GWiz's approach of making them automatic, not through invocations.

However, I don't know about the troll badge, because its a very nebulous thing (some trolls get upvotes, because there are folks who enjoy their trolling, so you couldn't just use up/downvote ratio to calculate it.)

Can we give Blankfist an 'exaggeration' badge for equating the idea with the death penalty? And double points for the first person to invoke Hitler?

^Double points for me!

@Crake lemme just get out my branding iron...

I dislike the negative badge idea, for the reasons others have said.

I do like the idea of gwiz though... A collection of non-negative badges that you get automatically based on sifting/commenting behaviour.

For instance, I do more commenting than video posting, so would like to see some badges based around quality of comments

More positive/fun stuff, less negative beating people with the rules stuff please.

Hitler thought it was a really good idea to give certain citizens negative badges.

>> ^kymbos:

Can we give Blankfist an 'exaggeration' badge for equating the idea with the death penalty? And double points for the first person to invoke Hitler?


You're welcome.

dag, you have kids... you know when you reward a negative behavior with lots of attention, you get more negative behavior. and maybe you're going with the idea that we're all adults here...... and in that case you're just being naive.

*godwined!

@gwiz665

Is... is that what you call it?

I agree that badges would only be a form of troll-feeding.

As I said once before, I think it would be useful to have a more robust Ignore function, one that reduces an ignored user's comments down to a single gray line saying "comment ignored", without showing a username or icon. And if enough starred users (say, 15 or 20) choose to ignore that user, all other users would also have that user's comments hidden by default. Then a user would have the option to unhide a specific user (if they enjoy reading troll comments for laughs) or even choose to "never auto-hide". This would reduce the audience given to people bringing negative energy to the sift rather than highlighting them, while still giving the masochists their troll fix. And an average user would never have to think twice about it. The trolls themselves would never know the difference, and there would be much less need for bans or restrictions.

It is known by many names in many cultures...
>> ^Crake:

@gwiz665
Is... is that what you call it?

"Big P / Here's what I think" - no videos posted, many comments

I would be the perfect candidate for this one. I only have a few videos that made it since I'm really lousy at posting new stuff

I like the idea of badges for various behaviours, but negative actions shouldn't earn any attention at all... except perhaps downvotes and quiet disabling of features and ultimately... choggination in a worst case scenario. just my two cents. not sure if I'll agree with myself after I wake up. ;

I'm actually getting more and more fond of the "behaviour badges", which sorta define you as a sifter-type. They could be great for the next expansion pack.

Personally, I think "no" on the sifter-assigned badges. Too much drama. And "maybe" on the "achievement" style badges. If you go for the achievement style badges, here are a few I just thought of...

"Resident Republican"...consistently downvoted comments in the Politics channel.
"The QuantuMushroom Award"...use the word "obamarxist" (or any other conservative talking point portmanteau) in more than half of your comments.

You know, something QM and WP can wear with pride.

Society is interesting enough to poke your head into every once in a while - just to see whats "new" - but boy is it depressing to partake in for long.

I'd like to think this human experiment won't go (completely) to shit in my lifetime, but if this thread/site is a microcosm of what it is and whats to come as of 2010...then jeez...think we'll make it?

When will we learn that we've already learned this lesson before?

R.I.P Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990)

On the other hand, I'd be all for a Terrible Jokes badge and a Uninsightful Comments badge... I nominate myself for both

Does this mean I'm going to get the "Accidental Asshole" badge? I come off as an asshole, reading all of my comments in the past week.

I'm really a nice guy, please don't badge me!

Negative badges could have inadvertent effects, and it could have good effects. Perhaps no one will know what will happen without an experiment.

I like the sift for the conversation, and I learn things. I don't really pay attention to the new badges. Let's say that this place is much better than you-tube for discussion; and a far cry from Live Leak in open-mindedness.

>> ^jiyanibi:

Personally, I think "no" on the sifter-assigned badges. Too much drama. And "maybe" on the "achievement" style badges. If you go for the achievement style badges, here are a few I just thought of...
"Resident Republican"...consistently downvoted comments in the Politics channel.
"The QuantuMushroom Award"...use the word "obamarxist" (or any other conservative talking point portmanteau) in more than half of your comments.
You know, something QM and WP can wear with pride.


The word portmanteau makes me think of a cajun sandwiches; and now I'm hungry.