Suggestion SB Staff Icon

[cornfed]

I like the "SB Staff" icon you guys are using. It was becoming difficult to tell who was a moderator and the icon is much better then the colored names you were using for a while.

 

[Ted S]

Custom user titles are not a public feature at this time.

 

[Tamas]

oh! when will the feature be turned on again?

 

[Ted S]

There are no plans to turn it on for general users.

 

[archman]

Arch...the only problem I can see is anyone could claim to be a scientist, pro photographer, educator, etc. but without providing qualified credentials in order to get such a blue button, what's the difference from the user titles? Yes, some will gladly produce those credentials but some won't and will be offended when asked to do so. Plus, the Mods and Staff have enough to do now without verifying all the catagories you suggest. It's easy to veryify the DM's and Instructors for that forum. But others would be very difficult.

Yeah Dee, that WAS a problem I thought about. My solution would be to have folks that wanted themselves tagged as authorities in their field contact site support directly. They can wave around whatever credentials they think necessary to pass muster. I agree that credentialed titles (MD's, emergency services) would be tricky. Then again, remember that this is still a bloody internet message board, not the real world (we can get away with far less stringent "reference checks"). And the TOS I believe specifically has something in it about the medical forums being non-professional.

In many cases I believe it will be mostly longstanding members requesting blue boxes, and they'll have established a rep for their expertise (i.e. Gilligan and you as photo guru's) that'll assist with the decision. It also gives tech admin the flexibility to create new blue box designations as the circumstances permit.
This method would be useful as:

A. Many areas of expertise are only represented by a handful of members; there probably isn't a blue box set up for it but it sure would be handy.

B. Keeps the profile setup less cluttered with rarely buttoned selections (i.e. Doctor)

C. Takes actual work and persistence to get your blue box enabled... sort of like the "harassment efforts" most of you mods performed to be, well, mods.

D. Puts a human in the loop for overall decision making. Keeps errors due to software glitches/loopholes down.

Overall it's pretty simple. Admin thinks up some nice categories that might be well received, and posts them as a sticky in some relevant low-profile forum (like this one). Folks that are interested visit the link and try their luck. If there's a category not present that someone thinks is a great idea, they can suggest it.

I need to stop writing now.

 

[The Chairman]

While it is "simple" on one level, the volume of such a thing for our 30,000+ members is eye-boggling. We may be adding this type of feature when we add full time staff to deal with it!

 

[cornfed]

While it is "simple" on one level, the volume of such a thing for our 30,000+ members is eye-boggling. We may be adding this type of feature when we add full time staff to deal with it!

Even then I think it would be off little value. There are many people with different levels of expertise but I do no think they need to be spelled out. There are certain people, ie moderators, that should be easily identifiable. Using the same form of identification for photographers, ems workers, instructors, scientists, etc will distract attention away from the people who's title should be immediately obvious.

I'm sorry to say this, but I don't care if you like to take pictures, have an instructor's card, drive an ambulance or work in some high tech laboratory because your opinion doesn't care much weight until you have the posting history to back it up. You need to develop a reputation on the board before being labeled an authority is some area. Some people are able to do this wish a few posts while others are unable to achieve this not matter how frequently they post.

This is not true of moderators. A moderator assumes a certain amount of authority the minute they are appointed, and they lose it immediately should they relinquish the position for any reason. Because of this it should be as easy as possible to identify them. And the best way to quickly single them out is to use a unique method of identification.

Allowing other groups to use the same means of identification would be counterproductive. It provides an unnecessary pat on the back while detracting from what I assume was the original intention of the icons.

 

[archman]

I like your argument about "patting on the back" and counterproductivities. That is certainly a nearby pit that the flow of the blue boxes could fall into. I also agree about folks having some posting history.

Keeping that in mind, if you notice we have "instructors" blue boxed... I don't have to remind folks about the wide variety of competence found there (I'm assuming they're current, at least), much less posting histories. This looks precisely like a "pat on the back" instance, as I would consider that particular designation of far less informative value than the "doctor" or "moderator" ones we have, and also of less value than many we don't currently have up. After all, this is a scuba board; finding instructors is simple as pie. So if we're going to base ID tags based on an elevated usefulness scale higher than what I propose (which is what I'm interpreting from the argument), some of the existing ones would have to be reevaluated.

I have a binary solution set in my mind, one that:
A. involves SB staff and support folks (greeters, the forum doctors) only.
B. Includes the A-set, but also incorporates useful specialists and experts for the forums.

I have just as many discussions with new members as old ones. Newer folks do not have the advantage of knowing who all the old hands are, but have to feel their way around. I think the "B" option caters to that demographic perfectly. It's a form of customer service.

And I thought SB had full time staff. It's so nice and pretty around here... I even stopped going to Deco Stop.