ESB:Proposals/Badges (discussion 2)

Open Proposal The following is an ongoing proposal. Please feel free to voice your opinion, but be sure to follow the rules. How proposals work Concerns stage Someone brings up a topic for a proposal. The community discusses that topic. Voting stage The proposal is brought to a vote, taking into account any changes discussed by the community. The community votes. You can use any of the following prior to your comments to show your opinion. {{Support}} • {{Neutral}} • {{Oppose}} • {{Change}} • {{Comment}} • {{Reply}} • {{Question}} Neutral votes do not count in determining the outcome percentage.

Introduction

Over the past year or so, there have been questions regarding badges. Some are in favor while others are opposed to them. We could enable or disable badges, or we could come up with a better solution. This discussion was used to collected opinions and ideas to get an overall discussion on badges. Here are the overall results for badges, pros and cons:

Pros

• Gives users a sense of achievement
• Motivates users to edit and be active
• Encourages new users to explore different aspects of the wiki
• Add a competitive element
• Disabling might discourage editing

Cons

• Badge farming
• Edit milking (which can clog the Recent Activity/Recent Changes)
• Badges do not consider quality of edits
• Other awards exist (UOTM and satisfaction for helping wiki)
• Overreaction/obsession when winning badges

Of course, if badges are kept, we can use suggestions brought up by users to address the issues, including those listed below, as well as the administration taking more authority in which badges should be used and which should not.

• Cracking down on badge farming
• Editing rules to prevent edit milking
• Add rules to restrict badge farming

If you think badges should be kept, use {{Support|Keep}}

If you think badges should be disabled, use {{Oppose|Disable}}

If you are neutral, use {{Neutral}}

This discussion will end on Wednesday, April 29, 2015 at 8:05 a.m., eastern time. — AMK152 (Wall • Contrib) 12:04, April 22, 2015 (UTC)

Discussion

• Neutral - I am actually neutral. I do see the benefits of badges, but I still don't like them. — AMK152 (Wall • Contrib) 12:04, April 22, 2015 (UTC)
• Disable - A few select users edit just to get badges, instead of focusing on improving the wiki. Also, per the cons. ~Prez 12:08, April 22, 2015 (UTC)
• Template:Extremely Strong Support -- SpongeQuackerpingu SquareStar (meow). 12:35, April 22, 2015 (UTC)
• Disable - They have caused problems and will likely continue to. Dragonballgtgoku ^{«Talk Page/Contribs»} 12:38, April 22, 2015 (UTC)
• Extremely Strongly Keep - Per what I said in the earlier discussion and the pros. Also, admins can revert all badge farming and even warn/block the badge farmers! We can't lose. We just can't. It's also very fun for some users like me. -- SBCA~Luis (Wall • Contribs) 12:41, April 22, 2015 (UTC)
• Keep - Definitely keep. They make you want to edit because then you get a reward for doing so. Badge farmers can easily be stopped by the admins patrolling the recent changes page for any users making small edits on a page repeatedly, or adding a bunch of irrelevant pictures, etc. but I stand for keeping them as they make editing quite fun. Lumoshi (talk)
• Strongly Keep - They are a nice reward for everyone to try and achieve. Come on people, we shouldn't let milkers ruin it for us. I know for a fact that at least 2 users (and probably more) are going to try and go platinum. How will they do that, if we cripple that source? Tan Ham Man 13:27,4/22/2015 
• Neutral - I'm not sure whether I should choose 'Keep' or 'Disable'. Badges have benefits for this wiki that motivates users to edit more and enjoy the rewards they/we may get for the hard work in helping the wiki to improve, but there are possibly some times that some users edit a lot more just to get badges instead of keeping in mind to help improve the wiki. If getting more badges is always in mind to users who desires to get really more badges than anyone else, there's a possibility that they keep editing but at some times, it may not be done properly since they just edit to get more badges and not really focusing on improving the articles in the wiki. - TheImaginativeS 05:57, April 23, 2015 (UTC)
• Neutral - Going platinum doesn't really mean a thing. It's just a badge. However, I am neutral since maybe there could be a rule in the blocking policy against obivious badge farming like editing the same page over and over again to earn badges quicker. I had problems with that in the past and blocked for that same reason. ZeoSpark  Talk  Contribs  Edits  14:12,4/22/2015 
• Keep - I Like Badges! Keep Em'! Keep Em'! - Ohmyheck 17:19, April 22, 2015 (ET)
• Neutral - I like badges, but I wouldn't miss them when they are disabled. --PatrickFan1 (talk) 18:26, April 22, 2015 (UTC)
• Template:Extremely Strong Support User:Dennison5210
• Keep - I think we should keep the badges, but make some rules to avoid badge farming, edit milking and things like that.  AW10  Talk  Contribs  E-Mail  21:19,4/22/2015 
  • You are only user here to have the 500 and 1,000 edits on transcript articles badges. - Jensonk
  • Umm, how is that revelant to this Jensonk? This is a discussion about weither to keep badges not one about a specific badge. It makes it look like you want transcript badges but you cannot since they are disabled... ZeoSpark  Talk  Contribs  Edits  22:24,4/22/2015 
  • Well, it's still badge related and I think it would have been better if the "episode transcript articles" badge was changed to "any transcript articles" instead off having that badge disabled.  - Jensonk
• Keep -  Nicko756 ^{(M•C•E) Sign!}  22:54, April 22, 2015 (UTC) 
• Keep - ~JCM 01:51, April 23, 2015 (UTC)