What do you think about "What I like to do" medallions

[CodeTRUCKER]

I was wondering about the feasibility to implement some kind of medallions in the I.D. area under our UID and avatar.  I am not perfectly clear on the particulars, but I thought I would throw it out and see what happened.

[Ampa]

• A loudhailer - I love to direct.
• A questionmark - I love to perform improv
• A storybook - I love telling stories
• A hand - I love holding hands, and making physical contact with the people I love
• An hourglass - I like to (?) procrastinate

[CodeTRUCKER]

Yes, this is kind of what I was thinking.

[CodeTRUCKER]

• An hourglass - I like to (?) procrastinate

Hah!  I never considered "procrastinating" a skill! 

[tomos]

• A loudhailer - I love to direct.

lol
laugh of the year so far

hmmmm, I really like the lists - guess I'm unsure what to "define" myself as
and
maybe a bit afraid that once "defined", people might start thinking about me as - oh, Tom, he's xyz
but then I always did worry too much about what others think of me
it's 11pm here so i sleep on it

[mouser]

I've been trying to get Wordzilla to code this, I really want it.
If he refuses I will have to code it myself eventually.
Or maybe another smf coder will come to the rescue -- there is already some very close mods for smf forums out there, they just need a bit of tweaking.

[CodeTRUCKER]

I would agree and it is something I had also considered; in that, my purpose was not to burden any one person.  Leveraging anything already there is certainly the best path.

[CWuestefeld]

This might be worth discussing, but I think you have to look at this through a DonationCoder lens. The site's raison d'etre is technology and computer software specifically, so an indication of your love of music is only appropriate insofar as it relates to computer software. So I wouldn't want to see this devolve into an "Metallica kicks butt!" badge (or in my case, "anarcho-capitalism rules!"  ) marker.

But for me, since I've helped develop music composition software, the music thing might be appropriate. Or because I'm currently working with b2b ecommerce software, I might want to indicate to other users that this is an area of interest to me.

[CodeTRUCKER]

I think it would also be in "focus" for people that use music composition software, like Finale or Sibelius.

[Edit - I have changed my post below to reflect that the idea is centered around coding and technology.][/b]

[Darwin]

I like the idea - as CodeTrucker noted, I already know more about him, ampa, and Chris (cwesterfield).

maybe a bit afraid that once "defined", people might start thinking about me as - oh, Tom, he's xyz

And I had you pegged as an abc type... who knew?! 

[tomos]

And I had you pegged as an abc type... who knew?! 

OMG maybe I wuz an ABC type all along..

[Edit - I have changed my post below to reflect that the idea is centered around coding and technology.][/b]

eh,
BTW I dont think it should have to be centred around coding/technology but then I cant code, but I wouldnt mind one for interest in (digital) photography
[edit] which qualifies as technical anyways

[Darwin]

Yup. Agreed - I'd meant to make that point in my post above - I am not against people listing non-computer/software/technology related interests as this gives me, and others, a better idea of who they are and what makes them tick!

[CodeTRUCKER]

Yup. Agreed - I'd meant to make that point in my post above - I am not against people listing non-computer/software/technology related interests as this gives me, and others, a better idea of who they are and what makes them tick!

Given what CWuestefeld brought to the table above, what would you see as a amiable arrangement?  He does present a valid point?

[CodeTRUCKER]

We do not have to do anything definitive at this time.  I really wanted to get people thinking and seed some discussion.

[Lashiec]

Wouldn't be better to use a rotating userbar, like the one CWuestefeld uses? Appending more symbols to someone's profile means more clutter in that zone, and some people have quite some of it, with IM details, DC medals and everything. Besides, only Gods know how many medals Wordzilla or someone else would have to create to reflect the eclecticism of DC :)

[jgpaiva]

Besides, only Gods know how many medals Wordzilla or someone else would have to create to reflect the eclecticism of DC

True...
What if each one of us created his own medals? Then, others could reuse them (if they refered to the same).
As codetrucker metioned, a "procastinator" medal would be widespread, as a "software" medal would be too.

Here are my 5:
gridmove
opera
ist (that's where i study)
music
heart

(only now did i notice that order makes no sense, but oh well..)

Actually, now that i think of it.. Maybe we wouldn't need any mod at all! each of us could just make the badges and add them to our sign. All they need is to have a similar size. As for hosting... I don't think that'd be a problem, right mouser?

[tinjaw]

codeTRUCKER, I think your *idea* is good, but your suggested *implementation* isn't. Why? For the same reasons people have complained about the content of signatures. What you are asking for I agree would add some personality but is also already implemented 1) by having sig blocks 2) by having a personal page. In short, there are already means to allow somebody to learn about others in a way that doesn't "clutter" the threads. Basically your icon and your sig are socially acceptable means for expressing yourself and others can "click to learn more".

[Darwin]

Yup. Agreed - I'd meant to make that point in my post above - I am not against people listing non-computer/software/technology related interests as this gives me, and others, a better idea of who they are and what makes them tick!

Given what CWuestefeld brought to the table above, what would you see as a amiable arrangement?  He does present a valid point?

The only issue I can see is that in order to accomodate everyone's interests we'd need a LOT of medallions   I *think* that we could have, say, 5 - 10 medallions and users can pick 5 as you suggested. These could be very broad categories such as "photography", "software", "development", "music", etc. I dunno... now that you've challenged me to come up with a suggestion I can see how difficult this would be, because we'd probably need an enourmous diversity of medallions to accomodate the enormous diversity that exists here at DC. Food for thought.

Great suggestion, though, nonetheless, CodeTrucker  

While I typed the above tinjaw and jgpaiva weighed in and made valid points. I still like the idea, despite tinjaw's comments. Why? Because I often forget to click on a poster's personal page. Regarding jgpaiva's suggestion that we each create our own medallions, I think that that would get out of hand, fast. For one thing, look at the differences in opinion that we've already seen about how to represent improvisation! If people start putting medallions up there's got to be some standardization so that everyone knows what the medallions are meant to represent!

[jgpaiva]

When i meant that each could make their own badge, i forgot to mention they'd respect common aspects like size and theme...
IMO, they'd be just simple small images (i'm thinking the size of a smilie), which represent objects (like a beer cup or a tomatoe), symbols (like the c# symbol or the opera symbol), or emotions (music note or heart) that would describe the user. Also, there could be a standard number of them, and a standard placing (like in the beggining of the sign, or something like that).

[CodeTRUCKER]

What about the creation of a repository, kind of like the "smilies" available for DC?

[CodeTRUCKER]

Anyone here should be capable of creating a simple tiny graphic, especially given how many apps abound for reducing pictures to icons.  Just in case someone found it difficult there is certainly enough talent to help out.

[tinjaw]

But my medallions will need to be hidden behind NSFW medallions.

[Grinning, Ducking & Running]

[jgpaiva]

* jgpaiva gets his hunting rifle and chases tinjaw

Here are my atempts at 2 medalions:
(for coding snacks)
(for GridMove)

[Edit] Looks like these are a bit too big. It's unfortunate that not everyone has an svg-compatible browser (aka firefox or opera), or i'd post the source images and we could make them as small or big as we'd like [/edit]

[edit2] edited the images to a smaller size. I think this size is way better[/edit2]

[app103]

Speaking of medallion ideas, I think anybody that has ever done a coding snack should have one, as well as NANY & GOE participants. They could link to the appropriate sections for them, like the coding snacks download page, NANY (the particular year) and GOE pages.

Not to mention people that submitted software for other various competitions should have an appropriate medalion.

If we start giving people too many to be displayed under their avatar, you could just show the 5 most recent and the rest on their profile.

And if an Instant Boss one is wanted/needed, here ya go:

[tinjaw]

<class clown humor>
If you folks are going to get medallions, then I want embedded audio so I can show my personality via techno beats!
</class clown humor>

Somehow jgpaiva's examples seem more "palatable" by being DC-focused than attempting to iconize the expansive diversity (OK, I need to go grab my first cup of morning coffee right about now.) of interests all 100,000 members have.

* tinjaw goes off to grab a cup of java [attachimg=#]

P.S. Don't forget that I have suggested something similar in the past.