Best Of

I'm so glad you asked, but I'm about to rant, so if this is too much I think blame falls back on you for opening this can of worms, Aily. lol

I'm about to tell on myself here. I grew up collecting all sorts of things as a kid like trading cards, hotwheels, POGs and comic books. I still follow the scene but have no collections of my own anymore. Generally speaking, collectibles gain small amounts of value just for no longer being easy to find or for being a variant of just any ol' item. But they sky rocket when they were limited edition, variant design, have a significantly desirable signature or generally harder to acquire in the first place (think promos or tournament prizes). So, the Nolan Ryan rookie card, the 1st Edition Holographic Charizard, the historic introduction of a main stream hero (Action Comics #1), or a misprint/variant of an otherwise already rare item (so like a mistake, parody, joke, special edition, guest artist or discontinued item).

I guess translating that to badges I would probably rank them about like this:

1. Educators/BUG Champ/Academics/Beta Program/BCP/BCI - all those badges that you only get under specific criteria live these should be rated highly for showing community involvement, insight, and determination to build the community as a whole. these are like getting an ultra rare comic or card signed by the creator. May not have great trade value, but they will definitely have great personal value.
2. the monthly leaderboard winners - gold color gives the variant look. only rewarding to one person make them very rare like the tournament prize. personalizing it with the month and date makes it a good fan-service thing kind of like a signature on a baseball
   1. As a side note: Since you could theoretically receive several of these, over the course of time, it might be good to prioritize the most recent ones so it shows recent level of activity
3. anniversay - sure it's automatic, but if you entered the community early enough you'll pretty much always have a badge others can take the time to envy and hopefully seek to attain.
4. combo breaker - it's sort of obscure in how to obtain it so it's a bit of a "misprint" but also a bit more work is needed to get it even when you know what unlocks it, so it retains the rarity factor
5. tiered badges - any of those badges that kind of have levels to them give the promo, rarity, and difficulty vibes so as they go up in level they clearly become more cool. standard color badges go at this level. the highest tiers that have different colors would go up to 1 or 2.
6. monthly challege badges - usually we just need to follow a few steps and get the prize, but if you aren't active at the time you might miss a really cool looking badge
7. debut - this badge is unique in coloring right now and is a good indicator that you've really embraced the community, so it definitely deserves recognition.
8. everything else - all collectibles have value. sometimes a full set is worth way more the the individuals that make up the set, so probably just organize the others by how recently they were unlocked? but all serve to show progress and activity in the community

Edit: One last thing. Even if a badge is relatively easy to get, if I'm only one of 5 people with it, I'm gonna want to show it off until it's no longer a hidden gem. Collectors are a prideful people at times, so it's all about having what others want, even if they don't know they want it yet. :)

Edit 2: I went to look over the available badges and I realized I missed a couple categories.

Enjoying the adjustments so far! Thanks for this post.

@Luke Shiras I have noticed that posts show BOLD after I have read them if they have new comments.

The bold posts is an issue we're looking into. Likely due to us moving some things on the backend. We're hoping it'll be resolved soon. Sorry for the inconveinence, I know it's nice to know when you've already read a post or not.

Yes. The job title thing is pretty cool. I look forward to seeing what is to come. Also, can we choose which badges are shown?