📢 Upcoming Community Interface and Navigation Updates!

I noticed the threaded reply and the change from rank to job title. I think both are helpful updates.

Darbie

The addition of people titles/jobs gives great context to a lot of peoples insight and questions, I'm finding that very helpful already.

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?

Is anyone else having issues with the read/unread post boldness?

I've read all these posts, but the titles remain bold text rather than switching to regular text.

Jes Stafford

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.

Aily Roper

At the moment you can't choose, but that's a good idea. If you were to prioritize some categories of badges (ie. leaderboard winner) over others to show, generally what "types" of badges/identifiers are the ones that matter to you?

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:

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.
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
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.

I'm not as motivated by badge collecting, but it does help represent creditability when interacting with new users. At the same time, it implies that someone without a lot of badges may not be as knowledgeable just because they recently joined.

A couple of ideas to consider would be to limit the number of badges shown to five, but the user decides which five. BoardGameGeek does this so each user can prioritize which five are most important to them.

Second, maybe we can mix and match the job title and rank by color coding the title (font or background), so your color changes based on your rank/tier.

There is currently a limit of 5 badges being shown within posts/comments. We appreciate the feedback though @Luke Shiras and @bcostlow!

With regards to the job titles and ranks, we're hoping to display both at some point in the future. 🙂

Jes Stafford

@Marco M Looks like you might also need to check on multiple post notifications appearing.

Looks like duplicate posts in the feed as well.

Yup! Looking to resolve the post and any type of duplication soon.

I love BGG. I didn't want to give a priority list necessarily, because I think customizing the selection is way better. It allows you to demonstrate what aspects of your activity you personally value. I was just trying to respond thoughtfully to Aily asking how I would prioritize badges

Also. I like the tiered title thing. Since you are one of the highest ranking members at the moment, it would be immensely helpful to new members to be able to see how active and supportive you have been without even needing to dive into your profile just to see that.

I guess if they end up showing both as @Marco M said that would be fine too, but I'd say the rank is at least as important as the badge spread in giving a snapshot of someone's potential knowledge, experience, and activity.

I just noticed the OP tag. Like it!

I see the navigation has changed. It broke my shortcut (not a problem), but it was less intuitive at first because the new "discussions" page format brought all the old "pinned" posts to the top. It might be good to limit the number of pinned posts to three or fewer or move them to a sidebar or something.

UPDATES

March 17

Left side navigation added (more coming soon)
Simplified top navigation menu (Community | Product | Learn | Help)
- These now link to the new Hubs:
  - Community Hub: Community Talk, Monthly Community Challenges, Community News
  - Product Hub: Product Suggestions, Early Access (Labs, Beta)
  - Learning Hub: What's New, Tips & Tricks
  - Help Hub: Submit a Ticket, Technical Support Site, Bluebeam University, Download Center

We'll look into this, Luke.