Background

Firstly I should point out that this is a proposal based on an old project from over 2 years ago:

http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Contribute-Innovation-Promotion/Community-Additions-Earn-Badges/td-p/52766

although it was proposed as an idea here by the OP:

http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Submit-Great-giffgaff-Ideas/Sidebar-Suggestions-Awards-System-amp-Model-Chooser/idi-p/52798

although it is marked 'Idea Vault', it did actually become developed into a super secret project at the time – developed from the Contribute thread which seemed to surpass anything on the Idea thread.

The idea of badges has come up on the 'listening' thread a couple of times now and there seems to be a feeling that it could be used to compliment the current ranking system. There is discussion around these posts:

http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Contribute-Innovation-Promotion/giffgaff-this-is-what-we-re-thinking-Are-you-listening/m-p/5136804/highlight/true#M128313

http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Contribute-Innovation-Promotion/giffgaff-this-is-what-we-re-thinking-Are-you-listening/m-p/6385306#M157767

and this has brought the subject to the fore again in a Community with a much wider base and different dynamic to the Community of 2 years ago.

I am aware of ideas like these:

http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Submit-Great-giffgaff-Ideas/Badges/idi-p/1445987

http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Submit-Great-giffgaff-Ideas/Have-a-quot-donator-quot-badge-to-your-name-if-you-donate/idi-p/546949

http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Submit-Great-giffgaff-Ideas/Award-a-vig-badge-for-a-achieving-a-set-ammount-of-stats/idi-p/6377874

but this would be a separately managed system and cover a broader and more inclusive spectrum.

Proposal

A dynamic series of fun badges to promote and highlight individual knowledge but also encourage wider participation in the Community. Unlike the ranking system everyone could work towards the badges that they wanted and badges would be earned outside the current ranking system. Some would have to have criteria similar to the elements that make up the ranking system – however, I should stress I don't know what elements make up the ranking system :-). Everyone would have their own set of badges and would be able to earn badges irrespective of rank. (Durning the discussion on listening I made an analogy to the badges gained as a Scout or Guide).

For example – off the top of my head (including trying to remember what went before):

Knowledge based badges (based on criteria – and similar to the ones in the Contribute thread linked above). For example

• kudos badge (maybe 3 levels of bronze, silver and gold)

• solutions badge (similar to kudos with levels)

• OS badge (based on what operating systems you know – maybe linked to the phone you have)

• Tag badge

• and if the KB test idea goes forward a badge for passing the KB test http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/ideas/v2/ideapage/blog-id/ideas_01/article-id/96576/comment-id/96694

Wider Community Badges

• Doing something for the Community

  • Idea badge (submitting an idea that gets the 20 kudos needed)
  • Guide (making a popular top tips post or a contribution to the KB)
  • Blog for giffgaff
  • Project manager (inc Off Topic community projects)
  • Social butterfly (helping out regularly on Social networks e.g. Facebook, twitter and google+)

• Fun Off Topic Badges (taken from past and present Off Topic areas)

  • Movie night
  • Game night
  • Cooking thread
  • Photography thread
  • Fantasy football
  • Competition participant (for Community competitions in Off Topic)

• Random fun badges
  
  • Giffgaff morning lark
  • Giffgaff vampire
  • Giffgaff geek
  • Custom avatar
  • Signature

Special badges

• Creating an app for giffgaff

• Artist (creating custom banners or leaflets for the Community)

• Gardener

• VIG

• Founder

• Veteran (being active on the community for a year or more and with a certain amount of posts).

• http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Submit-Great-giffgaff-Ideas/The-Very-Important-Thread-thread/idi-p/4741754

• recruiter (getting a certain number of people to join giffgaff e.g. 100 – although could be bronze, silver and gold levels)

• exceptional newbie (to encourage newbies to participate. Closed to anyone who has been registered for more than 2 months but highlights exceptional contributions of new giffgaffers in the first month or so on giffgaff)

These proposals are just ideas and are by no means set in stone :-)

Challenges

Within the original proposal Vincent highlighted several obstacles e.g. not being able to display them beside current user names and taking a lot of development:

http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Contribute-Innovation-Promotion/Community-Additions-Earn-Badges/m-p/54062/highlight/true#M2756

Gaming was also another consideration.

Some of the badges would require management by the Educators who already have a heavy Community work load.

There were concerns expressed that any further award would create divisions in the Community.

I expect that it would largely need to be developed as part of the 'apps platform' and be a seperate page.

Benefits

• Highlighting knowledge of individuals in the Community setting

  • everyone is different and has their expertise in a different area

  • Helping new members identify who is providing good information based on their skills set but irrespective of rank

• Encouraging people to participate in all areas of the Community

• Tailored to the individual – after all a Community is made up of individuals :-)

Precedence

• we already have a ranking system

• exceptional members have gained the VIG badges and early adopters have a founder badge. Other badges e.g. the Very Important Thread badge have been proposed

• exceptional giffgaffers can gain a special rank

This would reward achievement on a wider scale while incorporating the elements that already exist for highlighting participation. It would be open to all to do as little or as much as they want.