Egg ranks (and possible rank toggling)

[HeroLinik]

I wasn't sure whether to put this in Q&A or make its own topic, but considering it's more of a suggestion, I decided to put it as its own topic.

So if you some of you may recall, this was quite an old contest that was run three years back for Easter 2017, where some eggs were edited into posts and you had to find the posts that contained the eggs. The first people to find and claim an egg would post it in the respective topic (which was here) and they would obtain an egg role. While it was a cute event, I'm going to have to be honest, I'm starting to get a little bored of the egg ranks. Also, considering Easter has long passed, there's no real purpose to the egg ranks at this point in time. While you could say "well, you shouldn't have taken part in the event!" it's easy to expect the ranks to be some kind of temporary thing, considering it's a contest tie-in. This also isn't the first time permanent contest roles have been a thing either, if you recall back on Knux's forum, Shy User had an "Annoyin' Pixie Rank" for winning a contest back in 2013, and while you expect that to be a temporary rank, nope, it was permanent (although that was slightly mitigated by the fact that this was right before the merger with SMBX Revived). While others may disagree with what I'm about to say, this is why I'm proposing this suggestion in the first place.

So what I'm suggesting is, in light of what I've said, a possible toggle between special ranks and default ranks. For stuff like the level reviewer rank, it can be easily solved by making it its own role colour, somewhat akin to the old level judges; it also makes it easier to tell from a distance that they're level reviewers, rather than having to get as close to their profile as possible.

What are your thoughts on this?

[Emral]

Abolish post ranks, bring back medals!

[HeroLinik]

Abolish post ranks, bring back medals!

I honestly lowkey forgot about the medals. While they did get implemented, they didn't really get much use and the only notable medal that was used was the "Snowman" medal, which was only carried by the mod team at the time. There might have been some other medals, but they aren't that memorable which suggests how underutilised and how quickly the medal system was resigned.

But honestly though, we could probably bring those back as a substitute for contest ranks.

[MECHDRAGON777]

Abolish post ranks, bring back medals!

I honestly lowkey forgot about the medals. While they did get implemented, they didn't really get much use and the only notable medal that was used was the "Snowman" medal, which was only carried by the mod team at the time. There might have been some other medals, but they aren't that memorable which suggests how underutilised and how quickly the medal system was resigned.

But honestly though, we could probably bring those back as a substitute for contest ranks.

I am in favor of the medals instead of post ranks as well. I remember there was a medal for having your suggestion get used by the forums as well.

[Cedur]

You can request an admin to bring you back on the normal rank track. I did that a while ago, bc I crossed 6000 posts and there was nobody left on the Toad rank, and I'd also eventually like to know the ranks past Link! If you ever decide to remove the ranks then pls reveal them all.

Btw level reviewers also ran their course, nobody gives official reviews anymore

[Taycamgame]

You can request an admin to bring you back on the normal rank track. I did that a while ago, bc I crossed 6000 posts and there was nobody left on the Toad rank, and I'd also eventually like to know the ranks past Link! If you ever decide to remove the ranks then pls reveal them all.

Btw level reviewers also ran their course, nobody gives official reviews anymore

Level reviewers kinda died down a short while after I gained my gold egg rank (which visually replaced the level reviewer rank I already had). I can't remember the exact reason why they were abolished, but they aren't really needed anymore. Creating levels should be about having fun; having reviews mixed in makes it feel like a competition of sorts, which LOTM already fulfills the role of.

BTW what actually are medals and how are they different to normal ranks?

[Emral]

Creating levels should be about having fun; having reviews mixed in makes it feel like a competition of sorts, which LOTM already fulfills the role of.

LOTM doesn't give designers aiming to improve any feedback. Regular contests fill that role to a greater extent, but casual reviews aren't bad to have for people who wanna improve when no contest is going on.

Medals are different to ranks in that they...
- don't change by pointlessly posting
- reflect some form of achievement or contribution to the community
- are manually awarded, for example to people placing high in a contest

[Cedur]

Casual reviews are good, and still happen to some extent, just not from the people having the official rank.

Also medals were permanent badges that existed around 2015. I saw them but I don't really remember many of them. There were some for staff and contest winners and participants etc ... Like, some of them could also be requested, like "Helpful user" for people who often help to clear issues up and post in Help & Support etc

Also spamming posts to get postcount up is pointless and disallowed, but sticking around and staying active and having a lot to say is not.

[Emral]

Also spamming posts to get postcount up is pointless and disallowed, but sticking around and staying active and having a lot to say is not.

Of course, but with post-based ranks some (newer) people might get the impression that the people with a fancier rank have higher authority (I've certainly fallen into that trap when I was new on knux' forums). Simply tracking the post count on the profile indicates the amount of time a user has been around well enough.

[Cedur]

Also spamming posts to get postcount up is pointless and disallowed, but sticking around and staying active and having a lot to say is not.

Of course, but with post-based ranks some (newer) people might get the impression that the people with a fancier rank have higher authority (I've certainly fallen into that trap when I was new on knux' forums). Simply tracking the post count on the profile indicates the amount of time a user has been around well enough.

I'd say this still holds without rank and it is indeed very true ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Taycamgame]

Also spamming posts to get postcount up is pointless and disallowed, but sticking around and staying active and having a lot to say is not.

Of course, but with post-based ranks some (newer) people might get the impression that the people with a fancier rank have higher authority (I've certainly fallen into that trap when I was new on knux' forums). Simply tracking the post count on the profile indicates the amount of time a user has been around well enough.

I'd say this still holds without rank and it is indeed very true ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Touching on the idea of post count indicating time user has been around. Not necessarily true; I have only got 1372 posts even though I've been here since mid-2017. However, I often do browse the forums without having anything to say; perhaps a "total hours spent online" thing would be cool but that's a whole other topic. But yeah post count is only really an indicator of how much one has gotten involved in conversations rather than the amount of time they've been around.

Anyway I really like the idea of medals. Sounds much better than post ranks, and as they could even be personalised for each individual, I see a whole lot more potential with medals than the current rank system (which only really acts like a bunch of milestones, e.g. "congrats you got 10 posts", or "congrats you got 100 posts"). I'd really like to see them implemented at some point!

[aero]

These are the next rank increments:
Link - 7000
??? - 8000
??? - 9000
??? - 10000
??? - 1000000

Right now waiting to see what gets "unlocked" depends on a couple of users constantly posting rather than before where it'd be more common. I support getting rid of ranks entirely purely for reducing post sizes, but they kind of already ran their course because nobody is going to get these last two for several years at this rate. I'd be okay with medals, but the mod we had is way out of date and afaik there isn't one that replaces it.

[Valentine]

but i like being an egg....

[MECHDRAGON777]

These are the next rank increments:
Link - 7000
??? - 8000
??? - 9000
??? - 10000
??? - 1000000

Right now waiting to see what gets "unlocked" depends on a couple of users constantly posting rather than before where it'd be more common. I support getting rid of ranks entirely purely for reducing post sizes, but they kind of already ran their course because nobody is going to get these last two for several years at this rate. I'd be okay with medals, but the mod we had is way out of date and afaik there isn't one that replaces it.

To be fair, I have a good idea of a few of them, but Enjl would be the closest to that "9000" rank if he did not have that "Easter" rank. Also, why was their ever a rank at "1.000.000 posts"?

[aero]

It's a joke rank. I guess it's an inside joke because nobody will ever reach it, and it's not that funny so it's hardly a joke at all. The decision to put it there is an enigma.

Also since Enjl is indeed pretty close to 9000 and the egg rank is hiding the 8000 rank, I think it's okay to show the 8000 post rank here:

[Taycamgame]

It's a joke rank. I guess it's an inside joke because nobody will ever reach it, and it's not that funny so it's hardly a joke at all. The decision to put it there is an enigma.

Also since Enjl is indeed pretty close to 9000 and the egg rank is hiding the 8000 rank, I think it's okay to show the 8000 post rank here:

Are the last 3 Nintendo characters or do they relate to SMBX community people (e.g. it wouldn't be far fetched to think the last rank is Redigit)? Or are they something completely different (such as any popular SMBX memes that I'm probably unaware of)?

[Cedur]

Thanks for showcasing the 8000 rank. Also I expected there to be a bit more beyond 10,000 :>

[HeroLinik]

Okay, so I did some more digging regarding the egg ranks, and I found an otherwise strange response regarding the state of the ranks. This is in response to when I posed the same question three years ago, when the ranks were more relevant due to the contest having been run only three months prior. While it can be brushed off as an otherwise sarcastic response, it should be noted that underFlo/Spinda ran the event in the first place, which could lead to some alarming credibility. I could just reach out to them personally, but they've not been active for over a year now.

Just to make it crystal clear so it's not confused; were the whole egg hunt/ranks actually some kind of elaborate April Fools' joke, and being labelled with the rank suggests you fell for it?

[Emral]

How does the host of the event saying this about the event make the credibility alarming? It's pretty obvious that that post came true and the ranks ended up being permanent. Surely ranks aren't important enough to get upset over this.

[Cedur]

Again, just ask Aero if you want to get rid off the egg.