Dec 30, 2025, 3:56 am
FlyerTalk Badges Launch
Oct 4, 2024 | 1:54 am
#91
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: UK
Programs: Mucci. And BA Silver previous awards - Gold 13, Silver 7, Bronze 4.
Posts: 7,824
Edit to add: How about a variable country numbers badge? So if someone has been to 87, they can just choose 87 from a drop down box. And the background colours to the badge can be coded in bands e.g. 1-25 one colour, 26-50 the next and so on.
Last edited by BA or bust; Oct 4, 2024 at 2:00 am
Oct 4, 2024 | 4:23 am
#92
Join Date: Oct 2012
Programs: TK EP, AF Platinum for life, something in Oneworld not worth to mention...
Posts: 1,030
and how to turn them on? shows locked for me...
Oct 4, 2024 | 7:07 am
#94
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: JAX
Programs: Ex-BA/AA/CP/LY staff, BA Blue, IHG Diamond, Marriott Silver, Chick-fil-A Red
Posts: 3,756
I don't mind the gamification, I do mind the visual clutter. Please can it be toned down if we're not going to be allowed to turn it off.
Oct 4, 2024 | 7:43 am
#95
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Denver, CO, USA
Programs: Sometimes known as [ARG:6 UNDEFINED]
Posts: 28,757
Oct 4, 2024 | 8:09 am
#96
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Pacific Northwest
Programs: UA Gold 1MM, AS Plat, AA EP, Bonvoy Plat, Hilton Dia, Hyatt Glob, IHG Plat, ...
Posts: 21,464
Oct 4, 2024 | 8:12 am
#97
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: flyover country
Posts: 2,854
If the bold takes up too much space, then make everything non-bold.
Fix it? It isn't broken.
What's broken is the ability to double-click the globe icon for this forum at MyFlyerTalk to mark all posts as read, like I can do for every other subscribed forum. Any chance of getting that fixed?
Oct 4, 2024 | 8:56 am
#98
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: HAG
Programs: Der 5* FTL
Posts: 11,243
OK, so achievement badges have been popular in online gaming for 15+ years (and for 40 years if you want to count high score boards in arcade games). The average gamer is in their 30s and the average female gamer may even be in their mid-40s.
Likewise, "Flair" has been a staple of the world's largest forum community since as long as I can remember.
So your demeaning of badges as being for "cub scouts" is ageist in and of itself and simply out of touch. These badges in no way interfere with your ability to source information on the site and you're free to carry on doing that.
Likewise, "Flair" has been a staple of the world's largest forum community since as long as I can remember.
So your demeaning of badges as being for "cub scouts" is ageist in and of itself and simply out of touch. These badges in no way interfere with your ability to source information on the site and you're free to carry on doing that.
Lean into your competitive advantage of this being a 20 year old kinda internet side full of old farts. If you try to make FT into a Reddit.... why would people not just go to Reddit?
Oct 4, 2024 | 9:17 am
#99
Formerly known as newbie elite
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 3,517
OK, so achievement badges have been popular in online gaming for 15+ years (and for 40 years if you want to count high score boards in arcade games). The average gamer is in their 30s and the average female gamer may even be in their mid-40s.
Likewise, "Flair" has been a staple of the world's largest forum community since as long as I can remember.
So your demeaning of badges as being for "cub scouts" is ageist in and of itself and simply out of touch. These badges in no way interfere with your ability to source information on the site and you're free to carry on doing that.
Likewise, "Flair" has been a staple of the world's largest forum community since as long as I can remember.
So your demeaning of badges as being for "cub scouts" is ageist in and of itself and simply out of touch. These badges in no way interfere with your ability to source information on the site and you're free to carry on doing that.
But this is not a democracy anyway and forums are a dying breed. This all started with the removal of trending plus the fact that the old fogeys here liked the clean, badgeless, flairless layout that we had forever. The only other forum I frequent is the Ars Technica ones where they have resisted all the 'enhacements' that seem necessary nowadays.
Anyways, I know my engagement with this side is decreasing as the 'features' keep increasing, I guess my profile is not in their desired parameters for their model.
Oct 4, 2024 | 10:03 am
#101
Join Date: Dec 2023
Location: 🛫🌷🛬
Posts: 1,011
I am still confused what we are supposed to be communicating about hotel nights. And somewhat unclear on the overall purpose.
From a design POV, the badges are visually overwhelming on the PC site. The badges grab your eye and make the actual content less important. It's like we are now focusing on ourselves and not the (usually) valuable information and communication that we come to share among ourselves. While it can be seen as ageist to gamify the site with badges, it is also a bit ageist in the reverse direction to think that those who have traveled more, and are often older, are the ones who should be listened to more. This is nonsense. Badges are commonly used in competitive online games, we are here to share, inform and communicate, not compete.
IBJoel I appreciate your efforts and am not hating on the idea of badges. Just don't make it a competition. I say this as someone who has flown over 10 million actual, butt-in seat, miles. Does not make me better or more necessarily more knowledgeable, I come here for information just as others do.
Thank you for listening and your work, IBJoel.
From a design POV, the badges are visually overwhelming on the PC site. The badges grab your eye and make the actual content less important. It's like we are now focusing on ourselves and not the (usually) valuable information and communication that we come to share among ourselves. While it can be seen as ageist to gamify the site with badges, it is also a bit ageist in the reverse direction to think that those who have traveled more, and are often older, are the ones who should be listened to more. This is nonsense. Badges are commonly used in competitive online games, we are here to share, inform and communicate, not compete.
IBJoel I appreciate your efforts and am not hating on the idea of badges. Just don't make it a competition. I say this as someone who has flown over 10 million actual, butt-in seat, miles. Does not make me better or more necessarily more knowledgeable, I come here for information just as others do.
Thank you for listening and your work, IBJoel.
Could we have some badges that are not stats-based? Maybe based on potentially one-off accomplishments/events, like a round-the-world trip or a hangar tour, or on preferences, for example favorite continent, airplane type, always fly east.
Oct 4, 2024 | 10:15 am
#102
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: USA / Scotland
Posts: 1,176
Exactly. All i need to see is a username. If I'm inclined to perform extra due diligence on a user we can click through to their profile and have at it.
Oct 4, 2024 | 10:29 am
#103
Original Poster
Administrator
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: Los Angeles
Programs: Internet Brands
Posts: 4,435
Dude you're running a bulletin board style discussion forum. The very concept of FT is "outdated".
Lean into your competitive advantage of this being a 20 year old kinda internet side full of old farts. If you try to make FT into a Reddit.... why would people not just go to Reddit?
Lean into your competitive advantage of this being a 20 year old kinda internet side full of old farts. If you try to make FT into a Reddit.... why would people not just go to Reddit?
There is a lot of "Why isn't FlyerTalk as vibrant and busy as it once was?" There are obviously a lot of outside factors to that, like the state of the industry. But there are internal factors that we can affect to draw them in. We are a business and we don't have a guaranteed "replacement generation" like other industries that skew older. If we don't make the effort, FlyerTalk can and will close at some point. I've seen 9 communities close since I joined the Travel team. They were all more niche interests than travelling, but make no mistake that 1. FlyerTalk is not immune to that and 2. Us doing things like this is proof of my commitment to keeping FT viable, healthy, and engaging.
Oct 4, 2024 | 10:33 am
#104
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: HAG
Programs: Der 5* FTL
Posts: 11,243
If we didn't change anything, why wouldn't they still just go to Reddit? If you make no attempt to cater to an audience, they're not just going to come to you.
There is a lot of "Why isn't FlyerTalk as vibrant and busy as it once was?" There are obviously a lot of outside factors to that, like the state of the industry. But there are internal factors that we can affect to draw them in. We are a business and we don't have a guaranteed "replacement generation" like other industries that skew older. If we don't make the effort, FlyerTalk can and will close at some point. I've seen 9 communities close since I joined the Travel team. They were all more niche interests than travelling, but make no mistake that 1. FlyerTalk is not immune to that and 2. Us doing things like this is proof of my commitment to keeping FT viable, healthy, and engaging.
There is a lot of "Why isn't FlyerTalk as vibrant and busy as it once was?" There are obviously a lot of outside factors to that, like the state of the industry. But there are internal factors that we can affect to draw them in. We are a business and we don't have a guaranteed "replacement generation" like other industries that skew older. If we don't make the effort, FlyerTalk can and will close at some point. I've seen 9 communities close since I joined the Travel team. They were all more niche interests than travelling, but make no mistake that 1. FlyerTalk is not immune to that and 2. Us doing things like this is proof of my commitment to keeping FT viable, healthy, and engaging.
Besides, if you want to encourage engagement with FT, then the "achievements" should be relevant to engagement with FT, not a one-time fire and forget honor system badge set for external accomplishments.
Oct 4, 2024 | 10:36 am
#105
Original Poster
Administrator
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: Los Angeles
Programs: Internet Brands
Posts: 4,435
I had an idea inspired by these reflections
Could we have some badges that are not stats-based? Maybe based on potentially one-off accomplishments/events, like a round-the-world trip or a hangar tour, or on preferences, for example favorite continent, airplane type, always fly east.
Could we have some badges that are not stats-based? Maybe based on potentially one-off accomplishments/events, like a round-the-world trip or a hangar tour, or on preferences, for example favorite continent, airplane type, always fly east.
And for the record, I do not see these as competitive whatsoever. Are postcounts competitive? Only if you're weird and you make them competitive. I've only been to 11 countries and I'm proud of that. I don't care how many more countries someone else has been to, because I didn't have that experience. Likewise, if someone counted a layover as having been to a country, I think that's stupid. But I'm not going to make a fuss because I'm displaying my badges my way and they're doing it theirs.