Pffft. Everyone here would want a smug, know-it-all face.
I take one, 12 hour nap and the whole thing blows up. Alright what did I miss…
Re Chrome: When I install the script (Chrome for Mac) I get all of the latest features (quotes-of-you enumeration, quick navigation between our own posts) as well as the blue highlighting of my posts and quotes of me. Nothing else works, because everything else relies on greasemonkey features. I’ve been trying to update it to use more “universal” stuff that would work without GM, but it’s tricky. I’m a javascript guy, not a greasemonkey guy, and the various things that make up that distinction can be annoying.
On to badges, right now the associations for who gets what badges are currently made in a google spreadsheet. It would be a lot “better” to do this all in an actual database that could be queried, but that would require time and a server to park it on. Google works because it’s free and they don’t usually go down without the world also being on fire.
Right now, only I can edit that spreadsheet, but it’s possible for me to manually add editors, or I can even make it editable to anybody who has a link. The latter would require a kind of wiki-mentality, where hopefully nothing can get too hosed up because everybody would police the data and make sure that at-least their own stats aren’t messed with. You can roll back changes in a google spreadsheet pretty easily. Downside is that if someone screwed around with the associations and nobody noticed for a while, well, it’d be like when someone vandalizes a wikipedia entry and nobody notices right away…
The images themselves are currently stored in a google spreadsheet themselves, but that will probably have to change because the last batch cmyk sent is over 300KB total, and that’s a lot to be cramming down the pipe every time. I think I’ll host the images on my server for the time being, and if that ever starts to not work out I can look into one of those really cheap hosting plans.
And re “gun nut,” I think anybody who is one probably likes that term, and anybody who isn’t and doesn’t like it is the kind to watch out for…
I think something to be avoided with badges is going too crazy with them. A person probably shouldn’t have more than 4 or 5. I mean, if everybody who used windows had the windows badge, we’d probably stop being able to see it the same way our brains filter out our noses because we see them all the time. I think some arbitrary terminology I came up with a while ago was that you should only give yourself a badge that’s part of your “personal identity.” Something that represents you enough that you’d put it on your bumper sticker, as opposed to just a “check all that apply” type thing.
I think there are some New Zealand residents who would like their flag represented.
And I see there’s one for Sci Fi Fan but I would like to also have a Fantasy Fan icon, as there are a considerable number of us. Maybe a pic of a dragon or wizard (but please not a magic wand or unicorn).
Well, I just can’t help having about 20 or 30 badges myself, because I’m just that awesome.
I can make several genre Fan icons. I’ll do Fantasy, but I’m not sure what else to do; Horror? Mystery?..
Noted for NZ. Any other countries?
Anyway, I’ll just keep making these things until weirdaaron starts doing the Curly Shuffle because of bandwidth limitations. I’m just a graphic dood.
I’m still having to remember that the "@"ish badge is for agnostic and not anarchist!
This page has some potential alternatives. 40/49/84 for agnostics and something like 86/87 for atheists or 101/103/105 for agnostics/soft atheists/hard atheists? (I know this came up when the script was first made available, but it probably needs revisiting.)
One suggestion. keep all the backgrounds the same color, the Police, Star Wars, and Physics2 badges wold be easier to see and both Astronomy badges would look fine too.
Alternately, give the different badge classes unique colors. Which would also let you create dual use badges. Astronomers vs star gazers, music lovers vs musicians, our Tolkien experts vs fans, active duty vs retired military etc. just by using different colors/shades. The half colors used for gender would work as well for that.
CMC fnord!
Hey CMC,
Thanks for your suggestions. It’s got me thinking about them, and while I may not keep all the bkg colors the same, what I can do is add some small common element to distinguish from an occupation, hobby, active/veteran, etc…
I’ll also rethink the Atheist and Agnostic logos. I came across the same chart you did and a lot of those were either ugly or didn’t make any sense to me. I did like #13 for Atheist, and as for Agnostic, I’m still debating… I do like the infinity symbol… but not sure how that speaks agnosticism? Gah! 75 & 80 are interesting: I like how they worked in a question mark.
I’m half tempted to just use an empty badge box for Atheist (assuming I give all faith badges some common identifier).
I’m not technical enough to attempt a beta test, so this perspective is from outside. With that caveat, I’ll add that my prefered ultimate would be both.
I would indeed like to know how a poster self-identifies, up to some reasonable limit. Frankly, after maybe half a dozen or so iconic “selfs” the whole thing becomes TLDR.
But I would also like the ability to add some of my own, whether or not the poster uses badges him/herself and totally without his/her permission. These might tag something the poster revealed (say, he’s a Brit, or an author) but doesn’t himself find it important to self-badge. Or perhaps more frequently, a badge for me to tag someone who I find to be a royal pain, or the opposite, a really enjoyable poster. (Hey, cmyk, do you have a badge for Royal Pain yet? 
I have a couple of posters in mind… ) Being my impositions, even my value judgements, these should only be visible to me.
Maybe these would appear in different areas (self-imposed left justified, my impositions right justified or something) just so I myself with my failing memory could keep the difference straight at a glance without needing to refer to a look-up.
Not being technical, all of this programming is magic to me. I don’t know how much harder the magic I’m requesting is from the magic already incorporated, but I hope you geniuses can make it happen. Thanks, and in advance. I await the next evolution of this project!
I’m just glad you’re able to be back working on this, you guys. I was going to change the database the thing linked to, so I could update the badges myself. But, unfortunately, I got more sick than I already am and had to postpone that.
BTW, I was looking at your javascript to try to cahnge the database. I figured out what most of it does, but what is that gobbledy gook at the beginning? I assume it’s obfuscated code, but what does it do? And is it proprietary?
I haven’t looked at the code for awhile, but if you’re referring to what I think you are, it’s a compressed version of the jQuery library.
I agree with this. I like seeing everyone’s self appointed badges, But, it would also be cool to be able to tack on your own set of personality traits that only you can see. It can probably be done with a different script that only you can edit… so everyone controls their own database. Not sure, but I’d definitely have fun making those types of badges.
i may have missed it, but can someone let me know where i can find a link for the script? weirdaaron’s exceeded his pm storage and i can’t get a message through.
thanks.
PM sent, HISSNLISSN.
I’ve forwarded wierd’s PM to you.
cmyk - If we are ever given the option to assign our own badges that others can’t see, I’d like to have some badges that represent my personal evaluations of people. Examples off the top of my head:
“Idiot”
“Extremist”
“Brilliant”
“Johnny One Note”
“Gives good advice”
“Possibly a sock”
“Is really hot”
“Contrarian”
“Take with a grain of salt”
“Has PM’ed me in the past”
“Troll”
“Lives near me”
Wierdaaron - Could the personal badging be done with a local spreadsheet/database? Or would we have to each maintain a spreadsheet that’s hosted on the internet somewhere?
Love it, I’d like to add to your list:
"Like-Minded"
“Funny as Hell”
“Nutjob”
“Creepy”
“Huge Ego”
“Rapier Wit”
“Detestable”
“Respectable”
“Insensitive/Blunt”
“Friendly/Kind”
“Jerk/Asshole”
“Creative”
“Drama Queen/King”
“Attention Whore”
“Self-Righteous”
"Ignorant"
Huh. I just noticed Wierdaaron spells weird incorrectly, presumably deliberately.
The badges are beautiful! May I suggest changing the tag “Programmer” to something more inclusive such as “techie” or “geek”? Programmer doesn’t describe me as well as “techie” or “geek” would.
I see your point, but “geek” doesn’t indicate any software design or coding knowledge. Is there a word that would still differentiate hardware geeks from software geeks?
You’re all alike
Great work on the Swiss flag, cmyk, but I will also add my little pet peeve: the flag of Switzerland is square, not rectangular.
http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/Flags/ch.html