New forum badges - not working properly?

Some extra badges seem to have suddenly appeared on the forum. The ones I've noticed are for 1,000, 1,500, 2,000 and 5,000 'likes' and they have different icons (which look more like the default Vanilla forums icons) to the normal GW2 forum badges. They're also not being applied correctly. There are many people I know of with well over 1,000 thumbs up reactions recorded against their account who don't have any of these badges.

Between the two it looks like these badges haven't been set up correctly, or maybe weren't supposed to appear at all?

Yeah, it's pretty odd. Not sure if 'Likes' are supposed to be 'Thumbs Up' or 'Helpfuls' or something else.

They're for Thumbs Up. I've just spotted that there are separate badges - also with default icons and also not being awarded consistently - for 'Helpfuls'. Those are called 'Insightfuls' which is what the Elder Scrolls Online forum (also based on Vanilla) calls them.

There are many people I know of with well over 1,000 thumbs up reactions recorded against their account who don't have any of these badges.Based on the past implementation, I think people don't earn the badge until the system gets an update.

For example, even though I registered with the new forums about the same time as others, I don't get my "anniversary" badge until days after others, because I was logged in during the first anniversary, and the system didn't update until I logged out and logged back in a few days later.

So I suspect that everyone who has 1000 :+1: as of yesterday will get their badge as soon as they get another "like" or perhaps the next time they login.

@Danikat.8537 said:...which is what the Elder Scrolls Online forum (also based on Vanilla) calls them.Out of curiosity, is ESO also experiencing an issue with links rendering properly?

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

There are many people I know of with well over 1,000 thumbs up reactions recorded against their account who don't have any of these badges.Based on the past implementation, I think people don't earn the badge until the system gets an update.

I'm not sure. I got a notification right in the middle of writing a post that I had a new badge, which is how I discovered this system.

Since the number of people with those badges has been growing rapidly since I first noticed them my current theory is that it updates when you gain an additional reaction of that type.

At the risk of sounding like I'm farming reactions if anyone wants to test it you could mark one of my posts helpful, and I can see if I suddenly get a new 'insightful' badge since I'm over the threshold for them.

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@Danikat.8537 said:...which is what the Elder Scrolls Online forum (also based on Vanilla) calls them.Out of curiosity, is ESO also experiencing an issue with links rendering properly?

Not that I've noticed. But previously problems related to Vanilla have been 'out of synch' on the two forums. For example a while ago various functions stopped working in Internet Explorer on this forum, then about a day after they were fixed the same problem started up on the ESO forum and was fixed about a week later. My guess is it's down to when the admins install updates to the forum software.

(So I'll watch for links to stop working over there.)

@"Danikat.8537" said:I'm not sure. I got a notification right in the middle of writing a post that I had a new badge, which is how I discovered this system.I did too, but it was when I got a "like" for some other post, i.e. there was some sort of reason for the system to check.

Since the number of people with those badges has been growing rapidly since I first noticed them my current theory is that it updates when you gain an additional reaction of that type.Sorry if I wasn't clear by system update. I used the logoff/on as an example for the anniversary; any sort of relevant update would do.

At the risk of sounding like I'm farming reactions if anyone wants to test it you could mark one of my posts helpful, and I can see if I suddenly get a new 'insightful' badge since I'm over the threshold for them.I'll take that risk!

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@"Danikat.8537" said:I'm not sure. I got a notification right in the middle of writing a post that I had a new badge, which is how I discovered this system.I did too, but it was when I got a "like" for some other post, i.e. there was some sort of reason for the system to check.

Since the number of people with those badges has been growing rapidly since I first noticed them my current theory is that it updates when you gain an additional reaction of that type.Sorry if I wasn't clear by system update. I used the logoff/on as an example for the anniversary; any sort of relevant update would do.

At the risk of sounding like I'm farming reactions if anyone wants to test it you could mark one of my posts helpful, and I can see if I suddenly get a new 'insightful' badge since I'm over the threshold for them.I'll take that risk!

That did it. I got a notification for your reply and the new badge both at the same moment. It looks like it updates when you get a new reaction, and badges are being awarded retroactively when that happens.

Which still leaves the question of whether these new badges are supposed to be here (back when the forum was new there was, very briefly an insightful badge but as far as I know the only person to get it before it was disabled was Gaile) and why their icons don't match the existing ones.

@Danikat.8537 wrote(So I'll watch for links to stop working over there.):(

@"Danikat.8537" said:Which still leaves the question of whether these new badges are supposed to be hereI begged that question, too. Thursday seems to be Vanilla's day for updating software (here at least), so I wouldn't be entirely surprised if this turns out to be an accident of some change rolled out by Vanilla and that it's accidental for GW2 Forums.

Apparently, getting badges adds to your account's "points," but as ANet has (sensibly) chosen to ignore points, it seems (ahem) pointless to add more badges.(Upon reflection, I no longer agree with that statement. ANet might ignore the points and at the same time, plenty of people do like seeing badges on others or earning their own.)

You can see points on the mobile version, but only by looking at the person's profile. And without knowing the scoring system it's pretty meaningless. So they are still pretty pointless.

That's part of why I thought the new badges might be a mistake. By default Vanilla has loads of them but Anet made the (IMO very sensible) decision to limit it to 4 stars and a relatively small number of badges. (And just 2 reactions.)

I can see how more badges might encourage more people to post helpful or popular things, but ultimately I think the forum should be about discussion rather than chasing rewards...leave that for the actual game.

@Danikat.8537 said:ultimately I think the forum should be about discussion rather than chasing rewards...leave that for the actual game.I think that's the phrasing I was aiming for earlier.Nothing wrong with forum badges per se; the forums are just a tool, however, not the end-game.

Though, the way some engage in the forums, you'd think it was the end-all, be-all. ;)

@"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:Though, the way some engage in the forums, you'd think it was the end-all, be-all. ;)

I thought you got that title from defeating all the legendary bosses in the Silverwastes.https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Title#The_Be-All_and_the_End-All

Don't forget a lot of the badges, stars etc. were 'secret' when the new forum first started. Maybe there's a super-secret title for unlocking everything, but no one has discovered it yet. ;)

Another broken part of the forum that seemed to happen at the same time is the Dev Carousel. It's down to only 2 'dots'.

Thanks for the update Stephane! Does that mean we can expect the new badges to disappear again at some point?