What's with the medals on this forum?

Why do I have these silver medals over my character image?

I think it's based on the amount of posts you have?

It's some combo of how many posts you have, threads you've started, posts you've liked, and posts of yours that have been liked/how many likes you've gotten. And they've only ever told us that much, not what each of them contributes, so it's anyone's guess what gold v. silver means, or what contributes to which and in how much (or when it's a silver->gold rollover.)

I always just assumed it had to do with post count...

I'm a five-star general crap poster

Here's a thread explaining where the medals come from, even if it doesn't say how anything is calculated.

I've posted 740 times, and I have 2 golds and 3 silvers, but NolLacnala has posted 632 times (fewer than I), and has 4 golds and 3 silvers. I'm betting it's because her posts draw more likes than mine do (doesn't bother me, I promise this isn't a salt post :D)

Xibri has posted 33 times, and already has 4 silvers. I can't fully remember, but I'm pretty sure that I got my second or third silver around 100-150 posts? But I also never made my own threads until a ways into my time on the forums, whereas I know Xibri has been actively creating threads recently.

So, we don't know what counts for which, or how many (my theory is that silvers are engagement, i.e. how often you post/create posts, and golds are popularity, how often people like yours, but that's just a theory.) Which in some way is amusing, because the only actual use for a badge is to communicate some information, and if we don't know the breakdown of it, it's effectively useless, but... at least it tells me that you've posted before, and somebody liked your stuff!

Think of it like an arbitrary, minor skinner box that's sometimes noticed but rarely talked about (because few people pay it any mind), created solely to draw you in further once you're already here, and have you post more topics or replies than if you had just visited one time. Does it necessarily make sense? I'm not so sure about that. It's almost doubtful that SE gets much out of such a system if that were the case, trying to get more people to post more often, unless they really like all of the salt around here.

It's weird that SE has never explained what the medals actually mean (well, it's not that really weird, this is SE we're talking about here.) No one cares about medals because no one knows how they work. It'd be one thing if medals were an indicator of overall post quality, but they're not. Not entirely anyway. What's the point of a ranking system (maybe? is it even?) like this?

I'd be more in favour of the option to display a character's achievement points above their avatar. It'd help show which posters are heavily invested in the game.

Something about how many posts we made I think..

You could kind of use them to judge how likeable you are, I guess.

Except for me. I stole all of mine.

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Originally Posted by Brightamethyst

It's weird that SE has never explained what the medals actually mean (well, it's not that really weird, this is SE we're talking about here.) No one cares about medals because no one knows how they work. It'd be one thing if medals were an indicator of overall post quality, but they're not. Not entirely anyway. What's the point of a ranking system (maybe? is it even?) like this?

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The lack of communication from SE seems to be a running theme.

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Originally Posted by Edax

The lack of communication from SE seems to be a running theme.

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I got the impression that SE weren't clear on it themselves - there is realistically no benefit to not giving us a straight answer otherwise.
Not that it matters, obviously, just another weird example of the company treating their player base like children if so.

Perhaps the goal is...like in PVP, to {Get the Medals!} {Get the Medals!} {Get the Medals!}

(Honestly I have no idea what the point of them is...I guess it's something like forum clout? Maybe?)

It's certainly postcount related.
Almost positive it's nothing out. I've seen mine change and it was at very rounded post numbers.

Edit:

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Originally Posted by Bixby

It's based on number of posts, number of likes received, and number of likes given.

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Turns out I've been corrected!

I assumed it was something to do with subscription time.

All I know is that 1 gold medal = 5 silver medals from what I've noticed on them and I've never seen more than 5 gold medals on a person which seems to be the maximum.

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Originally Posted by Antonio_Xul

All I know is that 1 gold medal = 5 silver medals from what I've noticed on them and I've never seen more than 5 gold medals on a person which seems to be the maximum.

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I’ve never seen more than 5 gold medals on any user from the NA forum, but I have seen users on the JP forum with 6 or 7 gold medals. So you can go higher, but it probably has to be from a combination of high number of posts and high number of likes.

Here’s a JP poster with 6 gold medals: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...=1#post4800261

They don’t have any more posts than I do or some of the users on the NA forum, but it could be that they receive A LOT of likes and/or give a lot of likes.

And here’s someone with 7: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...=1#post4809699

This is the most amount of gold I’ve seen.

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Originally Posted by Fredco191

Something about how many posts we made I think..

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i definitely don't think so i only have 33 post ATM and i have more silver medals than some people I've seen with 100+

Medals are ratio of written words per usefull information (There are several forum moderators evaluating that) and when somebody reaches 10 gold medals then he will recieve free meet and greet with SE team dressed in Moogle costumes.

Nice to finally get to know what those medals mean, yet I also feel that they should have made it more clear on how you get them.

Also I feel like they are kinda useless. I mean if they are a combination of three or four different things than this dont really say much about the user.
- Get more points by simply posting a lot. So a troll could just create topic after topic with useless posts and still get medals from that.
- Someone could just go into all the current threads and like each post and could still get more medals
- And someone could post a lot and maybe get one like for each post and thus also get medals.

This way it says nothing about the quality of the poster.

Also its strange how only some JP players were able to reach more medals. None of us NA/EU posters with five gold medals have gotten any silver medals, even posters like Anonymoose dont have more, and thats with over 4k posts and a lot of likes. How much is needed to get even the next silver medal? That one with the 7 medals must have gotten highly liked posts before 2018 because when I checked the post history of him (20 pages for 2018) he often had posts with less then 10 likes or even 0, and only a smaller part was bigger yet never reaching over 60 likes. So really strange imo.

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Originally Posted by Alleo

Nice to finally get to know what those medals mean, yet I also feel that they should have made it more clear on how you get them.

Also I feel like they are kinda useless. I mean if they are a combination of three or four different things than this dont really say much about the user.
- Get more points by simply posting a lot. So a troll could just create topic after topic with useless posts and still get medals from that.
- Someone could just go into all the current threads and like each post and could still get more medals
- And someone could post a lot and maybe get one like for each post and thus also get medals.

This way it says nothing about the quality of the poster.

Also its strange how only some JP players were able to reach more medals. None of us NA/EU posters with five gold medals have gotten any silver medals, even posters like Anonymoose dont have more, and thats with over 4k posts and a lot of likes. How much is needed to get even the next silver medal? That one with the 7 medals must have gotten highly liked posts before 2018 because when I checked the post history of him (20 pages for 2018) he often had posts with less then 10 likes or even 0, and only a smaller part was bigger yet never reaching over 60 likes. So really strange imo.

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I'm thinking that maybe it has something to do with total time you've had an account. Such as players that have been here the longest are given an extra gold medal. Idk just a guess as to why the JP players have access to more medals. If the game was released there first then it probably has something to do with time, maybe total time spent actively logged in on the forums.

I'm thinking another possibility could be that it's a rank system between all of us, like the players with the highest percentile across all the forums in whatever categories they judge us in are given the extra 1-2 gold medals. Players in the top 1% get 2 extra gold medals, members in top 5% 1 extra, top 10% get 5 total. IDK but i think it's possible.

I'm surprised nobody knows I was expecting a quick definitive answer but it seems like everyone is just guessing somewhat. Some guesses more educated than others but I still think everyone in here is just making their best guess

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Originally Posted by Xibri

I'm thinking that maybe it has something to do with total time you've had an account. Such as players that have been here the longest are given an extra gold medal. Idk just a guess as to why the JP players have access to more medals. If the game was released there first then it probably has something to do with time, maybe total time spent actively logged in on the forums.

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FFXIV was released simultaneously in all countries, including 1.0. So I don’t think it’s about release dates.

I also don’t think it’s about tenure on the forums, as some individuals have 2011 join dates, yet they have 5 gold medals instead of 6 or 7 (there are quite a few 2011 posters on the NA forum with a couple thousands worth of posts); the JP poster with 6 medals has a 2013 join date with 4,000 posts, yet there’s a person on the NA forums with a 2011 join date and 5,000+ posts.

I have a join date of Feb 2016 and almost 3,600 posts, yet there are people with join dates older than my own with more posts, with both less gold medals and the same amount as myself. No idea why some JP posters have 6 or 7 medals, but the exact formula/ratio of posts, likes given, and likes received to medals is very unclear.

We are all just guessing since the explanations given by the forum reps are vague.

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Originally Posted by Alleo

Also its strange how only some JP players were able to reach more medals. None of us NA/EU posters with five gold medals have gotten any silver medals, even posters like Anonymoose dont have more, and thats with over 4k posts and a lot of likes. How much is needed to get even the next silver medal? That one with the 7 medals must have gotten highly liked posts before 2018 because when I checked the post history of him (20 pages for 2018) he often had posts with less then 10 likes or even 0, and only a smaller part was bigger yet never reaching over 60 likes. So really strange imo.

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I heared somewhere that they capped out the likes wich count towards one post years ago in the 1.0 board.

Wich means that 1.0 players who got hundreds of likes for one post will have a lot of medals, because all that likes counted. But when you get hundreds of likes today for one post, only a few of them are counting for the medals.

And yeah, all people I have seen with tons of medals are 1.0 players, registered before 2013.

Just to throw more confusion into the matter... I don't think 5 gold medals are actually 5. If you highlight them, it's actually 3x1 medals and 2 medals together. A lot of the 4 gold people are the same etc.

Going on what people have said about number of liked posts etc, is possible half of medals post count and the other half to do with likes? Just when they're all the same it looks like multiple of same medal?

Edit: And I just noticed, when I did that quick reply (and same on edits) because it doesn't refresh the page properly it only shows the block of two medals on my post, but when I refreshed the page, 4 medals appeared (or rather 2x1 and 1x2)

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Originally Posted by worldofneil

Just to throw more confusion into the matter... I don't think 5 gold medals are actually 5. If you highlight them, it's actually 3x1 medals and 2 medals together. A lot of the 4 gold people are the same etc.

Going on what people have said about number of liked posts etc, is possible half of medals post count and the other half to do with likes? Just when they're all the same it looks like multiple of same medal?

Edit: And I just noticed, when I did that quick reply (and same on edits) because it doesn't refresh the page properly it only shows the block of two medals on my post, but when I refreshed the page, 4 medals appeared (or rather 2x1 and 1x2)

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Interesting. I wonder if that’s the same for those that have 4~5 golds with 3~4 silvers after their names. I know my medals do the same after I post—it only shows the 2 lone gold ones, and then all 5 when I refresh the page. Mine are grouped 1-1-1-2 when I try to drag and drop them somewhere. So I wonder that means—posts made, threads made, likes given/received, likes received/given, maybe? I post a lot more than I create threads, though—I think I have 6~7 threads I’ve made in the 2.5 years I’ve posted here. I’m not sure how many total likes I receive, much less the amount I give—I think I give more than I get but I’m not sure because I don’t have numbers to see lol. And I’m not going to go through ~3,600 posts to count those I received lol.

I've edited this post a few times now, but feel confident these are correct and the the right side of the "medals" are definitely the post count (they literally have post rank in the filename):

https://i.imgur.com/RYCyPna.png

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/i.../postrank1.gifRank 1: 1 -> 9
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/i.../postrank2.gifRank 2: 10 -> 19
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/i.../postrank3.gifRank 3: 20 -> 29
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/i.../postrank4.gifRank 4: 30 -> 49
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/i.../postrank5.gifRank 5: 50 -> 99
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/i.../postrank6.gifRank 6: 100 -> 249
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/i.../postrank7.gifRank 7: 250 -> 499
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/i.../postrank8.gifRank 8: 500 -> 999
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/i.../postrank9.gifRank 9: 1000 -> 1999
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/i...postrank10.gifRank 10: 2000+

The left side are just called "kin" in the filename (does that mean anything?) and not everyone has these "kin" medals. You can have between 0-3 kin, and any you have appear as a single gold medal each. You can select/highlight someones medals to check which is left/right (rank medals are multiple medals in same image, "kin" are separate medals).

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Originally Posted by worldofneil

that doesn't solve the mystery of the left side which are just called "kin" in the filename (does that mean anything?)

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It's probably from 金 meaning gold. I think when ranks went past 10 they gave up on making new icons for each rank, and just made a gold medal icon to combine with other rank icons to make whatever other number they wanted. The overall meaning of 1 gold medal representing 5 post ranks and a silver medal representing 1 is presumably still true.

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Originally Posted by worldofneil

It's hard finding people with lower post counts :D But I'm guessing then 50-100 is probably rank 5, I just couldn't find someone. Same for rank 3. There aren't many lower posters? :D

Need more data to work out the exact boundaries.

And that doesn't solve the mystery of the left side which are just called "kin" in the filename (does that mean anything?)

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Try the forum contest section here. There's a lot of infrequent posters there so you are bound to find some examples. Weird thing was I was just trying to figure out the medals last week.

Something else odd I just noticed - you know how when you've just posted, your profile picture isn't visible next to your post? The medal count is different too.

Currently I have three gold and four silver medals.

When I have just posted, I have one gold and four silver medals.

The lack of image suggests it hasn't accessed all your data to display it on the page yet - so from that it suggests (again) there are definitely multiple kinds of data being computed into it. Possibly whenever the page loads.

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Originally Posted by DevonEllwood

Try the forum contest section here. There's a lot of infrequent posters there so you are bound to find some examples.

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Thanks, that's a great idea, I'll see what I can work out!

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Originally Posted by Iscah

Something else odd I just noticed - you know how when you've just posted, your profile picture isn't visible next to your post? The medal count is different too.

Currently I have three gold and four silver medals.

When I have just posted, I have one gold and four silver medals.

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The one gold and four silver is your rank 9 medal (for having between 1000 and 1999 posts based on what I can tell).

The two gold ones on the left are two separate images (the same image though) and seem unrelated to post count. I don't think we've seen anyone yet who has silver medals on the left (only those where it's part of their post count and they don't have left medal(s).[/QUOTE]

Be nice if SE could confirm this for us, but then half the fun is working this out :P

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Originally Posted by worldofneil

Okay can confirm the second half of the medals/right side are the post count (they literally have post rank in the filename):

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Post count may have something to do with it but it's not the only deciding factor. I have had 4 silver medals since I had about 30 post and I have seen people with 50+ post that have 1-3 silver medals

It may simply be 1 for 1. You get a point for every like given, like received, thread started, and post made. That might be why Xibri, who only has 37 posts, has 4 silvers - he's possibly liked a lot of posts/gotten a lot of likes, versus someone who's posted 37 times and hasn't ever liked a post or gotten a like. It's just impossible to tell, since there's no way to actually go through and tally every time someone has liked a post (and difficult to tell how many likes they've received without a lot of counting).

Here's a post that links to the dev posts where they explain that it's "number of posts", "number of likes given", and "number of likes received."

I've completed more checking and have updated my post here, but Xibri has 4 silvers because they have between 30 and 49 posts. That's rank 4.

I don't think I've explained this very well though, but the "medals" are actually two parts, they just have the same icons so it looks like one thing:

https://i.imgur.com/RYCyPna.png

The right side is the post count and is definitely only related to the number of posts you've made. See my link above, every single person I've checked falls within the rank brackets I've listed there.

The left side is "kin", which is probably the "likes" that have been mentioned already. People can have 0, 1, 2 or even 3 kin. Each one is a separate gold medal. I haven't seen anyone with 4 yet.

I'd like to propose an experiment though to see if we can determine if that's definitely the number of likes you've received?

I've found this post here which was from 2015 and the poster hasn't been back since and I'd like to propose we all "like" it and see if they start getting gold kin medals. I don't know that poster, but picked them because the post itself seemed like something neutral that no one would probably have a problem liking and it needed to be a poster that hadn't posted in a while so as to now skew the results.

I often wondered how the medal system works. Very interesting. Thanks for the efforts!

Participation awards for the forum game. You don't have to be good at it, just play along :)

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Originally Posted by Theodric

I'd be more in favour of the option to display a character's achievement points above their avatar. It'd help show which posters are heavily invested in the game.

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This is the post of the hour for me... +1, Theo. I thoroughly agree that it would be beneficial to show which posters are heavily invested in the game.

Ironically, I was just posting something related to the medal system just recently. I've seen the most banal posts from players that get a ridiculous amount of likes... and then if one views their character profile, they have only one job at level 25 or level 30. Yet, they are posting on issues related to level 60 to 70 MSQ topics.

@Ramesses: That could be someone that is posting on their alt character thus not having high leveled jobs.

I would not be against showing achievement points but it would be getting in bad territory to use them as a way to say, if someone is deep into the game or not. One could use their alt character thus low achievement points, or someone has not been here for long but has leveled up enough to see the game to post valueable opinions. But since they have low achievement points some other posters could use this to attack them personally. Or if someone is not interested in certain parts of the game they might not have high points but still can give their opinion about things.

(I mean we already had posters that said, that if you dont enjoy x you are not a true ff fan, or if you dont like y you should not play the game at all)

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Originally Posted by worldofneil

The left side is "kin", which is probably the "likes" that have been mentioned already. People can have 0, 1, 2 or even 3 kin. Each one is a separate gold medal. I haven't seen anyone with 4 yet.

I'd like to propose an experiment though to see if we can determine if that's definitely the number of likes you've received?

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I'm trying to think in SE logic; something more complicated than it actually has to be, so it might be formulated around number of posts vs likes given/received. There are posters here with two red medals but < 2k posts, and less popular posters such as myself with well over 1k posts but only one or perhaps no 'kin' medals at all. Because of this possibility, I am not sure if your test can pinpoint acquirement of kin based on likes alone. I think we would have to test multiple accounts in order to eliminate other possible algorithms.

Not sure if SE will ever confirm though. Hell, the person who programmed it might not even be around anymore, and the person responsible now won't bother going through lines of code for something that is not broken.

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Originally Posted by Alleo

@Ramesses: That could be someone that is posting on their alt character thus not having high leveled jobs.

I would not be against showing achievement points but it would be getting in bad territory to use them as a way to say, if someone is deep into the game or not. One could use their alt character thus low achievement points, or someone has not been here for long but has leveled up enough to see the game to post valueable opinions. But since they have low achievement points some other posters could use this to attack them personally. Or if someone is not interested in certain parts of the game they might not have high points but still can give their opinion about things.

(I mean we already had posters that said, that if you dont enjoy x you are not a true ff fan, or if you dont like y you should not play the game at all)

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that's an interesting point, maybe that's part of the reason SE hasn't shared the specific formula for calculating the medals, because this knowledge could be used to verbally assault or condemn a player and his opinions or comments