What's with the medals on this forum?

[worldofneil]

There are posters here with two red medals but < 2k posts

That means one or both of their medals are "kin" medals, not post count medals. You can confirm this by selecting/highlighting their medals. The post count medals are a single image on the right side of the medals.

less popular posters such as myself with well over 1k posts but only one or perhaps no 'kin' medals at all.

You have one gold kin medal, the other gold and four silvers are your rank 9 medals (for having between 1000 and 1999 posts). In 40 posts time (at the time of writing) you'll have 2000 posts so you'll get rank 10 which is two gold medals, so you'll have 3 gold total. 1 kin + 2 post count.

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.

Possibly, although since that post I select hasn't post on the forums since 2015 it's quite probable that they don't read the forums at all any more (so the only action that would be happening would be other people liking their post).

[Gemina]

That means one or both of their medals are "kin" medals, not post count medals. You can confirm this by selecting/highlighting their medals. The post count medals are a single image on the right side of the medals.

Ah, thanks for letting me know how to confirm. However, I was already aware that those are kin medals. My point is that I don't think the formula for kin medals is calculated based on likes given/received alone. They could potentially factor things like playtime, subscription time, or maximum level (that's something I know it uses to determine your maximum daily post count). I don't think it's anything like that, but I do find it odd that some less active members of the forums have a higher kin count than those who are here and contributing more often. Basically, what I'm guessing is the more you post without giving/receiving likes, the more difficult it is to obtain a kin medal and vice versa.

Like I said earlier, I know my opinions are not the most popular around here, but I am far from a belligerent poster and receive and give likes regularly, and I've had only one kin medal for the last two years. I'm not bothered by that, but just using myself as an example that there might be something more at play with the kin medals.

Possibly, although since that post I select hasn't post on the forums since 2015 it's quite probable that they don't read the forums at all any more (so the only action that would be happening would be other people liking their post).

Indeed. We could keep liking that particular post, and I believe he'll get another kin medal eventually if we do. But I am willing to bet that with the same amount of likes it takes to get him there, myself or a similar poster would have individual cases, and would need fewer, or more likes being tossed around to receive another kin medal. We would have to start ruling out other factors such as the ones I mentioned above in order to determine that post count also factors in getting more kin medals.

[Ramesses]

@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)

*(Looks skeptical and thinks for a moment)*

I believe we can only change and choose which of our alternate characters that we would like to populate or show on our forum account... thus, even if they are posting on their alt characters, the main forum name will still essentially be constant. For instance, in my case, the forum account name is "Ramesses" and even if I switched to any of my alts, that would still be my forum name. Unless of course you're referring to those that have multiple separate SE accounts and like to log in and out of them at will for their own purposes.

Secondly, I disagree that players who have low achievement points will make other players ---as you stated above-- "attack them personally". Speaking of which, that word is used around too often on the boards recently and its saddening to see... an unfortunate choice of words I recently see way too often amoung people... but I beg to differ.

If anything, most of the time the forums are very welcoming to new players who come across with a genial disposition. What Theo was getting at (and which some of us agree with) is that the achievement point system could work similar to the medal system and other people can actually get to see that on your profile... as opposed to a player who is not deeply invested in the game or progressed far enough into the game yet continually makes banal posts towards end game content.

[Shibi]

The left side are just called "kin" in the filename (does that mean anything?)

金 (kin) is gold/money/currency

日本シンクロ界の悲願である金には、あと一歩で届かなかった。 -- The 'gold' yearned for by the Japanese synchronized swimming world was not quite reached.

[Canadane]

I wonder if he is still waiting for that information 3 years down the line

[Shibi]

oops! Did I accidentally necro! SORRY!!!

I don't know how that accident happened, and I am truly sorry I did.

Edit: Checked how I did that terrible mistake, I clicked on someones quote in https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...l-forums/page5 and that took me to the old thread. Which I then replied to, not thinking I had jumpe threads to a necro!

Doh! I am truly sorry. Please forgive me.

[Canadane]

I don't actually have a problem with reviving an old topic like this. It's better than starting new ones... But usually for when there's discussion to be had.
Not something a quick google would have given the guy haha

Your heart was in the right place though!

[Iscah]

The other fun thing with this time capsule is the discussion of how nobody has six medals yet. There are now several posters in the thread with six.

[Theodric]

Oh, I remember this thread!

[Raskbuck]

Oh, I remember this thread!

I like your suggestion about adding achievement points. Too bad they never implemented it.