What's with the medals on this forum?

[Xibri]

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

[Amethyst_Esp]

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

[InkstainedGwyn]

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.)

[Theodric]

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

[NolLacnala]

I'm a five-star general crap poster

[InkstainedGwyn]

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 )

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!

[Aster_E]

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.

[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?

[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.

[Fredco191]

Something about how many posts we made I think..