Where's my badge? 📛

[Crease]

So, this happened:

@carverofchoice

I didn’t know that markup code for the date. That’s a neat trick! I’m going to remember that.

I taught @carverofchoice something he didn’t already know‽

There should be some kind of recognition on my profile for that, right? RIGHT‽

(Before anybody makes the obligatory reference about stinkin’ badges, I’m already aware of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948).)

[peepeep]

I was right and he was wrong once. He said, ‘Don’t get used to it.’

[Crease]

Heh. That sounds about right.

Don’t get used to it; just…persist.

Also, only once?

[peepeep]

I’m afraid so. He’s a monster (in the best sense of the word.)

[Crease]

They’re not all bad. Monsters, Inc. is probably my favorite Pixar movie, and I call my (whom I like) a monster frequently.

I’ll probably go back to my previous monster avatar here at some point.

[carverofchoice]

My toddler kept being terrified of imaginary monsters, so at bedtime I finally started watching various monsters inc franchise media with her to hopefully help think monsters are nice.

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I make mistakes all the time, and there is tons I didn’t know. The more I know, the more I know that I don’t know.

Actually rather than wasting brain storage “KNOWING” random trivia and things, I try to teach my brain how to remember there is a simple answer and how find it. Similar to this old description:

Einstein was once asked how many feet are in a mile. Einstein’s reply was ""I don’t know, why should I fill my brain with facts I can find in two minutes in any standard reference book?

Einstein taught us a big lesson. He felt it was more important to use your mind to think than to use it as a warehouse for facts.

One time Henry Ford was involved in a libel suit with the Chicago Tribune. The Tribune had called Ford an ignoramus, and Ford said, in effect, ““Prove it.””

The Tribune asked him scores of simple questions such as ““Who was Benedict Arnold?”” ““When was the Revolutionary War fought?”” and others, most of which Ford, who had little formal education, could not answer.

Finally he became quite exasperated and said, ““I don’t know the answers to those questions, but I could find a man in five minutes who does.””

Henry Ford was never interested in miscellaneous information. He knew what every major executive knows: that the ability to know how to get information is more important than using the mind as a garage for facts.

…Ninety percent of what that guy knows I can find in a $2 almanac. ““What I want around me,”” he continued, ““are people who can solve problems, who can think up ideas.’ People who can dream and then develop the dream into a practical application; an idea man can make money with me; a fact man can’t.”” "

So, I’m okay with not knowing a lot of things. I would probably lose horribly on Jeopardy trivia. There are even a ton of things about Wyze that I don’t know or remember, But I definitely know how to leverage my Maven, Mods, and employee buddies (and even nanny other community Members) to help cover my gaps and weaknesses. Sometimes in back channels, or DMS, or sometimes just call them to come answer themselves.

I think, knowing how to use resources is way more important than knowing everything yourself. It allows you to go exponential beyond your personal resource limitations. Would Einstein have been as smart in physics as he was If he had filled up his mind and neural connections to Warehouse frivolous facts and trivia that he could instead look up when it was needed? There’s also a ton of evidence that he leveraged his wife as one of his greatest resources, and that she didn’t get as much credit as she probably deserves for all of the biggest things he got credit for. I relate to this since most of the success in my life can be attributed to my wife.

I think people who come to the forum [without knowing things] to ask the people who do know them are actually really smart and leveraging their resources. They don’t need to know and figure out and memorize all of those things that the Wyze experts can just tell them. Doesn’t make anyone less smart by leveraging a resource instead of knowing it themselves, and in a lot of ways it makes them more intelligent by knowing how to leverage such resources.

Anyway, just some random thoughts to keep in mind.

[Crease]

@carverofchoice

The more I know, the more I know that I don’t know.

Word. In a previous job, I came to the realization that I couldn’t know everything about the vast subject matter I was dealing with. Once that sunk in, life was easier. (It’s never going to be totally easy when you set high expectations for yourself.)

@carverofchoice

I try to teach my brain how to remember there is a simple answer and how find it.

I recall a class in high school where one of the things I took away was that it wasn’t important to know everything about whatever the topic at hand is but that it’s important to be able to find the information you need at a given time. Consuming information is one of the things I really like to do, though (despite The Police song), so there’s a lot of stuff up there in the ol’ warehouse (which is probably why things like Jeopardy! and pub trivia really appeal to me).

@carverofchoice

He felt it was more important to use your mind to think than to use it as a warehouse for facts.

I was thinking earlier today—not for the first time—that over the past several years I’ve grown accustomed to offloading some things. I don’t know how many times a day I say to a smart speaker, “Hey, Google, remind me to….” It frees up my brain to think about other things, to do stuff that the computer can’t do, but sometimes it also feels like I’m training my own brain out of its short-term memory.

@carverofchoice

There’s also a ton of evidence that he leveraged his wife….

Yeah, he did!

[Crease]

Okay, so this happened:

https://forums.wyze.com/badges/3/power-user-tl3?username=crease

I don’t know if it has anything to do with @carverofchoice, but I’ll wear this’n for a while an’ see how it fits.

[Antonius]

Need a Badge.

[Crease]

Something like this?

[Antonius]

That will work.

[Crease]

Right on. Now I wonder if something like this would work for @peepeep’s Edge Case Badge:

[carverofchoice]

@Crease

I don’t know if it has anything to do with @carverofchoice, but I’ll wear this’n for a while an’ see how it fits.

I had nothing to do with it. You earned it all by yourself. One of the few users to earn it organically! Most of the people in there are Employees or ex-employees (many of whom didn’t otherwise achieve the qualifications for Trust Level 3).

If you are curious what TL3 means, these are the standard default differences Discourse offers (I believe Wyze changed them a little bit):

To get to trust level 3, in the last 100 days…

• Must have visited at least 50% of days

• Must have replied to at least 10 different non-PM topics

• Of topics created in the last 100 days, must have viewed 25% (capped at 500)

• Of posts created in the last 100 days, must have read 25% (capped at 20k)

• Must have received 20 likes, and given 30 likes.*

• Must not have received more than 5 spam or offensive flags (with unique posts and unique users for each, confirmed by a moderator)

• Must not have been suspended or silenced in the last 6 months

• These likes must be across a minimum number of different users (1/5 the number), across a minimum number of different days (1/4 the number). Likes cannot be from PMs.

All of the above criteria must be true to achieve trust level 3. Furthermore, unlike other trust levels, you can lose trust level 3 status. If you dip below these requirements in the last 100 days, you will be demoted back to Member. However, in order to avoid constant promotion/demotion situations, there is a 2-week grace period immediately after gaining Trust Level 3 during which you will not be demoted.

Users at trust level 3 can…

• Recategorize and rename topics
• Access a secure category only visible to users at trust level 3 and higher
• Have all their links followed (we remove automatic nofollow)
• TL3 spam flags cast on TL0 user posts immediately hide the post
• TL3 flags cast on TL0 user posts in sufficient diversity will auto-silence the user and hide all their posts
• Make their own posts wiki (that is, editable by any TL1+ users)
• Daily like, edit, and flag limits increased by 2×

Admins can change these thresholds by searching for TL3 in site settings.

[Crease]

@carverofchoice

I had nothing to do with it.

I figured it was probably an automatic promotion based on meeting some criteria, but it also gave me an opportunity to give you some grief.

@carverofchoice

Sometimes it feels like @cyberdog_17 and I pretty much only interact with each other by clowning on each other in public.

Yeah. Like that.

@carverofchoice

Most of the people in there are Employees or ex-employees

I noticed that when I scrolled the list, 'cause they all have BADGES!

Thanks for sharin’ the default Discourse criteria for the level-up. This is the only Discourse-based community I’ve used (so far), and I enjoy learning about the platform.

I appreciate your being a good sport.

[Crease]

@Crease

This is the only Discourse-based community I’ve used (so far), and I enjoy learning about the platform.

Hrm…apparently Spiceworks transitioned their community to a Discourse platform at some point, so I stand corrected. I have no idea when that happened, so I guess that’s an indicator of how (in)active I’ve been there for a while.

[Crease]

Must…continue…snarky…topic….

[carverofchoice]

Nice! I think that’s your second-best badge right now, with the first being the fact that you earned Power User TL3 organically, which few ever earn.

Some of these badges are really hard to get. There are a couple that are impossible (such as “First Reaction” since Wyze doesn’t do “reactions” and I can no longer get “New User of the Month” either. Then there are 3 Trust Level Badges that you don’t “earn” as much as it is a position (Admin & Staff, Wyze Team Member, and Forum Moderator badges). There is one “Community Spotlight” badge, but they haven’t used that since 2020, and I see my becoming a maven as my spotlight time, so if they did start it up again, I’d push for someone else to get it, including you.

But there are 3 badges it is POSSIBLE for me to get that I haven’t yet: Great Reply, Great Topic, and Great Share. I will probably get the "Great Reply badge sometime this year. I have 1 comment that is 2 likes away from hitting that mark, and then I’ll be the 11th person to earn it. I had another post that got close and stopped at 5 away from hitting it. I’m confident I’m nowhere near the other 2 though. Probably will never get them. I could potentially get the Great Share if I really tried for it. Not sure I’ll ever get the Great topic though. I rarely start topics in the public areas nowadays.

I think I’m tied for second most “Good Reply” Badges, and in “Nice Reply” badges. BUUUUUUUUUTTTTTTTTTTT…I just checked, and I finally am no longer DOUBLED by Gwendolyn! They have 148 and I have 78 I finally passed the halfway mark to one of Gwendolyn’s legacies! I didn’t even realize that finally Gwendolyn is no longer double me!

[Crease]

Since it’s this topic, I should probably just go ahead and get another one. (I don’t really care that much about collecting the badges, and it’s been a surprise whenever I’ve seen one pop up in my notifications, but I feel like at this point I should go ahead and knock this one out just to continue to be snarky and pretend to make a big deal about this topic.)

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Edit: And…boom!

How ridiculous can I be?

[carverofchoice]

I did the same thing to intentionally get the email badge.

I half use email notifications as a history “log” so if the employees or mods change something (or another user edits a post), I can go back to my email and see the original message.

But I’ve probably only ever replied to an email a single time just so I could get the badge for it. Might as well.

[peepeep]

This song is kinda meh like badges so I guess it belongs here.

Badge