MacGyverMagic/Mgm wrote:
I don't care if the barnstar page gets forked. The more award incentives the better. It makes people happy and willing to contribute. [snip]
Mgm
Realistically, this service award page appears to be too minor to worry about, yet (barely) too popular to delete out of hand. Editors who enjoy acknowledgments can add this award to their collections. I see this as the most harmless and funny version of the various "rank" proposals that we've seen before so many times. It's too silly to be prestigious, it confers no benefits, and it's been low-key until now. If we get rid of it there'll be a vacuum and someone will suggest StarFleet-style rankings again, or complicated schemes with special benefits at each stage, or who knows what. And then we'll have to talk about that and so on. Better to have something innocuous to fill the niche.
Regarding concerns about "editcountitis", the actual requirements of this award favor longevity over volume. For example, I'd currently qualify as a Veteran Editor II (or Grand Tutnum), a mid-level award. I'm already well over the edit count required to get the highest award but I'll have to keep editing for another 25 months and go up the four levels to achieve Master Editor (or Complete and Perfect Tutnum of the Encyclopedia). Will I be a "master editor" after 4 years and 40,000 edits? It'd be nice to think so. "Senior lunatic" might be a more appropriate award though. (Or fill in your own joke) .
Based on objective criteria, this award is a form of thanks from the community, just as barnstars are acknowledgments of one individual by another based on subjective criteria. We should all find ways of thanking each other and, yes, even ourselves for our volunteer efforts.
Cheers, Will Beback