[WikiEN-l] Awards

[Will Beback]

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