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Feature request: User flair

By Michael Lynch @michael
    2021-05-19 22:36:52.947Z

    I run a forum that offers technical support for my product. Users can offer support to each other, but I'd like for there to be a way for users to visually see the difference between a user offering support to another user and an official representative offering support.

    My initial thought is something kind of like "flair" on reddit:

    It would be helpful to be able to add flair like "Official Staff" or something to certain users.

    • 26 replies

    There are 26 replies. Estimated reading time: 12 minutes

    1. Will fix, slightly slightly started — this'll happen together with re-implementing topic tags. These user flairs (aka "user badges") can be implemented as "tags" but placed on people instead of on pages

      1. Michael Lynch @michael
          2021-05-22 13:51:14.747Z

          Cool, glad to hear it!

          1. (Sorry this is getting a bit delayed. I started implementing some blog comments things, which I thought would take just one or two days — turns out, it was one or two weeks. But now primarily code review left to do, of those other things. Thereafter, this, up next.)

            1. Michael Lynch @michael
                2021-06-09 10:38:16.076Z

                No problem, thanks for the update!

          2. L
            In reply tomichael:
            @Lethanhtung
              2021-08-21 23:35:28.320Z

              Hello, I want to ask if this feature is coming soon? Iwill donate to you if this feature comes soon, I promise. what you do is really amazing, thank you

              1. I think so, yes. This feature,  plus Like voting & subscribing to notifications via the API,  are the next things that will happen.

                (New version on Tuesday probably (2 days from now), and then this user-flairs feature ought to be ready 1 or 2 weeks after that. — Thanks for offering to donate, it's next on the roadmap already though :- ) )

                1. L@Lethanhtung
                    2021-08-22 22:14:38.058Z

                    i'll come back here in a month and donate to you, maybe late, but i won't forget, haha

                    1. Ok :- )

                  • In reply toLethanhtung:
                    Michael Lynch @michael
                      2021-08-23 20:13:12.537Z

                      You could also consider donating now to reward @KajMagnus for all the hard work he's already done.

                    • In reply tomichael:

                      Status update: I got user flairs/badges (& page tags), working now in my work-in-progress branch. What remains is tidying up, & code review & auto tests — that's about a week.

                      1. In reply tomichael:
                        KajMagnus @KajMagnus2021-10-05 04:36:48.237Z2021-10-05 04:44:17.215Z

                        @michael Now this has been implemented, and is live in Prod.

                        To start using user badges/flaris, go to /-/admin/settings/features and tick the Enable tags checkbox. Thereafter, when you visit a user's profile, there's a [ +... ] button just below the person's name, which you can click to open a Title badges dialog.

                        But there is a bug (I just noticed): Badges/flairs disappear for users who are currently online (including oneself). I'll fix in a mini release later this week.

                        You can look at my username here (unless I'm currently online) and you'll see that now I have the badges core-dev and support-team. — Don't know if you'd like the badges/flairs to look differently; I know that over at Reddit the badges/flairs have a background color.

                        Later, you'll be able to add a title badge to a group; then, everyone in that group, gets that title. And there's a user-badges / page-tags management page at /-/tags, which currently just lists badges and tags. Later, though, if you click a badge or tag, you'll be able to rename it, or set the sort order, and customize it in other ways, maybe colors.

                        (There are also page tags, and currently if you click the new [ + ...] button to add a tag to a page (just below the page title), you'll see also user badges in the Add existing tags: ___ dropdown. Later, you'll see only page tags here, not user badges.)

                        1. Michael Lynch @michael
                            2021-10-05 15:24:47.481Z

                            Awesome, thank you!

                            1. CChristian Scheuer @chrscheuer
                                2021-10-06 08:31:39.403Z

                                Awesome progress, @KajMagnus!

                                Quick question: Does everybody have access to assigning user badges or is it only admins?

                                Also, same question for page tags :)

                                1. KajMagnus @KajMagnus2021-10-06 14:24:48.752Z2021-10-07 00:07:48.488Z

                                  Right now, mods & admins can create badge types, and add to users. (The same goes, for page tags. Tags and badges are the same thing, under the hood.)

                                  Later, this'll be configurable: You'll be able to choose who may create badge types, and edit and rename. And, for each badge type, you can configure who may use it — that is, who may give it to a user. And who may see it. (Maybe you'd like to invent a troublesome-troll badge that only mods should see, or a boring-maybe-delete post tag.)

                                  For example:
                                  Maybe only mods & admins should be able to create new tag types.
                                  Whilst Trusted Members should be able to tag pages with those tag types.

                                  ***

                                  Even later, distant future, people will be able to create their own personal tags & badges. Which will then be scoped to themselves, so as to not collide with "global" tags and badges. These personal tags would not be visible to others, unless one made them visible and others wanted to see them. ...

                                  ... Mods & admins could then choose to "promote" those tags & badges, so they become "site global" tags and badges.

                                  I'm thinking this'll enable both top-down and bottom-up creation of tags and badges:
                                  Most badge and tag types would probably be created by mods and admins. That'd be top-down.
                                  Whilst individual members could create their own, show the community how they're using them, and then the community can accept those tags & badges so they'll become site global. That'd be bottom-up.

                              • In reply toKajMagnus:
                                CChristian Scheuer @chrscheuer
                                  2021-10-06 08:40:49.511Z

                                  have a background color

                                  That would be amazing :)

                                  But for now, even having them, is sooo cool. Wrt page tags: Really looking forward to how we can use this in both our integrations (for page tags etc.) and for search once SF grows beyond our current integrations.
                                  Awesome work!

                                  1. CChristian Scheuer @chrscheuer
                                      2021-10-06 08:41:44.583Z

                                      A quick bug (as I see it).

                                      I added a user tag "SoundFlow Team", but apparently this tag also becomes available for pages. Could they be strictly divided somehow so that user tags != page tags?

                                      1. Yes, thanks for reporting.

                                        Actually I was aware about that bug (or unimplemented thing), and ... well, decided to deploy the tags & badges anyway o.O

                                        Later, for each tag/badge, one will be able to configure what it can be added to:

                                        • Only pages (then it works as a content tag),
                                        • Or only users (then it works as a user badge).
                                        • In the distant future, sometimes both pages and users — maybe it can be nice with a reply-to tag: you could tag a specific post — but also tag a person, to remember to email that person or to start a private message topic (rather than replying to any specific post).

                                        & there'll be a sort order setting too, in case some badges are more important than others and should be listed first (rather than alpahbetically)

                                        1. CChristian Scheuer @chrscheuer
                                            2021-10-06 21:02:26.437Z

                                            NICE! Love how you're designing this.

                                            Don't forget the ability to click on a tag to search for users having that tag or pages/posts with that tag :)
                                            I find myself clicking the tags all the time to start a search haha.

                                            This will become an incredibly powerful system. And already is starting to be.

                                            1. CChristian Scheuer @chrscheuer
                                                2021-10-06 21:58:54.223Z

                                                Hey @KajMagnus

                                                I am seeing something weird. I've added a "SoundFlow Team" badge to my user over at forum.soundflow.org
                                                However, it appears the badge is only shown on some pages and not on others. Do you know why?

                                                1. CChristian Scheuer @chrscheuer
                                                    2021-10-06 21:59:50.145Z
                                                    1. CChristian Scheuer @chrscheuer
                                                        2021-10-06 22:38:31.338Z

                                                        Hm and now it works again. Maybe it's just a JS version issue. Weird, I kept refreshing my cache.

                                                        1. CChristian Scheuer @chrscheuer
                                                            2021-10-06 22:39:29.850Z

                                                            No, it's really weird. Now I have the same link open in 2 tabs. The badges show in one tab, and not in the other....

                                                            1. There's a bug: badges won't appear, if the user is online (I've fixed this, on localhost). And another bug: Badges won't appear, in access restricted categories (will fix. I forgot to include the tags at some places / thought I'll-do-later. Sorry for the confusion).

                                                              1. CChristian Scheuer @chrscheuer
                                                                  2021-10-08 12:08:08.316Z

                                                                  Ah ok – no problem :) Good to hear you've located these.

                                                                  1. @chrscheuer and @michael — now the badges-gone issues should have been fixed (& Prod upgraded).

                                                                    So now you (and everyone else) should see your own badges. And page tags should work also in access restricted categories.

                                                                    1. CChristian Scheuer @chrscheuer
                                                                        2021-10-21 19:27:51.827Z

                                                                        Thank you! I have noticed it appeared to work better these past days, so I think that's confirmation it's been fixed :)

                                                2. Progress
                                                  with doing this idea
                                                3. @KajMagnus closed this topic 2021-05-22 05:13:01.363Z.
                                                4. @KajMagnus reopened this topic 2021-05-22 05:13:04.245Z.
                                                5. @KajMagnus marked this topic as Started 2021-05-22 05:13:16.781Z.