# Icon next to username on topics?

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/icon-next-to-username-on-topics/36182>\
**Category:** Feature\
**Created:** [December 1, 2015, 1:14am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/icon-next-to-username-on-topics/36182 "2015-12-01T01:14:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 1

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**Author:** ![charleswalter](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/charleswalter/32/116433_2.png) [@charleswalter](https://meta.discourse.org/u/charleswalter)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2015, 1:14am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/icon-next-to-username-on-topics/36182/1 "2015-12-01T01:14:35Z")

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I see on the Discourse Meta site that the co-founders have an icon (moderator shield) next to their name. Is this something that can be configured in badges or some other location?

We are trying to figure out how to provide more visible recognition to our users who achieve different badges / levels of participation in the community, without having to visit their profile. We believe this can help provide better gamification, because reaching different levels would have more meaning.

On other communities, we’ve seen things like displaying ranks, registration date, number of posts, number of likes, etc, directly on the topic page. I can understand that this can get a bit clunky, but perhaps there are some things that could be considered as a plugin or an option.

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