I don’t know exactly what the differences are with the pavilion one. But I can say that the official one now loads all the necessary data without any extra HTTP requests.
Themes and plugins are configured in very different ways, so you’ll have to set it up from scratch.
I think the main difference is that in the theme component the admin configures which badges appear on posts and in the plugin the user decides in their preferences.
Yes, I just checked the difference and it also looks to me like described here. And I also know that some of my users are using this feature and selected the badges they want to show. So in my case this does not seem to be an alternative. Hm.
A perfect solution would be to have the functionality of the plugin in addition and let the admin choose which way it’s needed/wanted. 
We have some issues with the badge size when we are filtering all the posts by a specific user in a topic.
Clicking on the user avatar in the topic, click filter users’ posts, giant post badges show up.
Discourse 3.5.0
We soft launched showing the badges by the uesername and have received some positive feedback. We wanted to move forward with all badges and these two questions came to mind:
1: Display only highest-tier badges
Currently, all earned badges in a badge tier are showing (e.g., both “50 Solutions” and “100 Solutions”). Can we configure it to show only the most recent/highest badge in each tier?
Say if a user earned both “50 Solutions” and “100 Solutions,” only display “100 Solutions.”
2: User badge selection
Can we enable users to choose which badges appear next to their username? We’d like to give users control over their badge display instead of auto-showing all earned badges.
I wouldn’t be surprise to see some users prefer #1 and some for #2. We feel like #2 could be a long term practice as it prompts users to check on their participation and how they want to present themselves in the community.
Created a new group, but where do I upload the custom icon for this and ensure it displays next to the usernames of those in this group?
This component is about showing the badges a user has received. To use this component, you would need to create a custom badge that is granted manually or based on group membership. While setting up the badge, you can upload an image or select an icon.
To highlight group membership, you can also use group flairs instead of badges.
Basically I am creating 2 subscription options, and want to display a related badge for each next to their username and not on their profile picture. This cannot be done?
You can do that. You create the badge and use this component to show it in topics. You just need to find the best option for you to grant the badge.
Group flairs and titles work out of the box; a custom badge requires some more configuration.
Is there a guide or tutorial that explains this?
For custom badges, you can go to Admin > Badges and create one there.
Docs for group flairs:
But aren’t the badges just shown on the user profile, and not displayed next the the username?
And the flair is next to the avatar. Need to get them next to the username. Like the admin, mod badges.
You can add your custom badge to the setting and get it to be added next to the username. That’s the point of this component?
I’ll have to see. I installed it but cannot see where that is. I’ll try to figure it out. Thank you.
Ok, so I created the badges. But, how do you assign them to a specific group? I cannot find any setting that accomplishes this.
Hi there, are you referring to this?
No. I want to assign an icon/badge to certain user groups. Like the admin/mod icons – shown next to the name. Want to replace admin and mod ones with other ones as well.
5 posts were merged into an existing topic: Ability to assign icons to user groups
