Understanding and using badges

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:bookmark: This guide explains what badges are in Discourse, how they work, and how to use them effectively.

:person_raising_hand: Required user level: All users

Badges in Discourse are a key feature that reinforces positive user behavior and facilitates “learning by doing”. They are an integral part of Discourse’s gamification features, designed to encourage and reward user engagement.

Summary

This guide covers:

  • What badges are and how they work
  • How to receive badges
  • Types and groups of badges
  • Viewing and managing badges
  • Additional resources for administrators

What are badges?

Badges are visual indicators of achievements or milestones that users can earn on a Discourse forum. They serve multiple purposes:

  1. Recognizing user contributions
  2. Encouraging positive behavior
  3. Marking progress in the community
  4. Gamifying the forum experience

Badge overview
Badge overview2240Ă—1244 183 KB

How to receive badges

There are two primary ways to receive badges in Discourse:

  1. Automatically: The system grants badges based on specific actions or achievements.
  2. Manually: An administrator manually awards badges to users. Read how to manually assign a badge.

Some badges have optional properties:

  • Can be used as a user title
  • Can be granted multiple times
  • Visible on the public badges page
  • Shows the post that granted the badge on the badge page

Types of badges

Discourse badges are classified into three types:

  1. Bronze: Easiest to acquire, typically for basic actions
  2. Silver: Moderate difficulty, requiring more engagement
  3. Gold: Most challenging to obtain, representing significant achievements

Badge groups

By default, badges are organized into the following groups:

  • Getting Started
  • Community
  • Posting
  • Trust Level
  • Other

If you need to modify the names of the default badge groups, visit discourse.example.com/admin/customize/site_texts?q=js.badges.badge_grouping on your site to customize the text.

:information_source: Administrators can create custom badge groups and adjust their positions on the badges page.

Viewing badges

To view available badges:

  1. Navigate to the /badges page on your Discourse site
  2. Browse the list of badges, organized by group
  3. Look for the :white_check_mark: icon, indicating badges you’ve earned
  4. Check the counter in the top right corner of each badge to see how many users have earned it

For more details about a specific badge:

  1. Click on the badge
  2. View information about the badge and users who have earned it

Badges overview page
Badges overview page1127Ă—549 29.9 KB

Trust level badges

Some badges correspond to trust levels in Discourse:

  • Basic (Trust Level 1)
  • Member (Trust Level 2)
  • Regular (Trust Level 3)
  • Leader (Trust Level 4)

These badges notify users when they’ve attained a new trust level.

Disabling badges

Admins can disable badges, and remove them from the user summary page, by unchecking the setting enable badges.

FAQs

Q: Can I suggest new badges for my community?
A: While users can’t create badges directly, you can suggest ideas to your forum administrators, who can create custom badges.

Q: Can I create custom badges for my community?
A: Yes, you can. You can create badges that are manually assigned or ones that are triggered by specified actions.

Q: Are all badges visible to everyone?
A: Most badges are visible on the public badges page, but administrators can choose to hide certain badges.

Q: Can I lose a badge once I’ve earned it?
A: Generally, no. Once you’ve earned a badge, it remains on your profile. However, administrators have the ability to revoke badges in exceptional circumstances.

Additional resources

Last edited by @hugh 2024-09-03T02:44:27Z

Last checked by @hugh 2024-09-03T02:44:33Z

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