I like the lightyear landmark idea, especially how is isn't necessarily in just a boring 2^x or 10^x progression like most project's badges.

My astronomy degree slightly dislikes using Universe landmarks for MILKYWAY@home, but that's just a background niggle.

The light-year landmark is a pretty good idea, in my opinion, but it may result in pretty large gaps between badges. Could someone come up with a decent scale for light-year based badges?

My astronomy degree slightly dislikes using Universe landmarks for MILKYWAY@home, but that's just a background niggle.

I toyed around with other distance scales, but they end up not going anywhere if you want 1 credit to equal 1 unit of distance. Basically, we need a scale (if we want to use landmarks) that goes from ~10k to 10 Billion, so that we have room to grow. If you use meters or kilometers (or miles), 1 billion will not even get you outside of our solar system. I think 1 ly per credit lets you pass interesting things at credit landmarks.

The light-year landmark is a pretty good idea, in my opinion, but it may result in pretty large gaps between badges. Could someone come up with a decent scale for light-year based badges?

I'm not sure what you mean by this. I looked at the badge systems for other BOINC projects and tried to find universe landmarks close to their badge requirements. The system is not set in stone, yet.

I'll start coming up with some sample badges.

My astronomy degree slightly dislikes using Universe landmarks for MILKYWAY@home, but that's just a background niggle.

I toyed around with other distance scales, but they end up not going anywhere if you want 1 credit to equal 1 unit of distance. Basically, we need a scale (if we want to use landmarks) that goes from ~10k to 10 Billion, so that we have room to grow. If you use meters or kilometers (or miles), 1 billion will not even get you outside of our solar system. I think 1 ly per credit lets you pass interesting things at credit landmarks.

The light-year landmark is a pretty good idea, in my opinion, but it may result in pretty large gaps between badges. Could someone come up with a decent scale for light-year based badges?

I'm not sure what you mean by this. I looked at the badge systems for other BOINC projects and tried to find universe landmarks close to their badge requirements. The system is not set in stone, yet.

I'll start coming up with some sample badges.

So you are saying that since I have 39,952,991 credits, you would call them light years, for the badges, and I would be between the 27M - Pinwheel Galaxy and the 55M - Virgo Cluster badges? That works for me.

We are also toying around with the idea of having "long-service medals," in which users receive medals based on the amount of time that they have been active in the project - even the highest levels of these medals could be achieved by users with relatively low average credit.

These badges could be based on events in the history of the universe, starting from the Big Bang, or they could be service medals, such as a medal with a big "2" for 2 years of work, for example.

We are also toying around with the idea of having "long-service medals," in which users receive medals based on the amount of time that they have been active in the project - even the highest levels of these medals could be achieved by users with relatively low average credit.

These badges could be based on events in the history of the universe, starting from the Big Bang, or they could be service medals, such as a medal with a big "2" for 2 years of work, for example.

I like that idea too!

I like another idea that hasn't been floated and is probably too hard to implement...awarding longtime crunchers more credits then newbies, JUST because they are long time crunchers. NOT based on cobblestones, but based on actual time spent crunching. So someone who has been actively crunching, probably a new stat for the Server side to collect, would get say 5 extra credits PER UNIT, after 5 years of contributions TO THAT PROJECT. That 5 years could be after 10 or 20 years of on and off crunching or 5 continuous crunching, for example. Give credits solely based on long term dedicated users is the idea. Maybe someone could pose it to Dr. A as an idea and it could just be included in a future Server side release.

I don't think that would be fair, since in the end the total contribution to the project is the amount of cobblestones (points). But I agree that longtime crunchers should be awarded, so I vote for 2 separate awards (points and time).

I don't think that would be fair, since in the end the total contribution to the project is the amount of cobblestones (points). But I agree that longtime crunchers should be awarded, so I vote for 2 separate awards (points and time).

Or even a badge with a number imbedded on it to represent how long you have been crunching in years for the project.

The one thing I would suggest is that you use the "on_mouse_over" command so that when you place the cursor on the badge it tells what it stands for.

I like another idea that hasn't been floated and is probably too hard to implement...awarding longtime crunchers more credits then newbies, JUST because they are long time crunchers.

Credit totals are supposed to be directly proportional to the number of FLOPS crunched, and so any credit increases would be met with harsh criticism from other project and new crunchers on MilkyWay@home.

Or even a badge with a number imbedded on it to represent how long you have been crunching in years for the project.

This is closer to what we'd like to do.

Here are some sample badges that I whipped together:

25k - Galactic Center


66k - Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy


175k - Large & Small Magellanic Clouds


The "token" (background) color will will get "hotter" with each badge - dull red to bright red, to orange, through the rainbow to blue, and eventually bright violet and/or white.

I need to add transparency, and maybe they should be a bit smaller, but I want to see what everyone thinks.

Here are some sample badges that I whipped together:

25k - Galactic Center


66k - Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy


175k - Large & Small Magellanic Clouds


The "token" (background) color will will get "hotter" with each badge - dull red to bright red, to orange, through the rainbow to blue, and eventually bright violet and/or white.

I need to add transparency, and maybe they should be a bit smaller, but I want to see what everyone thinks.

I like it except....and I KNOW it isn't REAL LIFE, but maybe you could balance them out with the horizon, so the badges are left to right on the horizon within each badge. As in the first one is tilted to the left 45 degrees and the third one is tilted to the right almost 90 degrees. As for the second one it is kind of hard to make it out but I think I see a sun, moon or planet inside a stripe and then something below that like a row of little rocks leading to a bigger one on the right. I just think the second one needs clarity or a different perspective perhaps. ALL nitpicky on my part!!!

Maybe the answer is to be able to click on the 'badge' and get a full screen view of the real thing?

Here are some sample badges that I whipped together:

25k - Galactic Center


66k - Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy


175k - Large & Small Magellanic Clouds


The "token" (background) color will will get "hotter" with each badge - dull red to bright red, to orange, through the rainbow to blue, and eventually bright violet and/or white.

I need to add transparency, and maybe they should be a bit smaller, but I want to see what everyone thinks.

I like it except....and I KNOW it isn't REAL LIFE, but maybe you could balance them out with the horizon, so the badges are left to right on the horizon within each badge. As in the first one is tilted to the left 45 degrees and the third one is tilted to the right almost 90 degrees. As for the second one it is kind of hard to make it out but I think I see a sun, moon or planet inside a stripe and then something below that like a row of little rocks leading to a bigger one on the right. I just think the second one needs clarity or a different perspective perhaps. ALL nitpicky on my part!!!

Maybe the answer is to be able to click on the 'badge' and get a full screen view of the real thing?

They want to show us how they look to us from earth.

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Here are some sample badges that I whipped together:

25k - Galactic Center


66k - Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy


175k - Large & Small Magellanic Clouds


The "token" (background) color will will get "hotter" with each badge - dull red to bright red, to orange, through the rainbow to blue, and eventually bright violet and/or white.

I need to add transparency, and maybe they should be a bit smaller, but I want to see what everyone thinks.

I like it except....and I KNOW it isn't REAL LIFE, but maybe you could balance them out with the horizon, so the badges are left to right on the horizon within each badge. As in the first one is tilted to the left 45 degrees and the third one is tilted to the right almost 90 degrees. As for the second one it is kind of hard to make it out but I think I see a sun, moon or planet inside a stripe and then something below that like a row of little rocks leading to a bigger one on the right. I just think the second one needs clarity or a different perspective perhaps. ALL nitpicky on my part!!!

Maybe the answer is to be able to click on the 'badge' and get a full screen view of the real thing?

They want to show us how they look to us from earth.

I know that's why I said "it isn't REAL LIFE" and used the word "nitpicky".

I find that a very good idea, hope it will activated anytime :)

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DSKAG Austria Research Team: http://www.research.dskag.at

I am working on it - but I'm also juggling a bunch of other work. I hope to have the badge system up in October!

I do have a bit of a problem with those designs in that, if sized down, they look really quite bad and not particularly distinguishable. A lot of third-party services implement badges (in signatures and the like), and generally the largest they'll display badges at is 32x32. If the badge isn't distinguishable at that resolution then it's going to just look ugly in everyone's signatures.

Looking at those examples I think the easiest way would be to just artificially bump up the contrast and brightness; especially on the outer ring which would probably be the primary way of distinguishing between the badges. Additionally, it might be useful to have the outer ring go through shades at a "faster" rate, so people don't have to distinguish between "murky brownish red" and "slightly darker murky brownish red".

The designs aside, it looks like you've got decent milestones/benchmarks set out for the badges.

Thanks for the feedback - I've been toying around with different design paradigms and haven't settled on one yet. I didn't know about the third party services that display badges 32x32 pixels, but that definitely explains why other projects seem to use that size exclusively.

I'm leaning towards using 32x32 badges, which will be abstract pixelart representation of objects. Then I'll build a page on the website that explains them in detail.

I hope to get some examples up in the next few days.

I haven't forgotten about this - things are just piling up here. Badges are steadily climbing my priority list!