Badges – where are they?

[Loraine]

Not sure if they’ll implement the badges or not, because they were Stage specific in the old forum, and they’re doing away with the Stages. They haven’t completed the full update yet from what I understand, but even if they have maybe they’ll listen to what the forum is talking about that is important to them. 🙃

[N-lightMike]

Badges are gone Bill. Part of the new effort to incorporate the learning philosophy that Tony teaches in his introductory Webinar and has taught in the Monthly Guitar Party and on the Acoustic Tuesday Show. It all has to do with building a habit and how to improve the fastest and easiest. Badges help with the whole reward thing, but can also contribute to competition, which is counter productive to the principles behind improvement. 😃

[Wm.Jacobson]

Hi Mike, the old badges are gone but I see brand new ones attached to member IDs in the new comment areas. It seems to me that they’re still used to promote certain behaviors, and I don’t really see this philosophical rationale.

I can appreciate that some users feel a loss.

[Bill_Brown]

I really don’t see how Badges contribute to competition Mike. I didn’t compete with anyone to earn a Solo Badge or the FBW Declaration Badge, except my own demons that kept me from doing it sooner. I guess I’m just a little sour because I had just earned those badges on 3/18 & 3/19, and seeing them gave me a sense of accomplishment. Not to mention that completing FBW was the big goal of my 90 days. Not seeing the Badges leaves me with a feeling of “what’s this all for anyways”?

• This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by  Bill_Brown.

[Rod]

I agree Bill. The badges were motivators for me. Seeing others with badges made me want to earn my own. I was looking forward to my TACiversary so that I could complete the set. Gotta say I’m a bit bummed about it.

[jumpinjeff]

Great question: “what’s this all for anyways”? The answer I found, It is to learn to play guitar. Seems simple but the proof is in the pudding not the badges one has, or not.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by  jumpinjeff.

[Loraine]

Have to comment on Jumpin’ Jeff’s comment – If this were only about learning the guitar (and not building relationships and having various outlets for fun – which might include striving for a badge), then it would be no different than other sites or going through the drudgery of daily practice and lessons. There need to be different outlets.

[Bill_Brown]

Yes Jeff, I get what you’re saying about learning to play. What I’m trying to say is that the Badges are the pudding!

[colinc]

Well said, all, interesting comments …. and saved me some typing 👍😎

Personally, I don’t really care for: “The Badges”, “TACiversaries”, “Hi-fives”, “Wins” ,etc ; although do acknowledge they have merit (forgive the pun).

There’s nothing wrong with healthy competition to help motivate and focus either.

However there’s enough ‘meat on the bones’ of TAC, with the addition of a little self-motivation to ‘achieve’ whatever we want; whatever it is we define as achievement.

Give me access to the Lick Library, and I will gladly: Juliet-Sierra-Tango-Foxtrot-Uniform …. I couldn’t find any semaphore flag emoji’s …. 😳

• This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by  colinc.

[Rod]

I disagree about competition being counter productive Mike. I think it’s just the opposite. Competition promotes improvement. Working at getting the badges was a real motivator for me. Seeing others with more badges than me only made me want to be like them!

[Loraine]

I wouldn’t even say it’s competition. It was something to strive for and gave a sense of accomplishment. They meant a lot to a lot of people.

[Rod]

I agree with that Loraine. Also, where’d the “like” button go?

• This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by  Rod H.

[jumpinjeff]

yes I get what you are saying. The badges had a meaning, they were a virtual representation of effort. What if we change the focus from the virtual representation to the real world. I have tremendous satisfaction every time I strum a Bm chord and it rings clear, when I need to make a minor chord and I can identify the 3rd degree and flatten it the get my minor tonality, when I make a D shaped Gchord on the 7th fret and then do an octave run G to G as a result of knowing the CAGED system. Those are the rewards I cherish. And they are never going away as long as I keep playing.

[Bill_Brown]

I just want to say Jeff, that the effort was real !!!!!!!

[jumpinjeff]

and the “result” of the effort is real too. The result is the playing experience. 100% agree the effort is real. I want my real effort to have practical results relating to my goal.

[Loraine]

I think the conversation is a great example of how motivation and fun are different for every person. The site should cater to many different forms of motivation and how others perceive their work and effort’s value and motivation. Some are intrinsic and some are extrinsic.

[Bill_Brown]

Thank you Loraine!

[jumpinjeff]

@ Loraine S:

“how others perceive their work and effort’s value and motivation”

That was a roadblock for me, I did not find meaningful progress until I abandoned that notion. I had to figure out how I could be intrinsically satisfied. External recognition didn’t make me want to play, it made me want to stop. My intrinsic motivation came in the form of personal recognition of progress (acquisition of applied knowledge and skills) small wins right?. I was distracted by the many voices of external recognition. My extrinsic reward comes from being able to sit down and play anything with anybody. Letting go of what you think about my journey up until now freed me to focus on *right now do we like the sound we make when we play together*. The sound I make is the story of my journey. My sound is my badge. My sound is my extrinsic reward. When I can make that sound with another musician harmoniously and in time, I am intrinsically satisfied. The only way that happens is by finding the joy in the effort, that is the “fun in learning” part.

BTW, Love these conversations!!!

[Bill_Brown]

What are the “Golden Picks” about? In relevance to this conversation, it seems like that is some kind of reward.

[Loraine]

I think that will be disclosed by Tony in the near future.

[Michael_D]

I love this comment, Jeff. I have enjoyed watching your growth as a player. We are all here for the same reason. To learn to communicate with music. To speak our language better and more fluidly. While there are changes on TAC that I may not personally like, the goal is to improve. The tools that help us do so are still here, we just have to let go. I may never be the player I envision, but I will always enjoy the journey of becoming. Music is one of the ways I can continue to do this. As this thread indicates, the supportive community is still here. How it will manifest within the new parameters has yet to be determined, but that is part of the journey too.

[Bill_Brown]

LIKE

[dr_dave]

@Bill Brown – Back in an earlier incarnation, before we had the two-sided TAC from which we just migrated within the last wek, I once had a screen pop up to congratulate me on a Golden Pick award. I never even found out what it was. I wonder if that’s a skeleton or if they have re-instituted something that existed in the early days of TAC. I say that because I now miraculously again can see the old conversations I had with other members during my first six months of membership in 2017.

Some months ago, I asked some people if they knew anything about that old “Golden Pick” screen that popped up for me in the “old-old” version of TAC (the pre-“Community” iteration that prevailed in late 2017). Sharon T (Mama TAC, whose name I was unable to tag – maybe I made a mistake) told me that Tony handed out some golden picks at a TAC Jamboree m, the original incarnation of what morphed into the “Acoustic Life Festival” when they outgrew Buck’s T4 Lodge. (Edited – OK, I found out Sharon spells her name @mommatac – rats, it still does jot appear to have tagged her!)

Also, the older single-site version of TAC had a points system. Rathe than accumulating points from how many posts you made or how many “likes” you got, the points were conferred based on completion of lessons, learning songs from the vault, completing special challenges, etc. I’m reading into the current state of the website that TAC central does not want to foster competition of any kind. I guess I’m OK with or with out badges, points etc. I don’t think they affect me positively or negatively, but I confess some preference for any recognition to be achievement-based as related to learning guitar playing or other aspects of music.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by  dr_dave.

[Bill_Brown]

Thank you @dr_dave for letting me see how many times TAC has changed “formats”. So you have been through format changes 3 times now, if I’m reading your post correctly, and you had to go with the flow. I guess you’re right about that, and it looks like there’s nothing we can do but go with it. But I’m still a little miffed about the reasoning behind “Badges” being considered a symbol of competition. They’re symbols of achievement – and nothing anyone says will make me think differently about that!

[Markb]

well said Lorraine…what is rewarding and motivating to me ….may not be the same for you but thats okay. I first thought the badges were korny……then I learned to value them….Interesting

[charli]

To badge or not to badge, that is the question. So much seems to have been lost in the transition to the “new” look. Many have put in a lot of effort, albeit by their previous song postings, comments or helping suggestions. All gone. Too bad. I liked lurking around and reading the older comments and performances. I’m not too sure I like this new look. Oh well, nuff said by this lurker… Love you all anyway. And BTW, what happened to the jam groups? That is where I met my guitar friends and now it’s no longer listed?

• This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by  charli c.

[BethL]

there you are @charli c I was just wondering last night if you were still here & now here you are! Miss you my friend 😆 Yep jam clubs no more…boohoo. There’s still the Virtual Open Mics though! I’ve been attending the friday nights such a hoot.

[charli]

BethL. I hope you are doing well. I’m not much for virtual playing (I’ll leave that to RobertG). I really think that eliminating the jam groups was a terrible decision. That was really the only thing that brought me back to TAC, and now it’s gone😰. Oh well, life goes on and TAC isn’t the end all of things (ie: not the boss of me). Hopefully we will eventually get another Bozeman event. Oh well, if you ever need to talk, I do respond to the email system here (if it still works LOL). Take care.