BIRT Exchange Forum: BIRT Exchange Forum -> Badges and Upcoming Site Maintenance

The BIRT Exchange Community site will be taken down for maintenance on Friday, February 24 from 5pm to midnight Eastern Standard time. During this period we will add a new Awards system to highlight members on the BIRT Exchange Forums and DevShare.

What is it?
The awards system monitors site activity and displays awards in the form of badges for member participation and contribution. Community members are awarded badges based on criteria in various categories, such as achieving a predefined number of forum posts or DevShare submissions. Badges will be displayed beneath each member's user name on forum posts, DevShare articles, comments, and on his or her My Profile page (under a new Awards tab).

Why are we doing this?
Tens of thousands of BIRT Exchange members and many times more visitors use BIRT Exchange for technical assistance and to learn from the BIRT expertise of other community members. We want to make sure that the time spent by those who give back and participate are recognized and rewarded appropriately. One means to do this is by identifying those members who have made regular and/or significant contributions to the BIRT Exchange knowledge base.

Who is eligible for these awards?
All currently registered members of BIRT Exchange automatically participate. Register today if you haven't done so already. During the maintenance period on Friday, all members will be assigned badges as appropriate for their past accomplishments and contributions. New members can begin to earn badges with their first Forum post or BIRT Poll vote.

What categories and badges exist?
The current award categories can be found on the BIRT Exchange Awards Wiki page. More awards will be added in the future and we're planning some exciting challenges for those who enjoy exploring, need training, and/or want some friendly competition.

Let us know what you think of the Award System when it comes on-line this weekend via a comment to this blog.