SAS Support Communities forecast: sunny with a chance of badges

[BeverlyBrown]

Some of you enjoy accumulating badges in the SAS Support Communities. Admit it. A delighted smile greets each email notification of a new one hitting your profile. You relish accruing likes, solved topics or other badge-able achievements, such as upping your community activity in the run-up to SAS Global Forum.

Meh about all that? Drive on. This post is for badge-philes!

Anniversary celebrations, more capacity to level up

We're refreshing badge incentives a bit. Some of you have blown the lid off our badge recognitions already, so it was time to add some new levels. Recognizing the outliers, we're adding some rungs for those members who contribute a lot. Standing Ovation, Virtuoso and Triple Encore designations await some of you. If you're big on giving encouragement, Audacious Ace and Advocate Extraordinaire awards may be in your future.

Perhaps the most coveted recognition goes to those of you who spend your days in here solving your fellow users' problems. When an original poster marks an answer solved, the credit for an Accepted Solution goes to whoever authored the solution. The revamp adds four new levels for solution authors. We're particularly proud of the name and design for the top commenter. Can't wait to see if you agree.

We appreciate you, year after year

Our badges audit also revealed a missed opportunity to celebrate your community anniversaries. Hey, we're SAS. We count everything. Shame on us for overlooking an annual chance to say, "Thanks! We see you and appreciate you." In our zeal to make amends, some of you long-time members will have to put up with an initial downpour of badges. After that, your anniversary "thank yous" will drop to a reasonable cadence.

New rank also in the works

Your rank in the communities is a product of your tenure as a member and various activity-based achievements that cause you to level up. Since SAS' roots are in academia, it made sense five years ago to choose rank names from university life (learner, advisor, mentor, etc.) New ranks will be based on one of SAS CEO Jim Goodnight's hobbies. Stay tuned!