Recognise your Beekins, A way to recognise who Beekins are Options

[Hammond]

What if there were a way in which yo could easily recognise your Beekin helpers.

My suggestion is that Beekins get special wings, or an avatar, or something, so that they are instantly recognisable as Beekins without having to look to hard for them?

What do you think?

[Crystal Shelle]

That would be great, except that then a bunch of people would want to be a beekin just for the avatar, and the quality of help would go way down. Maybe they should do that, but start being more selective when accepting new beekins. And I'll never be able to get an avatar any other way. *glares at her parents* I'm surprised they let me be a beekin, they hate Furcadia!

[edit: stray period]



This post has been edited by Crystal Shelle: Aug 9 2002, 05:25 AM

[Molasses]

I think this may be a bad idea, as Beekins already have badges for people to recognise them by when they are on-duty. Giving them a more permanent way of being recognised will mean that they will be asked to help people when they are off-duty, and have no intention of helping.
But if you mean they should be more recognisable while they are on-duty, then that's different. I think uniforms have been suggested, but giving all Beekins special wings may just encourage users without wings to become a Beekin just so they can have wings while on-duty. But I might be wrong...

[ForestStryfe]

What, exactly, would be the point of this though? Beekins have badges for this purpose, and if you really need help, you can either type 'help' or head over to the help desk.  There's no point in encouraging furres to want to be on duty because of an avatar, and I believe that the quality of service would definitely go down.

[Cassiel]

I, personally, think the badge does more than enough to make a beekin recognizable.

[Terrent Furis]

Giving beekins something else to recognize them over other furcadians would attract more of the beekins that try to join only to feel more important than others and say "I am a mighty beekin, roar..."

[NiteMyste]

*****ROFL*****

Come on... where does it end? The Beekins already have special badges that work just fine when they are on duty (and some still flash them when off duty). When they are off-duty it is usually because they wish to actually have some fun in this community that they support by giving freely of their time. Even Beekins need to be able to have fun... *sheesh. But, you seem to want to make them "stand out". To basicly take away their right to not being pestered by furres on their off time.
When furres volunteered to be Beekins, they did so on the understanding that it would not give them any powers over regular furres nor any special privelages or advantages. Now, you are advocating they get special avatars.. or wings.... Tell me something, are you by any chance a Beekin?
**chuckles
The badges they have work REAL well now. I for one don't believe they need anything more to let others know who they are and as has already been stated, if you REALLY need a Beekin, type help. Simple ...easy ...and you don't have to be running around for some "special avatar" **pfft......

****chuckles to himself and he pads back into the shadows.....stops ...shakes his head ...laughs out loud for a sec...and then moves into the shadows.....laughter echoing behind him.....

[Shaellin]

While I generally agree with most of what you have to say NiteMyste, in this instance I'm afraid that I must disagree.  A special Beekin avatar would not necessarily detract from a Beekin's off-duty time because it would most likely be switchable, just like the badges are now.  Switch on, there's your badge and avatar.  Switch off, you're just another ordinary furre.  Silver Sponsors can already switch avatars on the fly so why not Beekins?

It would also be useful to be able to see who your Beekin is if you're asking for help that needs to be given in furson rather than through whispers.  It's embarrassing when you can't tell where the Beekin you're talking to is standing and they say "I'm the furre right in front of you."  If they actually looked different from other furres you wouldn't have to ask.  It would also make it easier to keep track of your Welcomer if you're taking your first tour of Furcadia.  And maybe the Guardians could even have their own special avatars to make them look more intimidating and official.

Badges are all well and good.  There's no denying that they help a lot.  I'm just saying that special avatars would help also, adding a kind of reenforcement to the badge.

As for the arguement that there would be more people applying to be Beekins just for the avatar and that quality of help would suffer, gimme a break.  New Beekins would still have to go through the same selection and training process that they've always had to.  That alone would weed out most of the wannabes.  Besides, I keep hearing all the time that there aren't enough Beekins around.  Those few that make it through the screening and training process would be deserving to wear the mantle of Beekin.  If the avatar helps drum up some more recruits I say that's a good thing.

[Youlanda]

I think, most beekins want to be more hidden than out in the open.

Many of them are hated for having those annoying badges as it is, why add fuel to the fire?

[Cassiel]

I really agree with Nite here.  When I first read this thread, I immediately got the impression that someone wanted to get more special things for being a beekin, to help distinguish them from others.

[Valkaria]

It's bad enough that the badge itself is already abused for those simply wanting to flaunt a position.  An avatar would only make matters worse.  If you want a special avatar that badly, all you have to do is decide that you want to help support Furcadia and buy one.

[Guest_Scorpio Night_*]

Now my personal oppinion is, PLEASE DO IT! But only because i am a beekin.

But i also agree that many furres would want to be beekins just for the avatar. I could just imagine. o.o

[Athene]

How about (while this is slightly tongue-in-cheek, I am partially serious) a big ugly orange hat or somesuch. An item noone would -want- except for identification purposes. Since Beekin badges overwrite the regular badges, it's difficult for people to find their Beekin, since they don't know what colour/species/etc they are. While you can describe yourself to the furre looking for you, a big orange ugly hat would be so much simpler. I think the wings and whatnot are a bad idea, because people would indeed start trying to become Beekins just for the sake of a special avatar, but a little something just to grab someone's attention may not be a bad thing.

I think someone started a thread elsewhere about OOC and AFK hats? Why not a Helper, Mason, or Guardian hat as well, that could be turned off separately from the Badge?

[Inhandra]

Why not a Helper, Mason, or Guardian hat as well, that could be turned off separately from the Badge?

You'd be suprised.  I'm willing to bet that even if the hat was ugly, people would want it.

As for the idea of special add-ons, this adds a whole new set of patches just for ONE group.  Think about this: a Beekin can appear in any species, including paid ones.  Now,  to add a hat, you need a patch to add a hat to: canine, lapine, feline, mustiline, equine, rodent, dragon, phoenix, and the soon-to-come gryphon.  Now consider that they COULD be wearing classics.  Now we have to add another set of patches for winged canine, lapine, feline, mustiline, equine, and rodent. But what if they are wearing triwings?  Now we have to add another set of patches for triwinged winged canine, lapine, feline, mustiline, equine, and rodent.  What about butterfly wings?  Now we have a patch for butterfly winged canine, lapine, feline, mustiline, equine, and rodent.  And THAT is just for a Guardian Hat.  To add for three more groups, triple this amount.

Get it now?  

Now imagine the download size hike from adding all those patches...

[NiteMyste]

I LOVE IT Athene...
Purrfect idea... by making it something that no one in their right mind would want, you fulfil two things...
1.) you give them something for instant recognition no matter how many are in the crowd
And
2.) You keep furres that would only volunteer for "special avatars or wings" from volunteering, thus keeping spaces open for serious volunteers and not "fly-by-night" ones....

ROFL .....I just LOVE it........

***pads off into the shadows...almost bent over with laughter........

[Valkaria]

Or we could just leave it the way it is...  

[Farrier]

I can see this working, in a limited sense. It is hard for newbies to find the helpdesk, it is hard for them to find their welcomer when they finally manage to summon them, it is hard for them to find a beekin to help them.

Visual cues are important.

To keep the required art work down, it would have to be a non-wingable avatar (like dragons and phoes). A "beekin dragon" would work.

It would have to be switchable, like dragins, phoes, and badges.

It would have to be UNRELATED TO THE CHANNEL. Currently, beekins' badges come on when they are on the channel, which (for fear of being accused of badge flashing) is discouraging enough. So this would be a Bad Thing if it also changed your avatar.

The current beekin belt-tightening should prevent people becoming beekins just for the avatar.

I reckon it sounds like way too much work for a freebie, though. Possibly if it were a pay thing, that only beekins could buy?

[Crystal Shelle]

A "beekin dragon" would work.

Yeah, a Beekin the Help Dragon avatar would be cool!

[Emarice]

I think it would be handy for Welcomers -- I don't see it as being necessary for Deskies or Channel Beekins, or even Masons/Pixels/Scribes.

Welcomers, of course, have to show around new furres, so it would be good if they had a little something that set them aside (at least to the furre they're welcoming) that would make them easier to follow.

But Deskies already have that desk that sets them aside -- they shouldn't be on duty if they're not behind it, if I'm not mistaken -- and the rest work on Channels, which rarely involves being face to face with a furre, except for Guardians (who have a slight need to be secretive at times).

Then again, if it were an option, it might prove useful. :) (What I'd really like is for, as a Channeler, my whispers to be the only thing that display my badge.)

[Valkaria]

...except for Guardians (who have a slight need to be secretive at times).

If they were meant to be secretive, why have their names plastered on the Guardian site?  o.O

Then again, if it were an option, it might prove useful. (What I'd really like is for, as a Channeler, my whispers to be the only thing that display my badge.)

Or at least have the option to choose how it shows.



This post has been edited by Valkaria: Aug 10 2002, 06:29 PM