Posted by Kim on December 4, 2011, 12:13am
Back when the site started, I put in "featured characters" to showcase the capabilities of the site to prospective users. They were carefully filtered through strict criteria, meant to determine those who were most "appropriate," free of legal complications such as copyrighted images, and showcased the site-building powers of the site at its best. As it turned out, only about one character every three months seemed to make it through this arduous review process.And yet, the nominations streamed in, dozens every month, with amazing notes. Notes about how much fun it was to RP with a particular character, or how kind a player was and how everyone would benefit from knowing the player and being their friend. And heart-breakingly, these glowing nominations had to be turned down one by one, because the profile alone didn't satisfy the criteria. Worse, we're such a tight knit community that my panel of reviewers constantly burned out, hating to vote down the characters they loved playing with because they didn't meet the criteria.
Over time, it became abundantly clear that the community felt that characters should be featured based on how much fun they were to play with, or how nice it was to know the player -- NOT based on how well they utilized our drag and drop widgets.
And I agree.
That's why today, I'm introducing Kudos.
Kudos can be given to both players and characters. They are a way to feature your friends to the entire community, and let us know why we ought to be their friend, too!
From the Greek word meaning "glory," a kudo is acclaim for exceptional achievement or qualities. If you know someone who is exceptionally fun to RP with, exceptionally fun to know, has a special talent for profile building that everyone needs to see, or is fantastic in any way at all and you want the world to know, give them a kudo.
More than serving as a recommendation to the rest of us, it lets your friends know just how much you appreciate them, and rewards and encourages best behavior and good RP.
To give kudos, visit a player's profile and choose "Give kudos!" from the menu beneath their portrait. Or, go to a character's profile and choose "Give Kudos!" from the toolbar at the top of the page.
What better way to Be Excellent to Each Other than to tell the world what makes each one of us worth knowing? So today, go out and give your friends kudos for all the ways that they are awesome.
Amazingly, more than 50 kudos were given out yesterday, before the system had even been officially announced, and before most of the links that made the system easy to find and use had been put in. If that's not love, I don't know what is.
Merry Festival of Being Excellent to Each Other!
Comments
Kudos widget is available to start playing with. It will get a bit more complex in the coming weeks, but for now it's ready to start showing off the rave reviews your characters have been getting. 
Awesome and I was also going to ask where the Kudos appear on a character, but as i can see, there will be a new widget. And the feature is so awesome.
What an utterly fantastic and perfect little addition to the site. Really! Couldn't have come at a better time! 
Lol... my characters are fun to play with xD
This is such a brilliant feature and I've seen some really nice comments going back and forth. Good job, Kim
Okay, notifications about kudos can now be toggled. Did the same for event news, on an only partially related note.
Toggling the notifications is on the way, promise! I expect the next few days will be kudos heavy as people give them out by the fistful, and then it will die down over time as people start to give them out on a less hectic schedule.
It's much better than it was when none of the notifications about them combined, at least!
It's much better than it was when none of the notifications about them combined, at least!
YAY! But omg, PLEASE make kudos filterable in the notifications, my brain 'sploded from this crazy new and lovingly abused feature ;_;
But omg, PLEASE make kudos filterable in the notifications, my brain 'sploded from this crazy new and lovingly abused feature ;_;
It's on my list! 
http://www.rprepository.com/development/developmentTask.php?task=179
I should be able to get to it pretty quick-like. Most of the underlying pieces are ready to go.
http://www.rprepository.com/development/developmentTask.php?task=179I should be able to get to it pretty quick-like. Most of the underlying pieces are ready to go.
Oo! Yay! I hoped into my character editor all snappy like to try and find that widget before I asked.
I'm still implementing where they appear, but you can see ALL the kudos here: http://www.rprepository.com/community/kudos.php
I'll also be adding a kudos widget, and a kudos page that will match a character's template to go and look at all of them.
I'll also be adding a kudos widget, and a kudos page that will match a character's template to go and look at all of them.
Quick question! When you give a character kudos.. where are those visible? I've seen people give kudos out to characters but I can't figure out where I go to view them (I can find the players kudos easily enough.)
I have more kudos to write!
And you can do them for characters too. Which is great.
Grammar is going right out the window here. Whoosh. There it goes.
Kudos are excellent. Thanks for implementing them, Kim!
And you can do them for characters too. Which is great.
Grammar is going right out the window here. Whoosh. There it goes.
Kudos are excellent. Thanks for implementing them, Kim!
That's what they're there for!
When I stumbled across this... I have to admit, I went on a bit of a kudos frenzy. :o
Drayle88
December 4, 2011
6:27pm