Do we have a finite number of points to award with badges?

[YoungAtHeart]

I have not noticed that I have a finite number of points or badges to award.  Do I?

[CommunityAdmin · Accepted solution]

You're always awarded points around the site for performing different activities or for contributing content that others like.  

If you were to give badges to others and to assign points, yes, conceivably you could give away all of your points. It's likely though that if you give badges to people that you'd also get some in return so your number would never get to 0. If you wrote a blog, discussion or question on the site if you did get to zero then you'd earn more points for contributing to the site.  While giving points away to others is a noble thing when the person is deserving, to give all your points away would potentially hide valuable contributions you've made to the community.  This could also potentially artificially inflate someone else's perceived contributions to the community, which could ultimately hurt newcomers to the site. There are many great contributions made to the community both in time and in content. Points earned don't necessarily indicate quality of a post but in conjunction with quantity of content they do indicate how much time a person has spent on the site. Honestly, it's quite impressive to me how dedicated members get on here.

The badges and points are a great way to simply say thanks to someone else when they've helped you out. To recognize them for their time and support.  Not all communities offer this opportunity to their members either 1 because the functionality doesn't exist or they don't have the ability to enable it.  It's an amazing feeling to thank someone for helping, especially when they might originally have been a stranger to you. The connections that are made on this site each and every day are a beautiful thing. I cherish that.

Thanks for asking your question!

Mark
EX Community Manager

[YoungAtHeart]

Which point total are we talking about?  The one on the home page - or the various ones other places?  Do I have thousands or hundreds?

Also - do we possess an infinite number of badges to award?  I'm not gonna' run out, am I?

[Jennifer-Quit]

When you give the badges and select the point to give - your total available to give shows (to the right I believe). Not sure how many badges we have available to give. I have also learned that you can give badges to new people with a short message without having to follow each other.  

[CommunityAdmin]

Jennifer-Quit‌ Yeah, it's great to find these little gems right?  I've always found that curiosity has been my greatest asset when trying to learn something new.  Sometimes you find unexpected ways to solve your problem.  

Having worked in customer support for a long time, the most curious customers were always the most successful at using the products I supported.  I refuse to be an old dog and I'll always learn new tricks. I just know I need to remain curious.  I've even gotten my dad looking in Forums/Communities when he has something broken he needs to fix.  He usually comes out with the answer.

Mark
EX Community Manager

[CommunityAdmin]

Youngatheart.7.4.12 wrote:

Which point total are we talking about?  The one on the home page - or the various ones other places?  Do I have thousands or hundreds?

Also - do we possess an infinite number of badges to award?  I'm not gonna' run out, am I?

Your point total should be the same across the whole site. You may see in certain places that it says you earned X number of points in the last week or last month but your overall point total will always be displayed in your profile. At the moment I looked, I saw 107,823 points in your account though that number is always fluctuating based on activity.
I don't believe there is a limit to the number of badges you can award but I will ask the question and confirm. I don't know if they considered people giving away a lot of badges.  I assume it was designed with the thought that people would be fairly selective in their distribution of badges.

However, please remember, as with anything you saturate... the value may be lost.  The platform was designed in a very specific way... Some of the widgets take into consideration various things around the site and factor that into the results that are provided in order to get you to information that is most relevant to you.   If points are just handed out to get them out of your account you may start seeing results in some of the widgets/tiles that are suggested based on a pre-determined algorithm that may not match your actual interests. Search may also be affected and people who may not participate for very long on the site may be prioritized over people who are around for  the long-term.

Mark
EX Community Manager