Banner and welcome thread feedback

[burrrata]

@wchargin

Currently, every Discourse page has a header with the introduction, “This is the SourceCred communities home to play the SourceCred game”, linking to this post. Can we please reconsider and reword this? It suggests that this is a community for, like, some guild in an MMO. SourceCred can be a lighthearted and energetic community—we don’t have to conduct Serious Business Only—but what we’re trying to create and foster is first and foremost not a game.

For instance, we don’t want new community members’ reaction to their first impression to be, “goal: accumulate points”, but rather, “goal: determine whether this community’s vision resonates with me, and if so consider contributing to it at a meaningful level”.

We’ve been talking about SourceCred as a game/protocol for a while now, so I’m surprised to see this reaction. TBH I’m not quite sure what to say because the best way for people to start to understand and contribute to SourceCred is to start playing. Then they can dogfood the protocol, contribute to Initiatives, and provide feedback. The system should be designed so that people earn points by making meaningful contributions. If that’s not the case then we’re failing, but the only way to know is to try it out - thus the Credsperiment.

@wchargin

Aside from the exact contents of the banner, it’s a bit jarring to have such a large intrusion on every single page. Barely half of my 1080p screen remains for actual content below the banner, and the banner is only useful on at most the first visit. (I had the same complaint when the banner was just a screenshot of a cred graph, for what it’s worth, but haven’t voiced it until now.) Content like this makes sense for the home page or landing page.

The banner only stays up as long as you want it to. If you click the X at the top right of the banner to close it out, it goes away. The banner is only up for users who are new to the site.