Let's DO it!
The badge thing sounds both easier on the newbies AND cooler-looking.
We could even have, on the various Convention Category pages, the code for the badge itself (within NOWIKI tags) so that users can simply copy it and paste it into their User pages.
As for convention years... we are having a little chat about using Super-Categories for each convention, with sub-Categories for each year; which could, in turn, be reversed to be "2007 Conventions" as a Super-Category, with each convention that year under it.
My only issue with using Supers is for tagging myself as ALWAYS going to a con: for instance, I always will go to Trinoc*coN, and so I'd be inclined to tag myself with the Super-Category ("Trinoc*coN" only). Will that, in turn, tag me with every sub-Category, for individual searches (i.e. someone clicks "Trinoc*coN 2007" Category: do I appear)? Conversely, if someone clicks, say, "Dragon*Con" Super-Category (which I will attend 2007, but might not in 2008) then would it show me under the "Dragon*Con 2007" listing but no others? THat's my only concern: proliferation of annual badges when one really just needs a "permanent" badge.
But the badge thing in general... that rocks. I say DO it.
Hmmm... I suppose my whole "Supers" issue could be solved by just having an "Annually" sub-Category for each convention (e.g. "Trinoc*coN Annually").
[Aside: Why can't a wiki use a database? Setup a MySQL server database with needed tables; place HTML-based forms in a folder separate from the wiki or embed them in wiki pages, if you can do FORM SUBMIT tags in wiki (dunno); have links to the submission forms and search "reports" in the wiki itself; done deal, right?]
David
-------- Original Message --------
> If you do create the categories, make sure to have the year
> in them, such as [[Category:GenCon 2007]]. I think that
Indeed. So the templates should be like {{attends_GenCon06}}
{{attends_GenCon07}} {{attends_GenCon08}} with the badge reading "This
user
attended GenCon in 2006" "This user is attending GenCon this year" and
"This
user will attend GenCon 2008" respectively. Of course, after GenCon
2007,
it the template can be modified to the past tense, and everybody will be
automatically updated.