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I really like how, in the winter bash, there are hats. They are pretty cool and actually encourage me to get badges, something I didn't care about before. I think there should be something like this, but all year round, to encourage people to get badges. Badges, to me, seem currently pretty useless and I never want to get any because...there is no good reason to. Hats: well, hats are just awesome

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    If it will be permanent, it will lose its charm. Commented Dec 16, 2013 at 23:49
  • @JoshCaswell Well, that was asking whether hats get you anything after December ends. This is stating the knowledge that they currently don't, but the wish that they would. Which I sort of agree with, but the powers that be certainly don't, and I'm alright with that. (Though I do wish there were, at least, a ton more random badges and stuff. Not enough unlockables. Unlockables are fun, whether you can wear them or not.)
    – neminem
    Commented Dec 16, 2013 at 23:54
  • I'm not trying to say that we should have hats year round (maybe those should just stay as a winter special), but we should have something similar that is actually fun apart from just badges. That's what I'm trying to say Commented Dec 16, 2013 at 23:55
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    So you want something cool to encourage you to get badges, but not hats, since hats are special. But it's only because hats are special that you care. They already implemented something year-round... they're called badges. The only reason they aren't "fun" is because they're year-round.
    – Geobits
    Commented Dec 17, 2013 at 0:16
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    @GenericHolidayName no, that's not the point. Badges are tiny colored circles. Hats are modifications to your avatar Commented Dec 17, 2013 at 0:18
  • True, but I can modify my avatar whenever I want. So could anyone else that wanted to pretend they had X achievement if they were that style of thing.
    – Geobits
    Commented Dec 17, 2013 at 0:21

2 Answers 2

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Hats are fun because they are new and awesome. But after a few months of looking at the same image, it would get old and its appeal would wane. But for now they are still awesome! :)

I think the general sentiment behind this idea is a good one. More bling, am I right? However, we already have badges, reputation, and privileges, and I am not sure hats would be the next thing to add.

Your comment "modifications to your avatar" I think is a neat idea. It would be nice to use part of the already existing framework to hook some of that into daily operations.

Perhaps by month, there could be one (non permanent) possible gravatar modifier available. The achievement required to use it (only for that given month) could be listed in a SE blog post. The hooks in the framework to allow for a gravatar modifier are already available (as can be seen by the Winter Bash), so this would not take much time to implement.

The benefit would be that the SE team could have increased blog traffic, and be able to on a month by month basis have the community focus on the gravatar modification achievement. It would be fun to participate, and could help drive traffic to needed parts or features of the site (such as the review queue or a beta feature).

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    I really like the idea about monthly modifications! +1 Commented Dec 17, 2013 at 0:29
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There's always the option of saving your avatar with all your different hats to a computer, and then using them as your profile picture, and saying all the hat descriptions in the profile. I don't recommend doing this; it will make hats lose their meaning if they are used outside of the winter bash.

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  • just.........no Commented Dec 17, 2013 at 0:29
  • @Markasoftware Why not?
    – scrblnrd3
    Commented Dec 17, 2013 at 1:22
  • because this is just an image. It doesn't mean anything Commented Dec 17, 2013 at 1:41

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