Advance Update: Badges Visibility in the Chatrooms
Hello everyone, I hope you are doing well. This post is to give you an update in advance that we will be making some changes in the visibility aspects of the badges in the chat rooms.
We are removing the visibility aspect for most of the badges. It means you will still have the badge but it will not show in the chatroom. We making this change because of the increased payload for the chat rooms. So to keep the messages sending flows efficient and swift, we need to do this.
Exceptions to this change are: Mod, Room Supporter, Chat Support, Peer Support, Teen Star, ATL, Newbie, Wise one, Helping hand, Friendly face, Supportive smile, Chatroom Supporter. These badges will still be visible in the respective sides of the chatrooms.
In addition to it, we will be getting a new umbrella badge - "Community Leader" with being visible in the chat rooms. Anyone who has a leadership role in any form will be eligible for this badge. This badge will be assigned for your dedication to providing support to the community as a leader.
We will keep iterating the process to ensure we are able to bring the best support and efficient and swift chats and interactions.
Thank you all for being supportive and compassionate members of the community.
@ASilentObserver thank you for this! Seems like a great update 
Thankyou for the update , sure gets a little overwhelming with badges taking up most space for some leaders under their name lol , the idea of a single community leader badge to honor the contributions as a community leader is a fantastic one . Woo! @ASilentObserver
@ASilentObserver What about the animals? I am not a coder, but considering it's an option for all users and has a link attached, I think this would be at least an equivalent burden as to the badges.
Will the Community Leader show in every room, or only for the room that someone is on the team?
Is it automatic or do those eligible have to request it?
Is it only for listeners or members too?
@AffyAvo Thank you for the feedback, Affy. Will pass it to the team.
for your questions!
1. I believe it will show up in all rooms.
2. To get it assigned, It needs to be requested.
3. For both members and lsteners.
@ASilentObserver Thanks!
@AffyAvo the animal icon can be turned off in the profile settings by each member.
@kindSoul10 Right, but if the badges are interferring with the chat speed, wouldn't the animal badges be doing so as well?
@ASilentObserver the animals are linked to posts that no even exist anymore, its time to totally remove it from site.
@vivelespatates I didn't realize the forums were gone, I thought just moved.
@7CupsCommunity I think this is something that needs to be changed, this is confusing when people come, see links and it just goes to the main forum page.
@AffyAvo
Thank you for the suggestion, it has been passed onto the rest of the Admin team.
Thanks for sharing this update with us!
@ASilentObserver Obs I sent you a Pm,please check your pms.
@ASilentObserver
Hi Obs! 
Thank you for the update! I love this concept! Some things are being taken away from visibility in an effort to provide space for more text, ergo more support and quicker response time in the rooms. Whomever thought of swapping this out for something more meaningful (community leader) was in my opinion, quite brilliant! This to me would be more of the "need to know" information as to who one could possibly go to for potentially rock solid support and information based on their contributions to the site for respective roles.
@ASilentObserver
Awesome update Obs!
Awesome
Thanks so much for the update:)
@ASilentObserver I find this reasoning difficult to understand. There is no need for the displayed badges to affect the flow of messages. They could be delivered from a separate server, and that server only needs to send each person's badges once, no matter how many times they are displayed in the room.
This is the system already used for profile pictures, in chats and also here in the forum. Profile pictures are delivered from a separate server, which only needs to send each picture once, no matter how many times it is displayed on a page. This system that's already in use could also be used for badges, it seems to me.
Oh, and it could be used for animals too, if we still feel there's a need for the animal "zodiac".
I think reducing visual clutter, however, is always a very good thing.
Charlie
@RarelyCharlie
There's obviously a lot of weak programming on this site, I would not be surprised if the badge display is programmed in such an inefficient way that it somehow eats up resources. Just consider that an open chat tab on desktop keeps increasing in RAM surprisingly quickly, even though it's only text and a few tiny pfp's...
