Yay, get rid of them. There seem to be people with unachievable goals, getting silly amounts of points to get the various badges.

I like the badges. I haven’t figured out how to get different badges but I like the regulars on the active team — and we’re not abusing them. It’d be a shame to lose them.

there are pros and cons: pros, honest people would join the game, and possibly stick to it. cons: badge desperates pester like annoying bugs for s p o n s o r s h i p just to show off their purple badge.
if you reached a good user base and can foster WoM without 4sq, go and turn them off.

How about having the badges as a perk for paid users? This could allow the “advertising” aspect and keep it fun for users who are truly using it, but people wouldn’t be able to spam about s-ships since you couldn’t get the badge with an s-ship account.

I’m not a Foursquare user so it wouldn’t make a difference to me. When it comes down to a choice between simple and complex I’ll always tend toward simple. The focus and specific social pressure of the Health Month community is important to me and having outside rewards kind of muddies things for me a bit.

The badge was definitely a motivator for me my first month. Now that I’m on my third month I don’t feel like it’s as big of a prize, but I know I gave my all that first month and the badge was a part of it. What about making the badge more cumulative – like, you have to complete three full months or whatever – more of a reward for continued membership than a monthly perk?

I think the perk for paid users thing might make the most sense. That way it could still be an advertisement for HealthMonth, but possibly cause less of an issue with people asking for sp*nsorship.

Anthony makes some great points & I like Sara’s suggestion to make it a perk for paid users.

Perk for paid users is a very well thought outcome. I’m for it.

I’d be here with or without the badges, but I do like them as a little something extra to go for. I like the idea of making them for paid members only.

I believe the badges are a good idea and should be retained. The badges seem to be a great way to advertise HealthMonth. If it weren’t for the badges, I never would have heard of the game. I played the first month for free and enjoyed it, so I’ve been a paying player since then.

The quest for badges will inevitably bring beggers, but it will gather paying members as well, increasing the size of the HealthMonth community. In addition, while there may be people who falsify and inflate their performance to get badges, this doesn’t really affect the score of any other individual player.

When I play the game, I’m really playing against myself. I push myself to do a little better each month. If another player out there is lying about their results to get badges, the only loss is to their integrity. I personally work toward the badges honestly. If I remain honest in my reports to HealthMonth then my overall health will continue to improve; that’s what makes me a winnner, not my final score being the highest out of a group.

If it wasn’t for 4sq, I wouldn’t have known about HealthMonth. But within the first month of signing up, I’ve become hooked on the game and look forward to playing next month’s game through the paid program, with badges or without. That’s why I think it’s a good idea to keep the badges as an incentive for newbies.

However, stricter rules/conditions need to be implemented in order to reduce the occurences of “cheating”, which seems to be rampant among certain HealthMonth circles ahem I too strongly support the idea of introducing perks to paid accounts.

I too only heard about healthmonth because there was a foursquare connection, but the community I’ve found here is worth way more than that. I came here thinking I’d stick around till I got the badges, but I’ve found friends and encouragement and a valuable way of thinking about improving my life, and I plan on staying regardless.

I’m sorry that a certain annoying subset of the foursquare userbase has flooded healthmonth with their annoyingness, and I can fully understand if you decide to pull the badges. Selfishly, I hope you wait until June though so I can get my purple one!

Ultimately I would hope you can find a way to keep the badges and end the begging. I didn’t know there was sp0ns0rship when I joined, and I expected I’d have to pony up $5 a badge. Maybe it’s time to sharply curtail the freebies. The begging persists because, unfortunately, it WORKS.

I think you’ve hit on a valid point here, which is that getting the badge shouldn’t be the reward. Turning the badges off for May would be a interesting experiment. I also like the idea of offering them for paid users only.

It’s a sticky issue. I, too, found this site through foursquare and got in the spirit, formed a team, and have had fun playing healthmonth and getting some 4sq badges to boot. But the wall spammers drive me BANANAS! Still, I imagine (hope?) that the majority of us who are active on both 4sq and Health Month are playing Health Month for more personal, meaningful goals than just the badges.

I do agree with some above sentiments that it isn’t the badges that are the problem, it’s the begging. Perhaps adding ways to block users from commenting, report spam comments, or having a setting that we can choose if we want only team members and/or friends to be able to comment on our wall? You were really responsive when I wrote and asked you about ways to decline memberships to a team (my request was brought on by frustration about begging) which I appreciated!

I second the vote for badges that don’t rely on 4-square! I’ve never understood why only 4-square users get them, anyway! :)

I started because of the badges. Next thing I know I’m paying good money to continue with the site. Now Foursquare has inactivated my account and guess what, I’m still doing the Health Month. So keep the badges. What harm does it do? And it may just hook another user onto the site, like me.

I have no bleedin’ idea what Foursquare is.

The repeated requests for s.pon.sor.ship is weird and pesky to me, but I seem to get annoyed by lots of things. I didn’t realize it was part of the Foursquare obsession.

Is this a tolerance issue?

Anyway, I am impressed by Health Monthers who, as usual, have SO many good ideas.

I wonder what Buster will do!

As someone with no knowledge of Foursquare beyond mentions of the badges and a sign in the local liquor store window, I don’t have too much of an opinion. The spamming is a pain, but it is the internet.

Coming across from 750words, as I did, though, I’d love there to be non-4square-related badges!

by reading a couple pros and cons comments I can see the point about how folks got to this site because of the badges, but on the other hand others are going too hard for the hard badge (purple).

Let me just say that I came here because of the badge, and immediately the next month I upgraded and started paying. And I have stuck with this site + got 8 more people on (not for badges, but for steady habit changes). Dont kill all the badges because people are trying to get purple. Its a good part of your word of mouth, and then the steady improvements you have made to the site keeps us here (obviously, cuz I didnt leave after I got the badge)

I don’t use 4sq, but I enjoy the idea of badges – if that makes any sense. So I’m all for some non-4sq badges. That being said, simply based on the comments, it would seem that the 4sq connection is pretty important for HealthMonth at this point and severing the connection too early might be detrimental.

As far as the annoying folks who bug every month for s*ponsorships…a way to filter them out would be nice.

Oh & a side note – I had no idea about the 4sq thing before I joined the site. I found HealthMonth through a blog I read. So, it’s not all Foursquare people here.

I only learned of Health Month through 4square and I’m really liking it so far.

Plus one vote for making the badges for paid users only. That lets us keep the badges and ends the pleading for sp.ns.rs in one stroke, plus allows you to make some money off the badge-obsessed. It’ll also really annoy the foursquare cheaters, which pleases me tremendously as an honest foursquare player.

Definitely stay. The only reason I joined HM is because I’m a huge foursquare nerd and I wanted to get the HM badges. However, because I joined, HM has had a HUGE impact on how I live my life.

I feel that there should be one badge for newbies in their first game on HM that don’t pay. All the other badges, though, I think should only be earned if the game is PAID. That way, both HM and foursquare win.

I think the badge is marketing. I am obviously biased, but I think it’s a good aid in getting the word out about the site. Spam is definitely a byproduct, but that is going to happen no matter what, going forward, as you grow. May as well learn to deal with it now.

I think Jordan’s idea is GREAT!

First badge FREE.

All others on a paid basis.

I like the badges, and like others, they’re what first told me about the site.

I really really like Jordan’s solution. It’s elegant. Free yellow badge for a free yellow game. Want the rest? Pay up.

I hope that whatever you decide to do, you’ll let us know before we have to commit to our rules for May!

Another vote for one free badge, and the rest paid. It still brings people over from foursquare but removes the incentive for badge-seekers to beg strangers for That Which Shall Not Be Named.

I don’t really have an opinion because I never use my foursquare account. Just wanted to say that I love how many great ideas you are all coming up with.

I think they should stay. I joined Health Month to get one of the badges and I’ve seen such improvements in my health that I play for the good of the game and myself now. I tihnk if it gets people into the game it’s fine!

I don’t think you can ever weed out people who abuse the system or profit from it in a way for which it was not originally designed or currently used. If so many successful players are associated with badges, I say keep them.

I only joined to get the badges, but then I really liked it. I got the free one, then liked it enough to pay for another month at a higher level to get another. Since then I’ve stuck with the free game because it’s hard to come up with goals, and I get a lot more out of the game coming up with 1-3 good goals then some silly ones just to get a badge.

People suggesting the badges be for paid users only, isn’t that already how it is, or do you mean that people who got s-worded wouldn’t count? Either way I don’t agree. The main problem I have with the badges is that Foursquare is a location based game and these badges have NOTHING to do with that. Making them only available if you also pay money just makes that worse. If the issue users here have is that people are annoying wanting you know what so they can get the badge, or making up ridiculous goals, I say it’d be better to only have the free badge.

Thank you everybody for the great feedback and ideas! (And sorry for the downtime today.)

I think I’m going to go with the consensus and keep the badges and make sure that the Lizard badge stays free, and that the rest are available to users who pay the $5 (thus removing the incentive to spam people… which was the primary problem that I was trying to solve).

I’ll look into adding more ways to “flag” users in the near future and see if that allows me to re-instate the 3 non-Lizard badges for non-paying users.

Blog post on this topic coming soon. Thanks again for all the awesome thoughts and for helping us come to a solution that doesn’t require us to lose the feature.

I’m late to the conversation, but I think the proposed solution is a good one.

I wouldn’t be using Health Month if not for the badges. I never would have even heard of it, and y’all never would have gotten some money out of me! :)

If the problem is with people who are spamming for s*ponsors, then simply change the game so that you can only get a badge if you pay and aren’t s*ponsored.

OR, you could even increase the amount of time (more than one month) necessary to snag a badge.

The Purple/Bear badge is the most problematic as it requires a lot of rules to be in the purple bracket, so you get these ridiculous set-ups that no sane person could quite follow (myself included).

Perhaps it shouldn’t be just about rules, but also about community participation? #of diary entries, checking in w/the animal spirit, creating new rules, being on a team.

I definitely like Health Month and am likely to continue using it even after I get all the badges. I would not like to see the badges go away just b/c of some bad apples. I don’t see why any effort should be expended to even be concerned about them. Save your mental energy for

Didn’t even realize the FourSquare link and all the spamminators — that sort of influx has actually kept me away from Health Month lately, which has sort of been a bummer. I’ve enjoyed it most when I’m challenging myself, checking in with people I know (from here or elsewhere), and being able to explore a little (in my bracket, for instace) without feeling like I’m the only one who takes it seriously — feeling like there’s something to fight makes me want to avoid the situation entirely.

In a nutshell, I’m hopeful about the solution!

I also LOVE the idea of being able to flag posts. Mostly it’s fine — but when it’s not, it would be great to have a way to handle it aside from “trying to reason with someone.”

Personally, I’ve never noticed any FourSquare spam, so it makes no difference to me if they stay or go.

I found out Health Month because of foursquare and I think you should keep the badges.

I agree with making the badges only available to paying users to reduce spamming, but I don’t agree with removing them. The badges are attracting a ton of users, so get them signed up as paying members if they want the badges and use the money to fund the site.
Eventually the gamers will disappear but hopefully a decent percentage will stay on as members having found value in improving their health.

Ida Sagberg’s idea of badges that are just connected to HM. Like with 750words.com— which is how I got to HM to begin with. . . And you could have a 750 badge on HM since there are many cross-overs, on my team anyway.

I only found out about Health Month thru Foursquare. I recommend it to everyone and have paid for my last month. I know it’s a burden re: these spammers but I’m sure plenty of people are like me, finding this site through the badges you offer in conjunction w/ Foursquare.

You may potentially lose some of your strongest advocates if you cut off the badges.

Please keep them!! I admit, I first got involved with Healthmonth.com for the 4Square badges…but now I’m actually totally hooked!! Maybe you can retire the original badges, and just come up with 1 new one that people can earn for playing one full month (successfully, or not). That way, people aren’t tempted to lie, just to get a badge….and it would still encourage people to check out the site for a month. Which really should be the intent, right? Making people make healthy choices! Thanks for asking us. :-)

arrrgghhh!!! time is running and i still not yet get to play next month. would u help me.. please…
i must to play healthmonth tommorow… there’s no time again… i must survived.
my faith “I can!!!” get healthy.

Wow, just wow. Everyone who said above they’ve never seen chip-begging spam? Now you have.

I got a chip-begging request attached to a fruit gift today. That was a new one on me.

I think if you also add the ability to flag posts for this behaviour we’ll be good.

I found out Health Month because of 4sq and now I got more healthy by chose 3 rules on April. The Yellow bracket just like the prize when I followed my rules and completely finished my health month. So please keep it.

I think the 4SQ badge should stay as a reward to all

I belive this 4SQ badge is wonderful to attract people and to at least make them conciuos about health and to give them know little bit more knowledge about health.

Hi Buster,
(Lot of good ideas on here! Good idea to open this post up this way…)
My two cents: Yes, I wouldn’t have found this game if it wasn’t for the cross-promoting on 4sq. It still stands as a valuable stream of new and continuing users to your site, I’m sure you can see. Badges should stay.
The downside is definitely the spam posts (which has me at my wits end as a Team Leader, for a 4sq team nonetheless). Temporary fixes (the posting denials based on keywords & restriction of badges to paying members) are good steps, but really just temp fixes. I think Team Leaders really need a little more authority, especially when it comes to the Game Wall. A simple example is the ability to delete user posts or comments that are in violation.
Great site, great incremental improvements, and keep up the good work!
Thanks for everything, AJ

Seems like there is high emotion on this topic.

No one is “screwing over” anyone.

Many Health Monthers are sp_nsoring people and are generous.

It becomes so tiresome to be approached repeatedly by people who don’t know you and who really don’t show any caring toward you at all but who want your help.

I didn’t think that this game was just about satisfying an addiction to badges…

but maybe it is….

My beliefs control me if I let them.

I didn’t learn about the site except for foursquare. I’m a paid user here, but that’s because it makes sense to me to support the site. If you removed badges, it’s a removing a significant incentive for me, just because I like that carrot from a system I can’t control, and I like earning badges legitimately :)

The real problem here stems from the foursquare ‘jumpers’ who do everything they can to earn every badge in the game. Since playing above the ‘free’ level (aka just one badge) costs money or getting a sp_ns_r, people are probably getting annoyed by the ‘jumpers’ doing everything they can to get that month’s badge, without spending money.

It doesn’t help that since all they’re out for is a 4sq badge, they’re ‘scamming’ the leaderboard. This will happen to some extend even if you remove the badges. Griefing is common, it happens on the internet. There’s no enforcement of what rules you set or how you respond to them. The paid system is just a disincentive for this.

In short, you need the ability to mark people as spammers if they’re doing what amounts to solicitation, and to report accounts. That’s the real fix. It’s just harder than turning off badges entirely. It’s up to you, as the site manager, but I think you should implement a real fix rather than a simple one :)

So, speaking of spam…. Is there a way I can turn off email notifications when people reply to this thread? :(

Hi Lauren, I think it’s a universal setting… from your Game Wall, in the right hand column, uncheck the box “Get team notes by email”(?)

PLEASE keep the badges. I also would not have known about the game if it wasn’t for Foursquare, and the badges are great incentives. I think it should be up to the individual whether they want to play and earn badges. If they don’t like being connected with 4sq for whatever reason, they can always disconnect accounts.

But for people who genuinely want to improve their lives, it really helps. I don’t know if I’ll be as motivated to accomplish what I need to (since I’ve set these goals before and often didn’t meet them) without that lasting reward.

Thanks.

Keep the badges; great tie-in. And, if Healthmonth wants to help spread the word about the site, keeping them is such a smart way to get participants to help spread the word. (I know of several players who have signed up to play because they have seen my updates)

Hope they stay.

Kill the badges. I agree it sends the wrong message. The spammers are such a beat-down. Losing the badges would cut that down.

Its part of game, u gain, we gain all gain “ALL SQUARE”. To be honest without 4SQ i wont know healthmonth existed. Keep the game spirit alive.

I agree with a comment much farther up – how about badges that are unrelated to 4Square? I only created my 4Square account to link to Healthmonth – because I like the idea of ‘reward’ for achievement and would hate to lose that or see it only for paid members.

keep the badges!

What I would really like to stop is getting notification emails about people commenting on this post because I did. It is very annoying getting several email a day letting me know that someone new commented. Anyone know a way I can turn these off? It’s not in the “Edit Profile” section of the homepage…

As AJ said, It’s to the right on the game wall.
Look under "optional info. . .
It will stop all notifications

Alternately, why not just x your comments off of this thread.
Top right hand corner of only your comments. Or in my case, mine.

Keep it cos I found health month from 4SQ. When I play and finally get a badge it is like a reward for me. Please please keep it!!

keep the badges—that’s how i found HM and i’m really happy i did!

I agree with one of the comments at the top. I think that we should have badges for continued membership

The badges were the way I found Healthmonth and were the only reason I started playing. They are fun and don’t hurt anyone. How can they ‘dilute’ either Foursquare or Healthmonth? If you want to play on Healthmonth that much, then having badges available is not going to sway you. If you’re only interested in the badges, you’ll earn them and leave – but who loses out by this exactly?

I must admit that if the badges go, I won’t necessarily abandon Healthmonth but I would be very unlikely to pay $5 to take it further and I wouldn’t give as much thought to leaving. I can get all the motivation and reward I need without being signed up. It’s a bit of healthy fun for me and the badges are part of that. Take them away and it doesn’t give me much more than simply telling myself to do my exercising and trusting myself to do it.

Well, I started on Health Month for the badges. I have been here 4 months and only received one badge when I should have three by now. So, it would seem that they are already gone. I get a lot more here than badges, but without 4square? I never would have heard of this site.

I wouldn’t know about this site if it weren’t for foursquare. Now that I’ve found it, I love it. It gives me personal accountability for my goals/actions. I did the free month, and on my THIRD paid month. HOWEVER, I have yet to receive any badge. I’ve emailed and tweeted repeatedly, but no response whatsoever. Any thoughts?

The end. Good bye healthmonth :)

It does appear the badges are gone, I’ve only received two of the four months I completed. I like healthmonth and foursquare is what turned me onto it. I’d gladly continue paying for a membership long term assuming I get the badges I’ve earned. Without them, I don’t have as much of a motivation to continue.

I just completed my first month of HealthMonth and it’s changed the way i do things…I would not have heard of HealthMonth if it were not for 4SQ….I say keep the badges, they are a good incentive to push you through that first month, then to keep those of us who started out on 4SQ. I plan to stay now that i started.

Well, apologies are definitely in order:) Looks like the badges are NOT gone. Just got my badge for May. Hope they stay!

Well, I will say that getting rid of badges has cut WAY down on begging on the game wall, which is SO NICE!

Well, apologies are definitely in order:) Looks like the badges are NOT gone. Just got my badge for May. Hope they stay!

i like badges. i hope they stay. any motivation to stay healthy is welcomed

Kamprreeeeettt ahh lu Buster

keep them!

Who cares, if it’s brining more hits to your site then let them play. The hardest thing is bringing people to site and if 4square is doing that, I don’t see why it would matter where they come from, the point is that they are here and if they see that this is more than a site for badges, they might like it and stay. I don’t think the question should be if they are welcome or to continue with the badges, you guys should be asking “since they are here, how can we keep them here?!”

Who cares, if it’s brining more hits to your site then let them play. The hardest thing is bringing people to site and if 4square is doing that, I don’t see why it would matter where they come from, the point is that they are here and if they see that this is more than a site for badges, they might like it and stay. I don’t think the question should be if they are welcome or to continue with the badges, you guys should be asking “since they are here, how can we keep them here?!”

I like the badges, although I don’t necessarily need them. I like the idea to keep them for paid members.

I found Health Month via Foursquare, then brought my whole family, and I’m now far more invested in Health Month than in Foursquare. They do complement one another, though: the incentive of checking in on Foursquare gets me out walking around more! So, I like the badges. I think they’re a good way to get people interested in the first place, and motivated for their first few months, long enough to build some habits.

I don’t have a Foursquare account and don’t plan to get one, so that means I can never get badges, I guess. If you keep badges, it would be nice to add some for people who don’t have Foursquare accounts, so we can earn them, too.

Keep them! That’s how I learned of this AMAZING site!!

If it weren’t for the badges, I never would have stumbled upon this place, so I’m inclined to say keep ’em.

STAY!!!

I’m still very new to this site, but the only reason I heard about it was through Foursquare.

I am playing, and a paying member, because the social/game aspects of the site made sense in helping keep me accountable for achieving my goals.

I think it would be a disadvantage to the site to lose the badges. It is bringing new members (some of which truly are genuine in supporting and using this site as intended) and they are extra incentives for sticking to our goals.

I’m still very new to this site, but the only reason I heard about it was through Foursquare.

I am playing, and a paying member, because the social/game aspects of the site made sense in helping keep me accountable for achieving my goals.

I think it would be a disadvantage to the site to lose the badges. It is bringing new members (some of which truly are genuine in supporting and using this site as intended) and they are extra incentives for sticking to our goals.

Keep the badges. I discovered Health Month via FourSquare. I linked my accounts but didn’t understand how to earn a badge or even how to play HM until I completed a very simple first month. Once I figured out how to play, I paid for month 2, added lots more goals, and will continue playing the game until I achieve my objectives. The badges are fun, especially if you earn them legitimately.

I think that it keep go on along… because that help more people know this game..

As per Michael B above, I discovered Health Month via 4sq too. Getting the badges on 4sq was an incentive to do it and now I’m here, I’ll probably do it for good. 4sq has a strange way of changing behaviour. My view would be don’t abandon badges.

I like the badges. It’s an incentive for me to keep playing!

I wouldn’t be here without 4sq. I joined ‘cause I though I’d be able to earn some badges, but in fact, I soon understood that healthmonth has much more to offer. Nevertheless, it’s still very rewarding to get this badges, and even though I wouldn’t leave if you deleted them, I’d still be a little disappointed. And I don’t think much people keep playing here just to get badges. I mean, it’s just badges it’s not money or anything.