Exalted Member for Balsaman

[WhatScience?]

Hello everyone, I would like to propose that we posthumously award Balsaman the recognition of being an exalted member (medal).

He has served this community for years and provided much insight for those who need it. He embodied the values of this site in ways that we should all strive to, spreading the joy of science to many.

I think it would be nice if we gave him this recognition.

Please reply if you support this idea.

[Schrodingerscat]

This is an idea that was bounced around among a few staff members shortly after we learned of his passing. The main issue is that while there are many adult volunteers who make major contributions to help people on the site, the precedent for awarding exalted medals seems to be primarily awarded to current, or at least very recent, students for helping their fellow competitors via this site. While there would be plenty of merit to recognizing people like balsaman for their contributions, I am not sure the exalted medal should change from that purpose. However, I am willing to open that up to discussion here.

I also suggested in private discussion a tentative idea of a separate award for cases like this, but there would be much to be decided. Beyond things like what else to call it or whether to create it all, there would be other questions like whether it would be an exclusively posthumous award or whether it should be expanded to potentially all other adult contributors, the staff side issue of having to select them, etc. I'll also allow add any discussion of that idea in this thread.

In fact, I think it is best we not publicly debate the specific merits of awarding any award to any specific person in this thread and keep it to the discussion of the existence of potentially applicable awards.

[daydreamer0023]

Should we have a scioly.org Hall of Fame for amazing members, current or past, that the community can vote to induct people into? I feel like this would be one of the better ways to immortalize those such as Balsaman. Thoughts?

[WhatScience?]

Should we have a scioly.org Hall of Fame for amazing members, current or past, that the community can vote to induct people into? I feel like this would be one of the better ways to immortalize those such as Balsaman. Thoughts?

I agree with this. Maybe we can have a wiki page that is linked on a thread pinned in General Chat.

Exalted really only matters when you post and that really doesn't work for people who have passed on. Also, the struggles of the moderation team make sense. The hall of fame can be more user based, like get 10-15 nominations to be inducted. And for former users only. (Or people who won't be on as much anymore).

[Alex-RCHS]

The main issue is that while there are many adult volunteers who make major contributions to help people on the site, the precedent for awarding exalted medals seems to be primarily awarded to current, or at least very recent, students for helping their fellow competitors via this site. While there would be plenty of merit to recognizing people like balsaman for their contributions, I am not sure the exalted medal should change from that purpose. However, I am willing to open that up to discussion here.

This makes sense to me, but I am curious as to why the exalted member is reserved to recently former competitors. In my opinion, awarding the exalted member status to older contributors like Balsa Man would not lower the esteem of the award. Certainly his contributions here deserve acclaim, and while I’m not that familiar with the promotions/awards of this website I don’t know of anything else that would fit.

I also want to add that creating an exclusively posthumous medal may not make much sense; I don’t think members pass away often.

Thank you for allowing this discussion.