Even though you strayed from the purpose of my question, I still love your response! Awesome.
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expert sounds a bit elitist to me. granted, there are many fine mixers here…better than i’ll ever be, but labeling someone an expert because they answer all the questions doesnt mean they are an expert. maybe this labeling thing has gone too far? hope it doesnt divide us. it’s late…no idea what im talking about. night
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Im fixing to head off the sleep but i wanted to share some ideas before they are lost.
A few people have mentioned that specific groups would be more useful.
I was thinking something like this perhaps:
Mixer
Builder
Reviewer
Flavorist
CBD -This topic is picking up steam in the DIY world.
And keeping the veterans for those who are well versed in the first 4. There could also be those in multiple groups. I think anymore and we could be crossing into confusing people.
Thoughts?
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It’s a bunch of friends who help each other and have fun, the reason we called the group Degens is that we speak our minds and don’t take any shit from anyone.
But then again, reading through the answers from yesterday’s thread on obscenity it turns out we are not as Degen as we thought, there are far more Degenerate people here, maybe we should change our group name… 
No thanks 
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Hectic convo over the last couple of days thought i would chuck my 2c in as a noobie badges on your pic are handy. It gives me more confidence the advice is pretty sound. But before i knew what the badges ment i would just stalk people on there forum profile. This is a great site and i have lernt so much in just a few days badge or no badge this site will succeed due to all you awsom people. When it comes to being recognized for something tho might i suggest that the people donating ever month or at least abit get to have membership status so they can enter competition and maby a few other perk than just add free
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The thing about this is that you can only have one primary group, which means only one flair. So while people may and should likely belong to more than one group, they’ll only at first glance LOOK like they belong to their primary. And I think if the veterans are going to remain a thing, it should just remain about length of time since joining + amount of activity. I don’t think a member who joined six weeks ago but is super active should be considered a veteran any more than a member who joined three years ago but hasn’t been seen in a year.
Also to clarify other things I’ve seen mentioned…as of now, the group members have no special anything other than the flair. They don’t get more likes, their posts don’t get more algorithmic weight, they don’t have access to anything secret. However, it is possible to have “group only” sections of the forum or to set up a section of the forum dedicated just to asking a certain group of people questions if that’s the way this winds up going. It’s also possible to set up a group that people can “ask” to be a member of, and I’ve thought of suggesting this for the Saloon. (Slight derail into the other topic, apologies).
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I recall stories of my uncle coming home from Vietnam (He developed PTSD really bad later too and was never the same again sadly) talking about how he was literally spit at and harassed when he got off the plane. That is a true shame.
The best was the little girl who couldn’t have been more then 4 or 5 who ran up to me in the airport as I stood in line in dress uniform at the counter. I felt this tug on my pant leg and looked down at this very small child who the proceeded to smile up and me and yell very loudly
" My Daddy says your a baby killer "
At 17 I hadn’t left the country yet let alone killed anybody but I squatted down and thanked her and sent her off to her (Daddy) who I could see about 20 feet away.
Interesting day as I got spit on at least 6 times. Knocked flat twice and had my duffle bag pissed on in the restroom. Ahhh it was great to be an American Soldier in 1972.
We are the forgotten soldiers. The scruffy dog that got kicked while he was down. Ask any Viet Nam era soldier about his service. Most of us simply won’t talk about it whether we served in country or not.
Touchy subject even now all this time later I’m choked up about it. Damn !!!
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Well… after I’ve read over 450 post in this thread…
Flair or no flair… don’t care one way or t’other. I know that’s not helpful… but, it’s just how I feel. I haven’t hung around ELR since Jan. ‘15 for Flair or Badges. I’ve hung around for getting and offering help.
Now that I’ve pretty much sequestered myself to the NET threads (since I haven’t used synthetic flavors in a year or more)… I don’t feel as though I can be much of a helping hand in the flavor and mixing areas. 
NET, on the other hand, is my bag… that’s where you’ll find me when needed.
Peace 
️
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Personally I like the idea of mentors more than veterans. Anybody can click on anybody’s avatar and see when they joined and get an overview of their activity. It’s easily visible who’s a veteran and who’s not and I don’t think it really requires a visual icon on your avatar.
A mentor however is someone who can actually mentor newbies. This is not necessarily something any veteran is capable of doing. It’s an actual skill while a veteran icon/badge/flair/whatever can really be automatically assigned by a bot.
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Your absolutely correct in your definition of a mentor if your looking at the bare minimum of what is comprised in the term. I look at a mentor as a person who is guiding another in a long term one on one relationship that does more than span the quick answer to a question within a thread. The one whom is being mentored also assumes the duty and relationship as an apprentice and only does which the mentor instructs. I probably just look at the term mentor more as it in-depth meaning so am put off by it’s use. Like how the term “hero” is often given out to people whether they deserve the accolade or not.
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i have a very weird reason for liking mentor or another word used besides veteran , and that reason is because other sites already use the word veteran by members name , silly right ? also because im not fond of star trek and the vulcan sign reminds of it … i still will stand with jojo and ken o where with their decision to do what they think will be best , my feelings about this all have dramatically changed after reading every post in this thread , although i do think its an honor to be selected to this group by peers i also know it doesnt define any one of us and with or without it we will all continue to help in the best way we know how and not having something by your name doesnt mean your less than , i also think some people were offended by not being selected at first ( human nature) and probably feel some that were selected arent deserving ( i know this part because it was said ) , and that last part is a bit disappointing imo ( which im sure people could care less) so with all that being said i wouldnt mind if this entire thing just went away , i hope your not offended ken o where or jojo 
id rather see nothing then a bunch of sub categories such as veteran mixer , veteran flavorist , veteran coil builder , elr veteran , veteran reviewer etc that is obviously to soothe those who were not liking the original idea , like i said though whatever happens with all of this ill support , this isnt meant to offend anyone its just my point of view and @anon28032772 the only part of this that was directed at you was the very beginning about liking mentor or another word over veteran and why …
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Just spit balling here…
Is there something other than “badges” or “flares” or whatever they are called that can be used to mark the persons images with? How about a small dot or star next to the image or possibly the image encircled with a colored boarder it could even be different colors for different groups if need be. The current “thing” either looks like a peace dove flapping by or a hand slapping at me lol.
I’m sure it was all discussed prior to it’s use, just thought I’d ask about it.
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NOT meant to derail (I swear!) but to me it looks like Mickey Mouse’s hand giving me the finger.
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You rang? 
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This was another reason I was kinda iffy about it.
I know, let’s call the group “PersonsWhoHaveBeenHereSinceTheDawnOfELRForum” I think it’s got a nice ring to it. 
Not so much. The flair is all we’ve got. Now, the color of the circle around it can be changed or removed. The icon and its color can be changed or removed. But that’s all folks. 
In it’s current iteration, nope. All me. Cuz it was that or the lizard hand. (See above). That’s what I decided on at the time. 
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Sorry, if this seems off topic, but… I may have skipped the last 300 posts.
I’m not bothered if we have titles or not or what they are called. What I’d rather have is a way to see who gives correct answers.
Imagine if every new thread in selected forums granted the OP a “this answered my question button” to use on the one most helpful post in the thread. Maybe even give them the option to the OP to lock the thread at that point. Now give the correct answer poster one point in their profile for “correct answers given”. If you want to get fancy you could also track what forum the answer was provided in.
This would make a nice metric to see who our real knowledge experts are. If I’m a new mixer debating who’s info to trust it would make a nice way to determine reliability of a users info and choose. In the end do we really care who got the most likes or who posted the most often or who has been here longer? Or do we really want to know who gives good info?
I know dreaming this stuff up is easy. Just my two cents,
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We are currently looking into this.
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Sorry if it was a repeat. 
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Nope. I don’t think so. Or if it was, I wasn’t looking into it at the time so I didn’t answer them. LoL.
So, sorry if someone already suggested this and I didn’t answer! 
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Was a turkey, now a hurricane?