Hey, that’s a good idea! anyone who does graphic designing or knows how to make little badge-cards (I’m included) can just go around on Discussions awarding stuff to people. I think it’s cute!
I’m the kind of person who’s constantly sees only the good in everything, so it’s nice to have well-grounded, head-on-straight people who expand my perspective. Thanks for being there and sharing your views!^^
3 Likes
It’s for Regulars and Leaders, but it’s SQUEAKY CLEAN
There’s one post from the system about it being a special area from March 2014. I gave the first like! 
3 Likes
It would be helpful if we knew what the purpose for the lounge is, lol.
3 Likes
Exactly. I’ve been wondering what I could post in there 
2 Likes
As it is, it seems pretty useless.
Maybe a place for the “insiders” to discuss more private things that the new people shouldn’t know? But the new person will also gain access to it eventually, when s/he will become a regular (and you don’t know when that will happen), so what’s the point of it?
Moreover… I don’t feel I have stuff I’d like to share with some people and not others. On the contrary, I love it when my posts here are read by as many as possible and there is copious interaction and sharing of opinions.
7 Likes
I, personally, don’t really care for exclusivity, and the reason why I visit Discussions is for the many views and opinions so I don’t really see the point of separate lounge.
5 Likes
I have been granted Regular but have a lock at the lounge, maybe because I don’t use it as a “title”, since I didn’t see any benefit from it.
@jeslynl Can you enlighten us?
What’s up with being a Regular and that private lounge? And in my case not a seeing a way to access it …
And I thought I had it granted a 2nd time, but I do not see it now, maybe I recall it wrong.
3 Likes
Whow! You are one brave cat 
'em fan
1 Like
There’s a lock sign, but if you click the bold “Lounge Area” title, it takes you to the Lounge Area.
The only advantage of the Lounge Area I could think of was that suggestions will reach official ears easier, where there are less unrelated discussions covering it up.
3 Likes
@lutra Thanks for the tag!
Don’t worry, no one is missing out! Access to Lounge is currently extended to staff only. Literally nothing goes down over there. 
I believe it is a default category by Discourse (the platform Discussions is using). I do see how it can be confusing… but I’m sure something can be done.
6 Likes
We / regulars actually can access it, but what is it for?
1 Like
Hm, interesting. Based on access levels, no one else except Staff should be able to click through to view it.
There’s no function dedicated to it at the moment. Like I mentioned earlier, it is a default category by Discourse (the platform Discussions is using).
–
Edit: I’ve just edited the access rightly.
4 Likes
Based on the badge info, we do.
https://discussions.viki.com/badges/3/regular
and other functions, that once worked like correcting titles of topics but no longer seem to work.
1 Like
@lutra Thanks for the correction!
For the other functions you mentioned: A while ago, with a slew of events on Discussions, the team reviewed the accesses and usage by community members, and had decided to revise them then. Hope this answers your question!
2 Likes
Can those changes be written on the badges too, or are these descriptions from the discussions platform provider?
That’s my last question for today, I need to go.
1 Like
My badges. 
I guess they’re a fun little feature to have. 
2 Likes
I was granted the “Regular” badge not too long ago, but I didn’t see the point of using it as a “title,” either. And now I don’t see the “Regular” badge on my profile anymore. I guess they took it away?
3 Likes
Among volunteers who get no pay, how does anyone become “staff”? Seems to me that puzzlement about the Lounge and who uses it t is due to a lack of knowledge about how things work. But there are apparently no old-timers who know?
And if nobody is certain about Discourse, why not explore the Discourse.org website and find out what potential it has?
The “About” page says,
Discourse is a from-scratch reboot, an attempt to reimagine what a modern Internet discussion forum should be today , in a world of ubiquitous smartphones, tablets, Facebook, and Twitter.
#### We’re civilized.
Our trust system means that the community builds a natural immune system to defend itself from trolls, bad actors, and spammers — and the most engaged forum members can assist in the governance of their community. We put a trash can on every street corner with a simple, low-friction flagging system. Positive behaviors are encouraged through likes and badges. We gently, constantly educate members in a just-in-time manner on the universal rules of civilized discourse.
#### Uncompromisingly open source.
There is only one version of Discourse – the awesome open source version . There’s no super secret special paid commercial version with better or more complete features. Because Discourse is 100% open source forum software, now and forever, it belongs to you as much as it belongs to us. That’s how community works.
Everything that most communities would want is included out of the box; a giant collection of complex plugins should not be required to have a great experience.
#### Simple. Modern. Fun.
Discourse pares all the complexity away and puts just the essential stuff on screen – the conversations you care most about, based on your participation.
All the modern amenities you’d expect from a big social website like Twitter or Facebook are present in Discourse. Mention someone by @name. Paste in a link or an image, and we make it awesome on your behalf. Simple quoting and linking of replies and topics. Reply wherever you are, online or via email.
And it “just works” on your phone and tablet.
And why not find out who chose the Discourse platform, decided on what options, and customized it for Viki? And discuss with that person (or those persons) what is currently working on the Viki discussion board and what is not working . . .
I personally think that whoever set up Discourse for Viki was a competent IT person following instructions that said, “We want these options.” However that person was given no guidance as to how things should look. Competent IT person does not necessarily equal competent Web designer.
The Web designer is usually the one who has an elegant, simple idea of how the various bits and pieces of a website should work, how they should connect to each other, and how users should be able to navigate those bits and pieces.
An industry standard used to be that a well-put-together website is one on which a user can generally get from where he/she is to where he/she wants to be in three clicks. That doesn’t seem to be the case with the discussion board.
And personally, I find the visuals for the discussion board very distracting. Waaaay too much white space swamps small text. Readers have to scroll and scroll and scroll through messages to find what they are looking for.
There is a feature that puts responses a post on a separate small screen from the post itself. That covers up some of the posts under a particular topic. It also makes it possible to click away from a post before being able to reply. Of course, if I hit reply, I will find the reply under the post I am replying to, but it can take a bit of searching.
The discussion board has a lot of layers that are hard to navigate. The actual “drama pages” are a model of easy reading, good use of fonts and “white space,” simple click-tos and click-backs and what not.
The mindset with the discussion board seems to be that everybody has to be able to do everything and discuss everything and nobody can be denied what they want to do or say. There are no is no mechanisms for suggesting changes that would be really helpful, no help desk, no web master to oversee really big changes, no volunteer team to routinely review the discussion board’s activities and determine how to make it more readable and easy to navigate.
Seems to me that, if a few of the big puzzles and frustrations of the discussion board get addressed, then a few of the little puzzles and frustrations would disappear.
2 Likes
When I click at your avatar, I see this,
It says, you’re a member.
When I joined Discussions, I got a message from Discourse Bot saying I am promoted to Basic level and it also provided me this link.
https://blog.discourse.org/2018/06/understanding-discourse-trust-levels/
Maybe, it can help figuring out different trust levels.
5 Likes
Sorry, I had to laugh at that. Bitterly. When did our suggestions about anything get listened to and given any heed? And I’m talking of very important things, features to help make our actual volunteering jobs easier and more streamlined. Has Viki done anything about that disgraceful messaging system with no folders, no search and no address book, or about the Project finder and Volunteer Finder?
We’re not talking aesthetics here (not that I don’t care about them), but about essential functionality.
Greeks have an expression “To write someone on their old shoes”, That’s the polite version. The normal version is to write someone on their (pair of manly attributes).
They both mean caring for someone/someone’s words as much as for a dog barking on the street, or a piece of 
talking.
7 Likes