Changes to Points and Ranks Coming
Today in Elf Chat major changes to points and ranks were announced by Elf Max. The chat recap is below.
The changes to the program are driven by Santa, who wants points and ranks to focus more on our mission of tracking Santa for Santa. Here are some highlights Elf Max announced:
- Elf ranks will stay the same as they are now. However, points assigned based on activities everyone does on the website will be redefined
- Two new kinds of points were announced. Tracker Skill points and Santa Skill points.
- Tracker Skill points focus on your elf activities tracking Santa. There will be points, ranks and badges for your tracking skills. Since the information we all send to Flight Command comes from reports the big focus in this area will be on the reports we send. Lots of new kinds of reports coming too.
- Santa Skill points are a little more mysterious. These are points that will be given to you by Santa himself. These are recognition for special efforts and contributions that go above and beyond. There will be points, ranks and badges for this category, too.
- A new feature called Gift was announced that will allow an elf to give some of his or her points to another elf.
- A new feature that Max calls “coupons” will give points for participating in special or one-time events.
Max explained that this change to the program will likely take him a month of working in phases to roll out. Elves will need to be paying attention during this time frame if they are concerned about losing the points they already have gained.
Here is the chat recap:
| Elf Roger Star | Hello everyone and welcome to today’s chat. |
| Elf Roger Star | We have had a lot of changes this year and today we are going to introduce a big one |
| Elf Roger Star | It is complicated and it is a MAJOR change |
| Elf Roger Star | It has to do with Elf points, ranks and badges |
| Elf Roger Star | This is part of the effort to help focus what we do as elves on Santa’s mission |
| Elf Roger Star | Here to explain it all is Elf Max, who is setting up the new program |
| Elf Roger Star | Just for the ease of our chat today, please understand that Elf Max and I will talk for an extended time, then we will open things up for your questions. |
| Elf Roger Star | I ask that you please just write your questions down and then hang on to them until Max and I complete our discussion of this, okay? |
| Elf Roger Star | Max, can you tell us what this change this new program does? |
| Elf Crusader | Yessir |
| Elf Max | Hi. Yes. The new system will help us focus efforts on our mission better |
| Elf Max | Right now, our points system is what they call “vertical”. |
| Elf Max | You get points for just doing stuff on the website. |
| Elf Max | Things like logging in, posting on the Elf Wall, liking things, etc. get you points |
| Elf Max | As you gain points you move up in the ranks |
| Elf Max | As you move up you get badges for certain kinds of achievements |
| Elf Max | This system has served us well |
| Elf Max | But Santa now feels it is time to improve it by focusing our activity on the more on our jobs as trackers |
| Elf Roger Star | Ok, how do we do that? |
| Elf Max | We do that by splitting our points achievements into different types. Going forward, we will get points just as we have in the past by being active on the website. But now we have two NEW ways to get points that we didn’t before. We will have points for Tracker Skills and points for Santa Skills. |
| Elf Roger Star | Oooooh that sounds interesting. What are Tracker Skills? |
| Elf Max | Tracker Skills are the things we do to help Santa track Santa. |
| Elf Max | Our key role as a tracker is to send information to North Pole Flight Command, right? |
| Elf Max | Going forward, you will get points for every time that you do that. |
| Elf Max | For example, if you go to the updated Tracker Reports page you will see several new report types. Each report carries a point value. Every time you send in a report, you get a certain amount of points. So, obviously, the more you send in reports the more you will move up in your total points. |
| Elf Roger Star | Okay, that makes sense. But is it all about just sending in more reports? Won’t that make it so that trackers can just inflate their points by just randomly sending in reports? |
| Elf Max | No. Just because you send in a report will mean that you get points for it. You can send it reports all day long but if they don’t make sense they don’t count. You have to really know how reports work in order to get the points for them. |
| Elf Roger Star | What does that mean? |
| Elf Max | When you send in a report it goes first to the office of your Elf Supervisor. The staff in that office opens your report and grades it on several things. Did the Elf Supervisor ask for the report? |
| Elf Max | Is the report pertinent to what Santa’s needs are right now? |
| Elf Max | Is the report complete? |
| Elf Max | Is it useful? |
| Elf Max | In all, there are 22 criteria each report must meet before points are awarded for it. If you meet all the criteria you get all the points. If you meet just some of it, you only get partial points. |
| Elf Roger Star | Wow. |
| Elf Max | If it is what they call a “lazy report” where only a few of the criteria is met, you likely wouldn’t get any points. |
| Elf Max | So your work in tracking Santa for Santa will really be getting a lot of attention on quality. You have to be really paying attention to move up in Tracker Skill ranks. |
| Elf Roger Star | So there’s new ranks, too? |
| Elf Max | There are new ranks specifically for Tracker Skills. Your tracker skills will then convert over to your overall points and push you up in your elf rank overall. |
| Elf Roger Star | So this really focuses things in a whole new way. |
| Elf Max | Yes, one of Santa’s biggest goals is to make us better tracker elves. So we are going to be laser focused on those reports and listening to what Elf Supervisors are requesting. |
| Elf Roger Star | So will these new Tracker Skills ranks be added to the Top Elves page? |
| Elf Max | Yes, you will be able to see your ranks in Tracker Skills displayed in line with your overall Elf rank. |
| Elf Roger Star | Ok, so points on one side like its always been for site activity and points on another for tracking Santa stuff. That seems to make sense. |
| Elf Max | Yes, but there is yet another point type to talk about. We call them Santa points. |
| Elf Roger Star | Ooooh. What’s that? |
| Elf Max | Well, Santa wanted a way to award elves he sees making special efforts and contributions. |
| Elf Roger Star | What kind of efforts or contributions? |
| Elf Max | Well, that’s up to Santa. He doesn’t want to be too specific with the category because he wants elves to act on their own initiative. |
| Elf Roger Star | What does that mean? |
| Elf Max | Well, he gave me an example. Elf Lil Cream was the first of our community to set up her own podcast. Santa says that was “above and beyond”. |
| Elf Max | Santa says that shows creativity, enthusiasm, Christmas spirit, initiative and a real desire to do good. He wants to recognize elves who things like that. |
| Elf Max | Points for this will be awarded by Santa. So to will the ranks and the badges in this category. You won’t be able to just go and do something on the site to get these points. |
| Elf Max | You’ve got to get Santa’s attention. |
| Elf Roger Star | Wow, these are some really gold standard points. |
| Elf Max | Yes, and Santa tells me he will be very generous. |
| Elf Roger Star | Ok, so points and ranks for Elf stuff, points and ranks for Tracker stuff, and points and ranks for Santa stuff. |
| Elf Max | That’s it in a nutshell. But there’s more. |
| Elf Roger Star | More points? |
| Elf Max | Well, kinda. |
| Elf Roger Star | What do you mean? |
| Elf Max | We will be introducing new features that could lead to new points. There are two of them. |
| Elf Max | The first is called Gift. Elves will soon be able to give points to other elves for whatever reason. |
| Elf Roger Star | Why would any elf want to give away their points? Won’t that cost them? |
| Elf Max | It might. But Santa wants this capability because he wants elves to help other elves. |
| Elf Max | Santa explained that the spirit of giving is “learned when it is earned”, meaning that the more we give the more we receive. |
| Elf Max | Santa says that sacrifice is an important part of giving. That when we give up things to others at the expense of ourselves we learn the real gift is given to us. He calls it the essence of Christmas. |
| Elf Roger Star | That sounds complicated. Do you think Santa will offer us some sort of explanation himself? |
| Elf Max | Yes, I talked about this with him and Elf Ernest at the same time. |
| Elf Max | And Ernest pretty much asked the same thing you just did. He was really concerned about elves understanding it. |
| Elf Roger Star | Oh, okay. If Ernest is on the job then we’re going to see a lot about this topic. |
| Elf Max | Yes. The purposes for our discussion here is to just introduce the feature |
| Elf Roger Star | Ok, so gifting points will be a thing. If an elf needs some points to get to a new level it will be possible for another elf to help him or her out, right? |
| Elf Max | Yes, that’s a good example. But you could give points for any reason you want. |
| Elf Roger Star | Ok. Interesting. |
| Elf Max | We have another new feature that for right now I’m calling coupons. |
| Elf Roger Star | Ok. What is that? |
| Elf Max | It will be random point opportunities that will be made available by redeeming a coupon. We will have special point opportunities that may be different than the norm and to get those points you have to do whatever the activity is and then “redeem” the coupon. |
| Elf Roger Star | Can you give an example? |
| Elf Max | Sure, let’s take a look at Toyvember, for example. We have had a few elves participate in that. If we had coupons set up we could have said “turn in your drawing when you redeem this coupon using the code Toyvember”. Then the elf would have received points for that. |
| Elf Roger Star | Okay, so one time events? Like participation points |
| Elf Max | Yes, I think in most cases. But Santa says he wants to get creative with this, so expect different things. |
| Elf Roger Star | Ok, so when does all this stuff begin? |
| Elf Max | Well, Santa gave me until Christmas in July to get this going. But this is big. I have to do it in stages. |
| Elf Roger Star | Ok – so what can we expect? |
| Elf Max | Well this is a total rebuild of the system. Part of doing this will be wiping out all the points and ranks and badges as we have them right now. |
| Elf Roger Star | Holy smokes. Everyone loses their ranks? |
| Elf Max | Only temporarily. I will be sending out updates on this for each phase of the changeover. Things might look a little weird for short periods of time. And that might feel painful. |
| Elf Roger Star | Okay. I think we can be patient to get all this new stuff. |
| Elf Max | I hope so. I will be sending out in advance warnings when certain things will happen. I will be folding over old points into the new system but there will be a brief period where everyone will be unranked and have zero points. I don’t want any panic when that happens. |
| Elf Roger Star | So their points will still be there? |
| Elf Max | Yes, but the entire system is being rebuilt. I don’t know yet if the new system will have the same point value as the old ranks did. That’s because we have so many new ways to be getting points. |
| Elf Roger Star | Meaning what? That 100 points won’t be worth 100 points any more? |
| Elf Max | Kind of. Right now, to get Altair ranked as an elf you need 5000 points. There might be a new level, say 10,000 points, to get that rank going forward. If that happens we need to make adjustments to the points for value. |
| Elf Max | The idea here is that we don’t just throw away the past five years of point accomplishments. We need to have a way to keep the levels we have while adopting the new system we want. |
| Elf Roger Star | Sounds complicated. |
| Elf Max | It is. But we want everyone to pay attention. There will come a day, probably soon, where I will say “write down your points”. |
| Elf Max | I am backing up the current system. I will be keeping a record of what points everyone has. I will know what their old points were. I want THEM to know how many points they had though. |
| Elf Roger Star | So elves would be wise to be paying attention then. |
| Elf Max | Yes, that’s my number one worry. Those who aren’t paying attention are not going to understand. We have a ton of elves who are not here and may never see this unfolding. I can’t do anything about them. But those elves who are here I want them to know what’s happening. |
| Elf Roger Star | Sounds good. Will all this be explained in Elf University for new elves? |
| Elf Max | You know what? I thought to do that too so I wrote all this stuff and then Santa told me NOT to include it. |
| Elf Roger Star | He did? Why? |
| Elf Max | Because he doesn’t want elves chasing points. Santa says that if we put out something that shows exactly where every point comes from then we’ll have elves trying to game the system by doing only those things that give them big points. |
| Elf Roger Star | Oh, yes. I’ve seen it. Does that mean the Elf History will go away in their profiles? |
| Elf Max | No, Santa thinks it is important to be transparent about points earned, he just doesn’t want to emphasize points for the sake of points. He wants elves to do the right things. |
| Elf Max | If an elf does the right things the points will come. |
| Elf Max | But Santa is more concerned with meeting the mission and developing stronger elves. |
| Elf Roger Star | Ok, got it. Thanks Max. Ok guys, now is the time to ask whatever questions you might have. There will be a recap of this chat posted and I’m sure a lot of other stuff to explain these big changes as we go along. |
| Elf Roger Star | I know this is a lot to take in |
| Elf Roger Star | And Max…what a huge job for you! |
| Elf Max | Yeah…this is big |
| Elf Crash Murphy | Ok, this might be a dumb question |
| Elf Roger Star | Fire away, Crash |
| Elf Crusader | Max, why does Santa want me to do another podcast with Crash? |
| Elf Crash Murphy | Well I noticed that points for Max and for me and all the senior elves were reinstated |
| Elf Crash Murphy | Won’t we end up dominating the Top Elves charts eventually just because of our jobs? |
| Elf Max | Crusader – to answer your question, we need your help getting elves to understand these changes |
| Elf Max | Crash, yes, that’s one of MANY adjustments we need to make. My points in particular have shot up like mad. That’s not fair. I’m on the site constantly, posting stuff, changing things |
| Elf Max | We need to separate admin things and make sure guys like me don’t get a zillion points. It’s skews things |
| elf radar | This new points systems sounds good. You guys did a really good job explaining it. |
| Elf Crash Murphy | Ok, good. I think the Elf Community should be about elves tracking Santa for Santa |
| Elf Roger Star | Thank you Elf Radar |
| Elf Crash Murphy | Dang, Max. You explained that in 20 minutes |
| Elf Roger Star | Max, what’s your timeline on this? |
| Elf Max | It’s going to take a lot of time in April to get this ready. I’m thinking right now that around middle of April I will send out a warning to everyone to record their points. |
| Elf Max | Then around the last week of April, we will wipe everything, install the new points to backdate what we can, then see where the rankings are and start a period of adjustments |
| Elf Max | I’m not promising anything but I’m hoping by May 1 the new system is up and everyone feels good about it. |
| Elf Roger Star | Ok. |
| Elf Crash Murphy | Elves coming back in the fall are in for quite a shock |
| Elf Max | Yeah…I’m aware. Not much we can do about it. I’m just glad all the people here today are here |
| Elf Roger Star | Santa really wants this and other changes behind us before Christmas in July. |
| Elf Roger Star | Christmas in July this year begins a new era in tracking Santa for Santa |
| Elf Roger Star | Ok, any other questions? |
| elf radar | Hopefully we will be familiar enough with it to help answer questions by the time we get busy in fall |
| Elf Max | I want to thank everyone for coming. I know this wasn’t a FUN chat but we needed to get this out there |
| Elf Crash Murphy | Well, I had fun. Got through two bowls of ice cream during this. |
