Part of your profile is a display of badge icons, which seem not to be explained in any organized way in the FAQ or Knowledge Base, or anywhere else that I can find. So here you go, to the extent that I have been able to discern by observation and diligent searching.
I have posted this in both DK4 and DK5 formats on their respective sites, and I am adding it to the draft DKOS5 Click by Click Reference Manual that I have started work on. I will announce its location on the Web and invite others to collaborate on writing it soon.
In the order shown above, these badges are
Trusted User One who can Hide Rate comments (HR, also called donutting or troll rating), see hidden comments, create groups, and edit tags in Diaries (usually to correct typos, add missing tags, or replace all tags with "Spam" in order to get our beloved admin elfling to delete the Diary ASAP). You get to be a TU by being a good dKos citizen (for example, by following other Kossacks or being followed), by engagement in the community (making comments, recommending comments, running groups, and some other activities), and by writing Diaries, as Kos himself explained during the DK4 Beta in 2010.
All of this together is called mojo. Kos gave a long list of mojo boosters, which is constantly being modified. The formula is proprietary and an essential part of the dKos secret sauce, especially for community moderation of spammers, trolls, and others trying to horn in on our discussions of how to elect More and Better Democrats, or pooties and woozles, or helping each other out in various ways. You can also lose mojo rapidly by having your comments Hide Rated past a certain level, or gradually by not posting for some length of time.
Your profile indicates your mojo with telephone-like bars on a scale of 0 (bojo=banned)-5, with 3 being Trusted User. New users start at 1. The formula for calculating mojo is not made public. If you just contribute, and don't try to game the ratings, it will happen. The Mojo Fridays Diaries are set up to assist users in increasing their mojo, by encouraging all readers to comment, and then recommend lots of other comments, but it doesn't really make that much difference. You can lose TU status and mojo in general by getting HRed in some quantity in relation to your previous mojo. In the extreme case, when a troll's or spammer's mojo goes to 0, they can be banned from the site, very likely permanently. The formula for this is also not made public. There are some other actions that can also result in automatic banning, as discussed in the FAQ (link above).
I first got to be a TU in 2009, then lost it when I was "donutted to death" on spurious allegations of being a sockpuppet in an Israel/Palestine kerfuffle, then got it back again in short order.
Subscriber One who has joined Daily Kos and paid the subscription fee. Members include everybody with a login, who can post. Subscribers can read the site without the ads. In some cases, a subscriber will sign someone else of limited means up and pay for their subscription. I was given that favor last year, when assisting brainwrap with his ACA Signups Diaries while he was down with shingles.
Beta Tester One who has in some way contributed to the Beta testing of some version of the Daily Kos software. I don't know how this is given out. Perhaps someone will tell us in the Comments, and I can edit this section. I don't have one, although I am filing bug reports, and starting a full documentation project for DK5. It must be something else.
Rescue Ranger A member of the group Community Spotlight, which reads all Diaries, and both republishes and tags (Rescued) those considered worthy of more attention from the dKos community. If you feel up to the work, you can ask to join the group.
Community Spotlight, formerly Diary Rescue, is dedicated to finding great writing by little-known or unknown diarists whose work hasn't gotten the visibility it deserves. We rescue and promote these diaries based on the original vision set out by Susan Gardner, Matron Saint of the Rescue Rangers, who single-handedly began our mission and has supported us vigorously over the years. We hope you enjoy our efforts.
If there are any other badges, please let me know what they are, somebody who has one, and how to get it.
38
