Hi all, I wasn’t quite sure where this ought to go,. Mods please feel free to redirect to anywhere appropriate (maybe the trash).
I noticed the STEP Up challenge. Great idea by the way and a nice post-ToS event.
The idea came to me to extend the challenge badges idea to something a little more tangible, perhaps a discount on SUF merchandise or something. As a rough idea, perhgaps the harder to win badges give you $UF5 off, $2.50 each for the ‘easier’ ones, $UF10 off for a ToS completion, etc etc. I’m making up numbers obviously, and it’s not my place to say what they should be. Perhaps something more special for getting all the badges, etc etc.
I had the idea because getting a badge in my app to me personally doesn’t hold any kind of attraction and wouldn’t motivate me. I am sure I’m not alone (maybe I am, if so ignore me!). To encourage more people to engage in such things a more concrete reward can usually by very effective. I’m probably thinking more of things like STEP Up, ToS, etc, rather than the regular badge system itself, but it’s directly applicable there too. KoS also I guess (that doesn’t hold any particular fascination for me, but if I got a half price Climb out of it I’d do it next week 
)
Just a thought, I’d be interested to hear opinions.
Btw, I get that there is perhaps not much commercial attraction for SUF. As it’s not a per-ride revenue model the firm gets nothing (directlym anyway) if we do more rides/qualify for more badges, so handing out discounts would be nothing more than good will which in itself doesn’t keep investors happy. So maybe the proposed model would need tweaking (changing…). If you enter the Ironman virtual events you can earn coins that can be redeemed in their online store. That was the kernel of my idea, but it’s horses for courses, I know, and they in particular will do anything to sell you something with their logo on it.
Cheers,
L