Sora I would ask you to define further what you mean by elitism and i will want to ask you what is the ideal non-eliticism interactions in forum will be, because I honestly don't really get it or possibly misunderstood it before we're further into the talk? The way I see it is like a sport events, why is it so bad that some people run faster than others and get acknowledged for their effort? Isn't it just proper to give credit where the credit is due or do I misunderstood something?
For lying top runners, if they lie and possibly get caught one time, they would risk themselves marked for disinformation/misinformation and it is against the rules. Isn't that actually a good way to get rid of bad actors?
For the case people don't say anything it would be like the case like that of spring event auto attack build ranking. Not exactly the exact same parallel as what is proposed in this thread but listen to this: I myself never got into the 1st rank, but somehow in the end of the season I managed to consistently get into 3rd or 4th place, and occasionally 2nd place (around once in 5 rounds). I think this is good because it tells me there's still room for growth that there were better build or gameplay out there, while it is an indicator that tells me roughly where I stood among the masses. Is it average, above average, or is already solid?
Also to complement this point of knowledge spread, that is also why the requirements is changeable by request. If someone who is say, number 1 fastest without restriction, have a better build with item outside the scope of the requirements, they can request their items to be added (should be a public discussion request like this) and now we know something for sure or it that may gives ideas, its all in public. Otherwise if they don't request anything, it means that whatever within the scope is already enough for everyone to get into the list of the top runners.
Note that for that cases like these top runners bis items I think are less mysterious to crack than bis autoattack/autospell build (of spring event). I would ideally want the statistics to be made more usable for the public and more indirect dissemination of knowledge by mechanisms such as these.
I do agree theres a lot of already visible cons and future possible cons, that is why this proposal is more or less open-ended to minimize all those cons, while trying to map out further integration between in-game performance and discord that are possible on this regards. Frankly it is really lacking as a proposal, I couldn't sketch it all up myself, and I would need more help. Additionaly I don't think people will just shut up like you said just because of the badges, i think it would happen just like in online game forums that people are still talking nonetheless, and sometimes veterans popped up, giving hot tips, and then dissappear again back to the void.
The thing is that I'm tired of people saying end game in this server is endless grind (and material gains) and i am here trying to offer a new perspective: a way and venue to possibly improve your gameplay, and a mirror that will tell you where you roughly stand at the moment (inner refinement).
