Board Thread:Site Discussions/@comment-5075791-20130930211124/@comment-167456-20131006211645

Are people familiar with barnstars from Wikipedia? I think that's basically what you're looking for. People give out barnstars, which are sort-of awards very much like your Emerald Award userboxes, when they think someone else has done good work. The only requirement to give one is to say why you're giving it. They promote civility and close community, as well as reward good wiki-work.

The main benefit of having something less formal than a monthly award is that there's no limit to how many can be given out, and no limit on who can give them. It completely negates any suggestion of competition or bias.

I'm not saying we should import barnstars exactly as they use on Wikipedia, but some sort of combination of barnstars and Emerald Awards wouldn't go amiss.