Are any of you Lifescouts?

Lifescouts is a new concept brought to us by Alex Day, Alex Day started his career on YouTube but since then has appeared in the UK charts on multiple occasions. Anyway, Lifescouts brings back the idea of collecting badges, some of us may have been in the scouts/cubs as children and got badges for say learning how to tie a knot or start a fire etc.

Lifescouts is very similar but for people of all ages and badges for life skills/moments or accomplishments. Here are a Couple of them.

A link to the store can be found here. Yes I know you have to pay for them, but there only £3 and the shipping is free (If your in the UK), I don't want to be some kind of salesman but I think the idea is really cool. I've ordered three as thats all I feel I can get from the range, but hopefully this will encourage me to do more of these things so I can get a badge for it. I've never gone scuba diving before, this may encourage me to. It's relatively new and only has been out for a week, but each day a new badge is released, so yeah, there kind of awesome.

This seems silly.

Yeah, badges aren't a thing that would motivate me to get more out of life.

Another classic Hizang thread!

I think it helps that I both like collecting things and I like the artwork on the badges.

Seems a little retarded.

@FluxWaveZ said:

Yeah, badges aren't a thing that would motivate me to get more out of life.

@Carryboy said:

Seems a little retarded.

Yeah, that about wraps it up.

Plus, I'm going into a career with much cooler badges and much cooler activities, so I'm doubly ok avoiding this ridiculousness.

I was a life rank scout when I stopped going to scouting stuff.

I came into work today. Is there a badge for that?

Who the hell do you think I am? Chie?

Dude, achievements in real life?! Count me in!

Nah, not really. Guess this appeals to the primal parts of our brains- the one that´s all about collecting things and hunting. Explains why I collect used movie tickets that remind me of some fun night outs!

I can't believe people are so dismissive of this. Especially people who likely earn achievements and trophies, as well as the ridiculous quests here on the site.

I think it's a cool idea, and it reminds me of the badge system for writing every day over at 750words.com. (My favorite website ever)

Is there one for being cynical?

@JJWeatherman said:

I can't believe people are so dismissive of this. Especially people who likely earn achievements and trophies, as well as the ridiculous quests here on the site.

I think it's a cool idea, and it reminds me of the badge system for writing every day over at 750words.com. (My favorite website ever)

There's probably just as many people around here who think achievements are bullshit.

Oh! I actually watched the video now. This doesn't just seem silly, it seems really stupid.

@Splodge said:

Is there one for being cynical?

This seems dumb. I could just order all the badges and win. The whole fun of achievements is that you can't cheat it (often).

Unlike other people in this thread, I am not immediately dismissive of this. I think its an ok idea. I wouldnt want to buy badges. But maybe someone else dose, I dont know.

But I do want to point out that Googleing lifescouts gives me the boy scouts. Also they only have 19 badges, and most of them are for going specific places.

Sick idea. I would wear them to job interviews on the arm of my jacket.

@Dagbiker said:

Also they only have 19 badges, and most of them are for going specific places.

Its only been out a week, they are releasing one a day.

@Hizang said:

@Dagbiker said:

Also they only have 19 badges, and most of them are for going specific places.

Its only been out a week, they are releasing one a day.

Oh, ok.

On a more positive note, I am a licensed scuba diver. I would highly suggest you give it a try. It's an amazing feeling breathing underwater at 60 feet or so. I don't know meters, sorry. Saw a lot of amazing things underwater. It was 20 degree water to and it felt like it was 60 in a wetsuit. Crazy stuff. Go for it.

Without having looked too much into it, on the surface this just looks like people having an excuse to show off. Buuut, I'm open to changing my mind after a little education.

It seems lame, but when you think about it, it kind of gives people extra incentive to do things they previously wouldn't do. I bet that guy is going to make some serious money off of this.

@BraveToaster: Well I don't know how much it cost to make those things, considering its £3 each and there paying the post and packaging plus the cost of the store, I don't know, doesn't seem to profitable.

@TooWalrus said:

This seems silly.

What do you do with them?

Friends comes over and asks about them, what do you say that doesn't immediately cause laughter at your expense?

I don't need badges to show what I've accomplished in life. "Life experiences"...give me a break.

Though this could be good for kids, making badges like ''Got an A for math".

Yeah thats dumb.

Neat idea, but it wouldn't motivate me to do interesting things as money is my issue why i dont do anything fun, not that i dont get a cool badge. If there was a ar 15 badge id get it, cus id rock that at the range like a boss.

So, it's like Achievements for real life, but you have to pay for them to "unlock"? Eh. There are better ways to "gamify" your life, I guess. Cheaper (or free), above all.

If those badges were big enough for me to turn them into belt buckles, then I'd be all about it, but they aren't so I'm not.

My problem with this is that you are not receiving any recognition for your achievement. Rather, you are actively seeking out recognition for it by paying someone else money to show off what you did. It's impossible to gauge if one even merits to wear a badge. Correct me if I'm wrong, but in the boy scouts you were given a badge as a token of recognition and a symbol of merit for a specific skill or task from the organization. By stripping the whole aspect of recognition by an outside party, these badges just look sad and stupid.

@Hizang said:

@BraveToaster: Well I don't know how much it cost to make those things, considering its £3 each and there paying the post and packaging plus the cost of the store, I don't know, doesn't seem to profitable.

Are you kidding? Pins like that cost pennies to manufacture, pennies to post, and pennies to store. I bet his biggest overhead is the cost of maintaining the website. He's probably looking at margins of at least 50%.

If the experience and the memory of doing something cool isn't motivation enough for you but being able to buy a little badge for it is, then what the fuck dude.

I was in the christian ripoff of boyscouts called Awana. I had to memorize bible verses.

I know that sounds dreadful, but i assure you it was much worse than you are currently imagining. :(

This is one of the dumbest things I can recall reading about.

• Picnic
• Archery
• Bungee Jump
• Sydney Opera House
• Skateboarding
• Scuba Dive
• Driving
• Watch the Sunrise
• Empire State Building
• Hot Air Balloon

I was only a Life for a few months. I got my Eagle real quick.

Oh, wait a minute...

@Hizang :

Yes, I was a lifescout once before. A "Life Scout" is the scouting rank that you achieve just before you become an "Eagle Scout".

This is the badge

And when you become an Eagle Scout, you get this badge

Summing up a life of experiences with badges this dude is chucking through youtube seems like the most oppressive thing this digital age can come up with.

Nope cant say that I am.

If people are going to go out and have new experiences because of these badges, then great!

If you don't need the incentive to do new things, then fucking good for you!

@Ravenlight said:

I came into work today. Is there a badge for that?

No, but you get a certificate. We call it a pay check, now get back to work you hippy

I've done 9 of those. I win. Not going to bother buying any cause it's a badge and i have no use for them. Might of done 10 but I'm not sure what "french" means. I've been to france, i speak a little french and I've eaten horse. Do i win?

p.s might i suggest taking a photo. It's free. Unless you're visiting the pyramids then they might try to charge you for taking a photo.

I don't always do interesting things, but when I do, I don't need no stinkin' badges.

Interesting I guess? Idk, I earned my Eagle Scout, and the minor problem I have with this is that anyone can buy their badge for something they never did.

Granted, you could I guess do the same for Boy Scouts by just sewing it on your sash to show off, but you had to go through all the paperwork signed by the Scoutleaders and badge providers for you to actually earn rank to prove that you earned the badge.

@BraveToaster said:

It seems lame, but when you think about it, it kind of gives people extra incentive to do things they previously wouldn't do. I bet that guy is going to make some serious money off of this.

Yeah... good for him, wish I'd thought of it, people love their achievements. I'd like to think that if a person is going to jump out of an airplane, it's because they want to jump out of a fucking airplane and live to talk about it. If I knew someone went out of their way to get one of these things, I'd probably think less of them for having such shitty motives.

Once sensory devices become ubiquitous (however long that takes), I'm sure real-life achievements will become available from social media sites. Most likely, the big social media sites will then find ways to exploit people who pursue such achievements (microtransactions and advertising maybe?) which will annoy most reasonable people and give achievements a bad reputation.