zlacker

> HN should put a little entrepreneur badge next to your name for having shipped a product. That would motivate some people.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1917605

To encourage HN users to ship code, allow them to display an icon next to their user name once they have shipped their project. This would work on the honor system. To make the implementation simple, users can self-manage the icon. Perhaps a "ship" icon could be displayed that linked to the product if applicable.

This will help create a culture of "shipping" through a shame/pride/credibility/game achievement effect, as well as help users keep the HN addiction in check.

>>ericb+(OP)
Note that not everyone on HN is an entrepreneur. As a programmer, I don’t want to feel shamed for not having shipped a product when that isn’t even one of my goals in the first place. If there were such an icon, one of the states would have to be “don’t care” or “unspecified”. I think that should be the default initial state for everybody, but the problem then is whether people will be honest enough to change their icon from “unspecified” to “not shipped” on purpose.