Let your users kick it old school

I moved off Blogger shortly after Pyra Labs was acquired by Google, but I tried out the new Blogger today anyways, to see what had changed. It was a walk down memory lane best experienced with a Blogger sweatshirt, my reward for being a Blogger Pro member for a few months before they sold.

Wouldn’t it be cool if Blogger Pro users had some sort of special badging in their templates to let people know they are an old school G? I might even be less likely to change blogging platforms because I like the way that special piece of flair looks on my page and the way “member since 2002” commands respect from the n00bs.

These little touches create folklore and connection to products. If I move off of Movable Type I’ll lose the recently updated key I received for a $20 donation years ago to Ben’s personal PayPal account and bugged Mena daily until I had a rotating spot on the Movable Type homepage and the donors page. There’s a little bit of history every time I see that text input box in my blog configuration.

I’d like to see more recognition of long-term members in online software. Let us show our hipness and experience with our favorite web applications by giving us a special piece of bling to share with the world. Because I’m a long-time customer and proud of it.