We have a couple of programmes for people that donate time and money to CiviCRM. We'd like to be able to recognise these people when they come to stack exchange.
Is there any way recognise arbitrary people here? Can we add custom fields to stack exchange profiles, for example?
Based on the way the system works as I am writing this, the answer is no. The contents of the profile page are the same on every site. (Well, technically, there are two profile types, one of which is getting phased out and replaced by the other, but neither one has custom fields.)
It's just that nobody's ever built any customization options into the design. I can't really imagine us making a change just for CiviCRM; it seems like too specific of a use case to justify the work involved. This might be something that we could look at if other sites also wanted custom fields for some reason, but I'm not aware of any off the top of my head.
One way to set some users apart is to use 3rd party software such as Pic Badges to add badges to profile pictures. But the user would have to put the enhanced picture in themselves. A user's profile should never be edited by another person (which can only be a moderator moderator) except in rare cases when it's necessary to remove offensive material from the profile.
If a custom field existed, the above would still apply: the user would need to fill that out themselves.
And generally, "highlighting special users" is not something that Stack Exchange does on the interface level. The CEO of Stack Exchange has the same kind of profile as everyone else.
The question is prompted by a desire to recognize users who are supporting CiviCRM through becoming a partner. The information could be retrieved using a REST call from civicrm.stackexchange.org to civicrm.org. Sounds like it's not possible unless other SE sites ask for it as well.
Should we move this post to meta.stackexchange.com or somewhere else to see if there is interest in other communities?
