Too Many Buttons and Badges
The following comment is not going to make me very popular but I’m going to post it anyway.
Please hear me out before you start tossing those rotten tomatoes.
I know everyone is proud of all the buttons and badges that they’ve earned along their Squid journey but placing them ALL in your bio is not really a good idea and here’s why:
The general public doesn’t understand what all those bells and whistles are about and could very easily get distracted by them.
Instead of reading your great text, they might sit there wondering what the heck a Giant Squid Organizer, a Purple Star, or a Rocketmom is.
I understand that you worked hard to achieve all those honors and yes, you deserve to show them all off. I just think there’s a better way to do that.
Instead of confusing your potential reader with all of your trophies lined up in the side bar of your lenses, why not place your buttons and badges in a text box towards the end of your lens, including an explanation of what your badge means and why you got it.
You certainly don’t want your bio to be the only thing that catches your reader’s eye.
Tomato tossing may now begin! 
October 15, 2009 - 11:38 am
I like this idea. I tried it though, and the code didn’t work. Maybe I entered it wrong? Next lens creation, I’ll try it again. Thanks for the suggestion!
October 15, 2009 - 1:48 pm
I put them all together in one lens as my own personal trophy room or sash of badges. I added any other distinctions I’ve reached on squidoo (badge or not).
October 15, 2009 - 3:49 pm
I tend to agree with you. Recently I started removing my badges from my lenses, but I would like to have a place for them. I like the idea of a “trophy room” lens – that works!
October 15, 2009 - 4:03 pm
I agree completely.
It’s annoying how the author bio space in the sidebar is just shrinking and shrinking to make room for more ads and more links away from the lens.
It’s supposed to be about featuring the author!
Actually, I’m going to make my bio as a big tall jpg, and just HTML it into my bio box, so it can be as long and detailed as I like!
Lewis
October 15, 2009 - 5:37 pm
I could not agree more! Put them nicely laid out in a text box near an About Me module at the end of the lens.
October 15, 2009 - 9:28 pm
I agree that readers don’t always know what all the badges mean and that some layouts kind of overkill their bio (I don’t have a lot of badges, but enough that I think my layout could be much better). Thanks for the ideas on creating a trophy room lens or adding the text box with a badge explanation. Great ideas!!
October 15, 2009 - 10:05 pm
I never figured out how to add a badge to my lenses, so mine have been quite plain.
October 15, 2009 - 10:12 pm
I thought about this before reading this. I feel like I am the girl scout with all the badges. I know I tell about the badges in my ever growing lensography. But I have thought of moving that in a trophy lens.
October 16, 2009 - 1:00 am
I agree totally. Keep the bio simple. Add the bells and whistles to your lensography.
October 16, 2009 - 4:28 am
October 16, 2009 - 5:11 am
I’ve only ever had my RocketMoms badge on my bio and the rest are in my lensographies.
October 16, 2009 - 9:40 am
A trophy room lens sounds like a wonderful idea, and some are going to need some pretty big rooms!
October 16, 2009 - 6:51 pm
If you would like, you can just send them to me… I don’t have any
… This is a good problem to have! 
October 18, 2009 - 2:53 pm
I love my badges, but realized they were so big that displaying them is/was distracting. Bad enough the ads are so big, and then with all those colored badges, how does anyone read the lens