Yes, it does work differently now.
The new forums all of that is automatic for players. The person in question needs to claim their character on the forums by setting up their NWN profile on their forums account. When that is done, the badge and forum access is done automagically.
If the person(s) in question have problems figuring out how to do set up their NWN profile, we can help, just have them contact us in some kinda way and we'll do what we can.
~row