Return to Question

I think it's too difficult to get compared to other silver badges; it should be gold instead.

Edit: it's been almost a year now. Some people expressed concern that so few people have gotten it simply because it's new.

But let's look at the numbers: we went from 130 in May 2009 to 166 now. That's 4 people a month getting the badge, not the whooping increase implied in some of the comments and answers below.

Let's compare it to the other badges:

• The average amount of people who get a silver badge is currently 5,552 (the total amount of rewarded silver badges divided by the number of existing different badges). That's 35.5 times more than the number of people who have generalist.
• The only two silver badges that are more difficult to obtain are Epic and Pundit. The former has a gold version (but should probably have its requirements lowered), the latter should probably be gold too.
• The most difficult silver badge that is less difficult than Generalist is Strunk & White, which nevertheless was obtained by 716 people.
• The average amount of people who get a gold badge is 478 (the total amount of rewarded gold badges divided by the number of existing different badges). That's still 2.7 times the amount of people who got Generalist, and this means that even if it becomes gold it's still going to be one of the more difficult gold badges.

I think dividing the badges in "bronze", "silver" and "gold" is much less cool if there are going to be too easy or too difficult badges for their category.

^{Note: When I say that a badge is more difficult than another, it's just a not verbose way to say that less people got it. It may not necessarily be more difficult, even though usually it's the case.}

I think that the Generalist badge (Provide non-wiki answers of 15 total score in 20 of top 40 tags) is too difficult to get, compared to other silver badges; it should be gold instead.

Edit: it's been almost a year now. Some people expressed concern that so few people have gotten it simply because it's new.

But let's look at the numbers: we went from 130 in May 2009 to 166 now. That's 4 people a month getting the badge, not the whooping increase implied in some of the comments and answers below.

Let's compare it to the other badges:

• The average amount of people who get a silver badge is currently 5,552 (the total amount of rewarded silver badges divided by the number of existing different badges). That's 35.5 times more than the number of people who have generalist.
• The only two silver badges that are more difficult to obtain are Epic and Pundit. The former has a gold version (but should probably have its requirements lowered), the latter should probably be gold too.
• The most difficult silver badge that is less difficult than Generalist is Strunk & White, which nevertheless was obtained by 716 people.
• The average amount of people who get a gold badge is 478 (the total amount of rewarded gold badges divided by the number of existing different badges). That's still 2.7 times the amount of people who got Generalist, and this means that even if it becomes gold it's still going to be one of the more difficult gold badges.

I think dividing the badges in "bronze", "silver" and "gold" is much less cool if there are going to be too easy or too difficult badges for their category.

^{Note: When I say that a badge is more difficult than another, it's just a not verbose way to say that less people got it. It may not necessarily be more difficult, even though usually it's the case.}