10

I'm happy with retiring Tumbleweed and Reversal badges.

Especially I like how Reversal badge was treated. It wasn't just retired: it was replaced by Lifejacket and Lifeboat badges, utilizing the positive effect of Winter Bash, encouraging people to search for hidden gems in questions, improve them and this not only for 2 weeks.

Unfortunately, much more frequent Tumbleweed badge wasn't treated so good. It was just retired without positive replacement and encouraging any effort from users to answer these unheeded questions. I'm sure getting a good answer would encourage users to stay here much more than receiving nothing.

Also, we had this kind of hat at Winter Bash 2016 to encourage answering questions with Tumbleweed badge:

Lifesaver

Lifesaver hat from Winter Bash 2016

Answer a question qualifying for the Tumbleweed badge. The answer must get accepted and reach a positive score.

So can this "Lifesaver" badge be added? We can name it "Lifebelt". I'm sure this bronze sibling would be useful for Lifejacket and Lifeboat family.

I'm trying to suggest a way to encourage people to focus on answering abandoned questions. Existing Revival and Necromancer badges encourage answering just old questions and it's more profitable (from point of getting these badges) to answer popular questions rather than abandoned ones.

Improve this question
1
  • 5
    I like this whole "life" theme ... LifeOverflow ...
    – rene Mod
    Commented Jun 20, 2019 at 6:02

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
3

There's already a badge for this kind of action (albeit not a 1:1 fit): Necromancer.

The criteria are:

Answer a question more than 60 days later with score of 5 or more. This badge can be awarded multiple times.

So what you are requesting would really be an adjustment to this badge, not the creation of an entirely new one. However, I don't think an adjustment is necessary, personally; I think Necromancer fills the void just fine already.

Improve this answer
7
  • 1
    And probably Revival too…
    – Vadim Ovchinnikov
    Commented Jun 21, 2019 at 14:21
  • @VadimOvchinnikov Yes, that would definitely fill another part of the void (bit easier to get than Necromancer)
    – TylerH
    Commented Jun 21, 2019 at 14:22
  • But let's be honest: these badges encourage providing answers for old questions and it's more profitable for getting these badges to answer popular questions instead of abandoned.
    – Vadim Ovchinnikov
    Commented Jun 21, 2019 at 14:31
  • @VadimOvchinnikov I'm not sure I agree. Necromancer doesn't discriminate between "popular" or "unpopular" questions, and Revival even requires that your answer be the first answer. Besides, posting an answer to such a question in the hopes of earning Revival or Necromancer serves to bump the question to the front page, making it active again.
    – TylerH
    Commented Jun 21, 2019 at 14:49
  • 2
    The OP proposes a badge for answering a question that has received no interaction in its first week. This is very different from answering an old question. I have received necromancer badges for answering old, very popular questions that already had many answers, simply adding a new way to solve the problem. That is not what OP's proposal is about. It's about answering questions that otherwise would end up abandoned, unanswered and lonely.
    – Cris Luengo
    Commented Jun 21, 2019 at 17:41
  • @CrisLuengo As mentioned in the comments, Revival fills the "no other activity" gap otherwise left by what Necromancer fills.
    – TylerH
    Commented Jun 21, 2019 at 18:07
  • Also, what constitutes "old" is relative for users; some people think a question is old when it is 24 hours old, while others put the threshold at a year. In short, a question that is over a week old is, in the eyes of many, already old. (QED, it's not that different and, in fact, could be considered the same by some)
    – TylerH
    Commented Mar 30, 2023 at 18:20

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .