73
votes

As the title suggests does anyone have ideas for additional badges for SO?

I liked the idea of 'hidden' ones that are triggered by odd, random criteria. Basically Easter eggs.

Also:

  • Member of all 3 stack overflow sites

Edit: Made it a community wiki so people can edit easier.

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  • 23
    I wonder if we could get Jeff to comment on the status of badge requests.
    – jjnguy
    Commented Jul 9, 2009 at 13:26
  • Locking ... I can not find anything here .. its ridiculous. meta.stackexchange.com/questions/58700/… If you have real badge suggestions please post them separately as feature requests. If you have less serious ones post them when its Friday in Iceland.
    – waffles
    Commented Jul 28, 2010 at 2:17

119 Answers 119

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votes

New idea.

We can have a badge called Bounty Hunter which will be given to a user who has answered some threshold number of bounty questions. Similar badges can be given if a user has asked some threshold number of bounty questions.

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votes

Encyclopædian

Contribute to a tag wiki.

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votes

<obligatory>
Badges? We don't need no stinkin' badges!
</obligatory>

Part of the design of the system is that badges are strictly awarded for behaviour that we want to encourage. "Odd, random criteria" would fall outside of that area.

That said, having a tag here on the meta site specifically for badge suggestions would be a great idea.

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votes

As I suggested in this post, I think we should have a Sidekick badge for those who frequently contribute to upvoted or accepted answers via comments.

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votes

A check from Knuth: Being the first to find a bug and report it.

Other title suggestions welcome.

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  • "Check for $2.56" is a bit shorter...
    – quack quixote
    Commented Jan 21, 2010 at 12:57
  • 2
    Or just "$2.56"
    – Gelatin
    Commented Jul 25, 2010 at 13:59
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votes

The Misery Guts badge.

For people who've issued more downvotes than upvotes. Do they really think that the majority of content on SO sucks?

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    Pointing out that an answer is wrong, is potentially more important than indicating the one correct answer is better than another correct answer. I don't think down votes should necessarily be discouraged.
    – SpoonMeiser
    Commented Jun 28, 2009 at 14:31
  • 1
    Sturgeon's Law.
    – Tom Hawtin - tackline
    Commented Jun 29, 2009 at 11:36
  • 2
    I respect downvoters, to a point. 50/50 seems about the limit. But all upvotes feels too much like grade inflation.
    – user95071
    Commented Jun 29, 2009 at 12:48
  • @John, this could be a good application of "Curmudgoeon", which name I love. :-) I agree, good downvoting takes discipline, but sometimes it's just annoying. How about people who consistently downvote without offering constructive criticism?
    – Quinn Taylor
    Commented Jun 30, 2009 at 14:44
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votes

Fan Boy (or Fan Girl) - only ever answers/asks questions on one language (most likely Objective-C)

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  • Nice! I like this one!
    – Damien
    Commented Jun 29, 2009 at 10:53
  • 2
    I like it too, but it would have to be actually measurable -- 30 consecutive answers to questions that all shared the same tag....
    – user95071
    Commented Jun 29, 2009 at 12:35
  • 1
    Not a behavior we want to encourage.
    – Joel Coehoorn Mod
    Commented Jun 29, 2009 at 12:51
  • So this would be a badge that could potentially be taken away once you've received it?
    – Travis
    Commented Jun 29, 2009 at 13:41
  • @Joel: You don't want to encourage it?! But the MATLAB tag is my bread and butter, man! ;)
    – gnostradamus
    Commented Jun 29, 2009 at 19:51
  • Ouch, that one's close to home! Come to think of it though, Java/C#/.NET posters would be just as likely to get the badge as we CocoaHeads. :-)
    – Quinn Taylor
    Commented Jun 30, 2009 at 14:49
  • Yeah, I'd probably get this one for Java.
    – mmyers
    Commented Jun 30, 2009 at 18:27
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votes

Scatter Gun - more that 5 answers to the same question, each must have 2+ votes.

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    That would encourage spamming. :/
    – Arnis Lapsa
    Commented Jul 4, 2009 at 12:47
  • 12
    Spammers don't need encouraging, but it might encourage poor answers.
    – Richard Stelling
    Commented Jul 4, 2009 at 12:49
  • 4
    Spammers wouldn't get upvotes... there's no problem with this
    – Zifre
    Commented Jul 8, 2009 at 14:52
  • 1
    Yes they won't get upvotes, but when they try to get the scatter gun badges, there will be spams created (no upvotes but still the spams existed)
    – Unreality
    Commented Aug 6, 2009 at 2:25
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Gleaner: Answering two old (2+ months) unanswered questions in a row, with at least 1 upvote for each answer.

It's to catch the guys who systematically go through the old questions.

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  • You'd need a "and they get <x> upvotes" - otherwise any old dirge would be posted to get badges.
    – Marc Gravell
    Commented Jul 12, 2009 at 21:48
  • Good point. See edit.
    – Mathieu
    Commented Jul 12, 2009 at 23:44
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votes

OCD — Front page loaded more then 100 times a day

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    What about people who refresh the Newest Questions page more than 100 times a day?
    – mmyers Mod
    Commented Oct 19, 2009 at 16:49
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    What about people who check their profile for responses? (oops)
    – Mark C
    Commented Oct 6, 2010 at 7:29
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votes

Welcome Back

Awarded when someone returns after 30 days away from the site. It could be made "harder" by adding the condition that they post and have at least one upvote.

Would be a nice present to people returning and might encourage them to stick around this time.

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    So it's a reverse Enthusiast?
    – random
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 14:46
  • You could say that ;)
    – ChrisF Mod
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 14:49
  • 2
    Here are some alternative names: Off The Wagon, The 13th Step (when an addict is now in control of their addiction: silkworth.net/magazine_newspaper/real_sep_1965.html)
    – gnostradamus
    Commented Nov 2, 2009 at 21:05
  • Unenthusiastic
    – Tom Hawtin - tackline
    Commented Mar 21, 2010 at 1:28
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    This would encourage people to not visit the site for 30 days which is lame, seems like this should just be a message rather than a badge.
    – theChrisKent
    Commented Jan 28, 2011 at 22:22
  • @TomHawtin-tackline Unthusiastic!
    – kinokijuf
    Commented Jul 22, 2012 at 14:17
3
votes

'Soul of Wit': getting many, many, votes for a very short answer.

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  • I've found that most of my highly-voted answers are short. Then again, I have no experience with "many, many" votes.
    – mmyers Mod
    Commented Dec 23, 2009 at 15:22
  • Short and stupid seems a good formula for highly voted. Then it's tempting to add more explanation.
    – Tom Hawtin - tackline
    Commented Mar 21, 2010 at 1:24
  • @Tom Hawtin - tackline that certainly worked for me.
    – Rosinante
    Commented Mar 21, 2010 at 15:09
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Specialist Badges - Bronze
Lasted 15 days in the 30-day top 20 answerers list for a specific tag.

Probably should require x number of questions posted in the same time frame to prevent gaining the badge on tags that only have a few posts.

Survivalist
Lasted 30 days in the 30-day top 20 answerers list for any tag.

They're the same badge, except if it were implemented as a specialist badge you could earn one per tag. I wasn't sure if Jeff wanted bronze specialist badges however, so Survivalist is intended as an alternative.

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votes

Voted 100 times on answers at least 5 months old.

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  • Nice concept, but the name sounds like a form of voting that'd happen in Chicago.
    – Andrew Grimm
    Commented Jul 25, 2010 at 3:15
  • Maybe name it Mel Carnahan after the dead candidate who won a senate election.
    – Andrew Grimm
    Commented Aug 7, 2010 at 12:17
  • 2
    Maybe call it Necrophiliac :)
    – theChrisKent
    Commented Jan 28, 2011 at 22:30
3
votes

Bouncer

Cast your first close vote.

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I would like to see a higher level of specialist badges. Maybe even considered as a new badge level. Platinum Specialist Badge.

Something like 10x the amount of votes needed as the gold specialist badge.

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    Or just as hard to obtain... the Jon Skeet badge. One week has expired, and you answered the same question as Jon Skeet but YOU got more up votes.
    – Brian R. Bondy
    Commented Jun 28, 2009 at 13:00
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    The scary thing is that Jon would already qualify for this in C#
    – Marc Gravell
    Commented Jun 28, 2009 at 22:08
  • As for my other comment though, it would be an unattainable badge for Jon Skeet as surely he could never have more up votes than himself.
    – Brian R. Bondy
    Commented Jun 28, 2009 at 23:00
  • @Brian: isn't that a good thing - at last a badge that Jon Skeet won't be able to get? :)
    – a_m0d
    Commented Jun 29, 2009 at 4:55
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    Just because you can't imagine how I'd get more votes than myself doesn't mean it can't happen ;) (For one thing, I could post two answers :)
    – Jon Skeet
    Commented Jun 29, 2009 at 6:54
  • @a_m0d: the Tumbleweed badge? I'm guessing the average rep for Tumbleweed achievers is about 50...
    – Zifre
    Commented Jul 8, 2009 at 14:46
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votes

The Harry Enfield "You don't want to do THAT!" badge.

Awarded for an answer that tells the questioner they're doing it all wrong, without any constructive suggestion on how to do it right.

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  • I'd go for this... if that answer gets lots of votes, and the poster marks it as accepted... BUT only if the answer does give some pointers as to what they should do.
    – scunliffe
    Commented Jun 28, 2009 at 17:19
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    One for the win32/usenet spambots ;-p
    – Marc Gravell
    Commented Jun 28, 2009 at 22:08
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    No way to tell this programmatically, is there?
    – mmyers
    Commented Jun 29, 2009 at 17:28
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    Nearly every question regarding optimization would be a candidate for this badge.
    – Bill the Lizard Mod
    Commented Jun 30, 2009 at 15:01
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votes

XKCD - a comment that gets someone to fix their answer: someone is wrong on stack overflow.

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    On an unrelated note, bobby-tables is a tag in stack overflow.
    – Andrew Grimm
    Commented Aug 6, 2009 at 1:24
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    How would this be calculated?
    – Ether
    Commented Dec 11, 2009 at 5:27
  • If the answer is old, and a comment occurs, and the answer is changed soon afterwards, then it might be safe to assume it isn't coincidence.
    – Andrew Grimm
    Commented Dec 11, 2009 at 10:55
2
votes

Gold badge that would be awarded for an answer that satisfies both Necromancer and Enlightened criteria, i.e.:

First answer to a question more than 60 days later that was accepted with at least 10 votes.

Not sure exactly what to call it, maybe Enlightomancer, White Wizard or even Gandalf.

This would be a good incentive for well researched answers to long-forgotten questions.

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    But as you would already get both the Necromancer and Enlightened badge (plus Nice Answer for good measure) do we really need another badge?
    – ChrisF Mod
    Commented Jan 18, 2010 at 15:42
  • 1
    Do we really need any badges? I think it would be sufficiently rare and hard to get to merit gold, and it would encourage a good habit
    – Rich Seller
    Commented Jan 18, 2010 at 16:07
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votes

Collaborator -

The intent is to distinguish the editing of answers from providing supportive and helpful comments. Editor and Strunk&White, IIRC, can be attained simply by editing your own posts. In addition not everyone has the rep to edit other people's answers. ...just a thought that there should be a distinction.

For example: SO question 2211388/serialize-object-to-xml-problems
I may know the answer, but there is an answer with a good start. Sure, I'll up-vote it (or at least I should). Then, instead of competing for the accepted answer, possibly duplicating most of the already up-voted answer and embellishing with some campaign style code snippets, I support the one already there.

I think this encouragement could produce higher quality answers. The downside to this, obviously, is how it could be implemented. I hope my explanation makes sense.

One possible implementation could be an icon only visible or click-able by the OP (?), or an additional option in the flag that tags the comment as supportive and collaborative.

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  • so something that is awarded for has-edited-another-user's-answer-that-becomes-accepted? because edits already count towards the Editor and Strunk&White badges.
    – quack quixote
    Commented Feb 6, 2010 at 14:01
  • No, that's not my intent - not everyone has the rep to edit other people answers. I was referring specifically to supporting comments as in examples, additional links. As far as Editor and Strunk&White are concerned, can't you can get these simply by editing your own questions and answers? There should be a difference.
    – IAbstract
    Commented Feb 6, 2010 at 16:32
  • ah, i see, that aspect isn't clear from your post. i assumed you were talking about editing, which would be easy to detect (and anyone can edit a Community Wiki post, so it's not limited to high-rep users). automatic detection of supportive comments is... well, not realistic... so this badge would have to be manually awarded. to my knowledge, all the existing badges are awarded automatically.
    – quack quixote
    Commented Feb 6, 2010 at 19:08
  • I'll edit for clarity ;)
    – IAbstract
    Commented Feb 6, 2010 at 19:51
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    Strunk & White. Not Skunk.
    – SLaks
    Commented Feb 8, 2010 at 15:02
  • @SLaks: thanks...I can only guess I was really tired
    – IAbstract
    Commented Feb 8, 2010 at 17:24
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votes

Kitten-saver Someone has asked a question and put their own answer on it within five minutes of asking. You come along with a better answer, and they accept yours rather than their own. Therefore you're preventing God from killing a kitten. Alternatively it could be awarded for preventing someone from parsing HTML with regular expressions.

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  • +1 for the "preventing someone from parsing HTML with regular expressions"
    – theChrisKent
    Commented Jan 28, 2011 at 22:33
2
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Monopolist

Received a golden tag badge for a particular tag while no one else has received a silver tag badge for particular tag yet. Or at least someting in those lines. It should award valuable contributors in "niche" tags who doesn't collect enough voteless answers to qualify for Unsung Hero and Tireless and like so.

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    I kind of like this, but at the same time I don't ever see it implemented. It's one of those first come, first serve ideas that reward being the first prominent member on the site to be interested in a particular tag. Anyone who joins after you gain the first silver can't get the badge even if you've lost interest.
    – Andy E
    Commented Jul 26, 2010 at 18:29
  • 1
    @Andy: Fair point. The tag criteria should maybe be revised. Percentage of votes/answers/accepts as opposed to the amount of questions and the votes/answers/accepts others received in the particular tag during the period you were active?
    – user138231
    Commented Jul 26, 2010 at 18:36
  • A similar one: getting more than 500 points than anyone else for a particular tag in the last X month.
    – palacsint
    Commented Jul 1, 2012 at 18:42
1
vote

I'd like to see the 'Strunk & White' badge extended to reward those who edit and improve answers. The difficulty is working out whether the editing is just for getting the badge, or whether it is genuinely improving the questions and answers. (Clearly, editing your own entries wouldn't count.)

I'm not sure what to call it - Strunk & White sets a rather high standard to start out with. And I'm not sure whether to make S&W a badge awarded multiple times - say on 100 edits, and then every 1000 after that, or whether to find a new name (Super Editor? Vim or Emacs - at the recipients choice? Nitpicker?) that is awarded every 1000 edits or so.

1
vote

Coconuts from Mercia — Asked a question with 10 or more up-votes that was then migrated to a different SOFU site.

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  • After your last three suggestions, was expecting to see a fourth Jon Skeet-centric one.
    – random
    Commented Sep 17, 2009 at 8:36
  • You want more? Not feeling the love? Your screen name makes a better badge anyway :-)
    – beggs
    Commented Sep 17, 2009 at 9:31
1
vote

Power Overwhelming - Hitting rep cap X days in a row.

EDIT: Now with the epic and legendary badges, they are similar, but this one is for X consecutive days.

1
vote

The Work Shy Fop Badge

A bit like the Woot! badge, but only awarded if the site is visited more than once every working day (Mon - Fri) and never visited at weekends.

Skizz

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  • How would you deal with timezone differences?
    – Margaret
    Commented Jul 4, 2009 at 7:13
  • 1
    In Israel the work week is Sunday-Thursday. You'd think developers would be more aware of these things by now...
    – Kobi
    Commented Sep 9, 2009 at 10:07
  • Won't work for people, like me, who never log out and always have a tab open in their browser for the site. How would you count the number of visits in this case?
    – RobH
    Commented Feb 5, 2010 at 1:15
  • 2
    @RobH: Probably the same way the Enthusiast and Fanatic badges do it.
    – mmyers Mod
    Commented Feb 5, 2010 at 22:22
  • @mmyers: Except that the Enthusiast and Fanatic badges only need 1 hit per day for them to count.
    – RobH
    Commented Feb 8, 2010 at 18:49
1
vote

I'm not sure the exact specifics of this mechanism, but I've seen/had happened to me before where an answer is accepted, then unaccepted, then another answer was accepted in its place.

I think there should be a badge for "stealing" acceptance in this manner.

Note that this "stealing" has nothing to do with plagiarism. It's about improving an accepted answer with another answer that's even better. Sometimes I suspect that if a question already has an accepted answer with a few votes, even if it can be improved upon, people don't bother (perhaps because they don't think it'd be as rewarding because they're "too late"). Having this badge would encourage people to always try to come up with the best answers possible, regardless of whether or not there's already a decent one accepted or not.

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  • I like this. I think there should be a minimum amount of time that has to pass (between the previous acceptance and the current one) before it can be awarded, just in case the OP made an error or it's early in the question's life and there are many people still giving replies. There is an issue of gaming if these badges can't be revoked -- simply unaccept and accept a new answer every n days. But at the same time, I'm not sure limiting this badge to 1 awarding per question is a good idea, since we want to promote answer improvement. Hmmm...
    – Jon Seigel
    Commented Apr 14, 2010 at 14:53
  • 1
    This is close to the Populist badge. Or, if I rephrase, the Populist badge already encourages to post better answers even if there is already one accepted.
    – Pascal Thivent
    Commented Apr 15, 2010 at 3:43
1
vote

Full Deck (bronze) - Awarded for getting all available bronze badges

Full Deck (silver) - Awarded for getting all available silver badges

Full Deck (gold) - Awarded for getting all available gold badges

Of course, with new badges getting added every so often this may be awkward to implement.

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    How can you get all bronze badges if you don't have the Full Deck badge?! We are programmers, for crying out loud!
    – Kobi
    Commented Mar 3, 2010 at 10:11
  • 1
    It would have to be the non tag based badges (and not include the Silver Beta badge), otherwise the silver and gold ones would never be awarded.
    – ChrisF Mod
    Commented Apr 14, 2010 at 14:14
  • Getting the full deck badge was based around getting all badges of that colour first. I have re-worded my question to remove any confusion
    – kevchadders
    Commented Apr 15, 2010 at 7:43
  • 2
    Earning badges for earning badges? I won't down-vote it but I'm not a fan.
    – Evan Plaice
    Commented Jun 12, 2010 at 0:13
  • There's a Silver badge for being in the beta, which no one can get anymore, meaning that the silver Full Deck would also be limited just to those in the beta.
    – James Curran
    Commented Aug 25, 2010 at 14:26
  • You can't earn a bronze badge for getting all the bronze badges. If this were going to work logically, you would get a silver for earning all the bronze badges - which still doesn't really make sense. Aside from that, there is great effort to ensure that a badge cannot become un-earned. For instance, if you get a Full Deck (bronze) and then a new bronze badge is added, you haven't fulfilled the requirements to achieve the Full Deck (bronze). There is a hint of something in there I do like. But I can't quite put my finger on it...but it doesn't have anything to do with gaining another badge.
    – IAbstract
    Commented Dec 2, 2010 at 21:43
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vote

Corrupt wisdom: have an accepted answer with 10 upvotes featuring at least 42 combining characters.

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vote

Power Level badge, for users with over 9,000 rep.

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