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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16
votes

Weekend Warrior

Posted an accepted answer to a question on weekend.

This badge could only be awarded once.

Since traffic and responses are MUCH lower on weekends, this would maybe reward those that post and troll on the weekends helping out others.

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  • 7
    I like this, except it's hard to define "weekend" given the variation in timezones. Australians could nail this one on Monday morning while it's still Sunday UTC.
    – Ether
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 0:33
  • 1
    If we define WE as Saturday and Sunday... well, WE would be from when the last TZ enters Saturday to when the first TZ enters Monday. So, about 24 hours, IINM.
    – Jürgen A. Erhard
    Commented Jan 12, 2010 at 10:05
15
votes

Fast gun Posting an answer within a minute of the question being asked, that gets accepted without any edits.

Edit: Answering your own question wouldn't count. That'd be shooting yourself in the foot.

Update: Turns out this is a duplicate of New Badge: Quick-Draw.

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  • not just a fast gun.. you'd be the Fastest Gun in the West (although that's a bit long)
    – Ether
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 0:31
  • 1
    "Fast gun" earned me a necromancer badge. The irony!
    – Andrew Grimm
    Commented Jan 21, 2010 at 11:47
  • LOL @ the edit. Maybe there should also be a badge for shooting yourself in the foot. (Kidding.)
    – RobH
    Commented Feb 5, 2010 at 0:32
  • That badge is impossible to get since question can take from 30 seconds to 2 minute to show up because of the cache on SO.
    – HoLyVieR
    Commented Jul 25, 2010 at 21:30
  • @HoLyVieR: That'd still give you 30 seconds to answer!
    – Andrew Grimm
    Commented Jul 26, 2010 at 13:21
14
votes

Hot Streak - name for Damien idea

Something for posting an accepted anwser once a day for 15-30 days. Don't know what you could call it..

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  • I would call it the ZOMFG badge
    – user146787
    Commented Aug 18, 2009 at 8:46
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votes

Home Run - Hit the rep cap just from one answer (or question) posted that same day.

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    How often does that happen? Do you have to be answering a question on regexes and HTML?
    – Andrew Grimm
    Commented Jan 28, 2010 at 10:22
  • @Andrew - no idea. Not often I'd say. But it might be a fun thing to aim at...
    – martin clayton
    Commented Jan 28, 2010 at 21:50
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    I think it's fairly common, though I suspect we'd just be piling reward on top of reward at that point
    – Jeff Atwood
    Commented Feb 9, 2010 at 1:15
  • @Jeff that might only be common on SO, since on SU I only expect a couple of users to reach that :-(
    – Ivo Flipse Mod
    Commented Apr 8, 2010 at 9:02
11
votes

Scientist - upvoting X number of questions where:

  • you've provided an answer that received at least one upvote, and
  • you upvote at least one other answer

both of which happened before an answer was accepted.

If the user answered the question, received an upvote for the answer, and then deleted it, that should also count. Presumably they learned something from a better answer, just like a real scientist.

The concept behind this badge is mainly to encourage the upvoting of questions more often. The restrictions would be to prevent random upvoting.

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  • See "sportsman" suggestion.
    – Richard
    Commented Jul 6, 2009 at 9:02
  • I saw it. The mechanism here is close, except that you must be upvoting questions, rather than just upvoting other answers. And of course it's open to debate.
    – womp
    Commented Jul 6, 2009 at 16:06
11
votes

Life is Hard - First time you get an answer accepted and later unaccepted (of course own questions don't count).

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    I would have won this several times over already!
    – ChrisF Mod
    Commented Jan 18, 2010 at 15:43
  • 1
    Alternative name possibility - "S**t Happens" ;)
    – Lix
    Commented Jul 22, 2012 at 14:35
10
votes

Something for posting an accepted anwser once a day for 15-30 days. Don't know what you could call it..

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    Good idea. See "Hot Streak", as someone called it in a higher-voted answer.
    – Quinn Taylor
    Commented Jul 10, 2009 at 21:07
10
votes

OCD - visited the site every day for a year.

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  • That would be a good candidate for a "green silicon" (i.e. better than gold) badge!
    – Ether
    Commented Oct 21, 2009 at 0:05
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votes

Usurper: Have an answer accepted for a question that had an accepted answer at the time you posted your answer.

and

Thief: Have an answer accepted for a question that had an accepted answer at the time you edited your answer. The first version of your edited answer must have been posted before the other previously accepted answer was accepted.

Not too hard to automate. Also encourages users to supply/improve answers to questions that already have accepted answers.

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votes

Inciter - answer or question that generated 50+ comments

Suggested revision:

  1. Encourager (bronze) received 10 or more comments on a single question or answer with a score greater than or equal to 1.
  2. Provocateur (silver) received 25 or more comments on a single question or answer with a score greater than or equal to 5.
  3. Instigator (gold) received 100 or more comments on a single question or answer with a score greater than or equal to 10.

In all cases, your own comments wouldn't count.

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    50+ comments are probably a bad thing, aren't they?
    – sth
    Commented Jun 28, 2009 at 12:24
  • Maybe a MSO badge only???
    – Richard Stelling
    Commented Jun 28, 2009 at 12:26
  • 14
    The problem is, you are creating a badge of honour for the trolls...
    – Marc Gravell
    Commented Jun 28, 2009 at 22:04
  • True, and "incite" generally has a negative connotation.
    – Quinn Taylor
    Commented Jun 30, 2009 at 14:50
  • 1
    @sth Not if you combine it with the requirement that the question has a positive score.
    – Daniel Daranas
    Commented Feb 4, 2010 at 16:46
  • I have added suggested revisions, but am keeping the original in place.
    – Randolpho
    Commented Apr 14, 2010 at 13:33
10
votes

Nonconformist

I'd like to see a badge for answering questions in very unpopular tags. This would encourage people to answer questions that are otherwise unlikely to get decent answers.

Badge name: Nonconformist is intended to be somewhat an opposite of Generalist (but not in the direction of what could be called Specialist), with the added idea of "not conforming" to the popular tags. What other names could be used for "helpful to unpopular tags"?

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    I'd go for "spelunker".
    – Aarobot
    Commented May 27, 2010 at 14:46
10
votes

Usurper
Posted an answer 6 months after an accepted one, resulting in the question owner switching to yours.

Encourages posting better solutions when you come across old accepted answers. Adjust time-scale to suit.

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votes

Some comments on an answer end up collecting several up votes of their own. Some badges based on "great" comments would be nice.

"Preaching to the choir" - x upvotes on a comment

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    Can't actually downvote a comment, last I saw ...
    – a_m0d
    Commented Jun 29, 2009 at 4:55
  • 6
    @a_mOd, I would have downvoted your comment, but I couldn't ;-)
    – Nathan Koop
    Commented Jun 29, 2009 at 13:19
  • 3
    I've been a fan of a badge for 100 upvotes on a comment -- ever since I got 100 upvotes on a comment. whistles
    – mmyers
    Commented Jun 29, 2009 at 17:45
  • 1
    Doh! missed the fact that you can't downvote a comment...
    – scunliffe
    Commented Jun 30, 2009 at 15:56
10
votes

Thesaurus

Suggest a tag synonym that is then accepted into the system.

9
votes

I raised a feature request before I saw this question for badges based on accepted answers in a tag. This would work similarly to the tags badges for votes, but with a lower threshold, e.g. earn a silver badge for 100 accepted Java answers and gold for 250 accepted.

For example:

.net accepted http://uvshock.co.uk/badges/badge.php?label=.net%20accepted&medal=gold

java accepted http://uvshock.co.uk/badges/badge.php?label=java%20accepted&medal=silver

etc.

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  • I think having that would help show which users are contributing in certain tags.
    – jjnguy
    Commented Aug 21, 2009 at 15:29
9
votes

Altruist - Voted up an answer by someone else, on a question, that you yourself answered. You thought the other user's answer was better than your own answer.

You are unselfish, you are voting for the best answer for the good of the community, not to gain points. We like this type of behavior

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    Hint: Take a look at the top-voted answer to this question. ;)
    – gnostradamus
    Commented Aug 31, 2009 at 17:15
  • NO. We like points!
    – Mark C
    Commented Oct 6, 2010 at 7:31
9
votes

Selfless - For earning 100 (or 200 or whatever) rep over and above the rep cap on a given day. Would encourage people who hit the rep cap on a day to continue answering questions even though they know that any additional up votes won't help their rep.

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  • The Epic and Legendary badges lead to the same end.
    – random
    Commented Dec 23, 2009 at 12:53
  • 3
    @random - sort of, but not really. They reward you for hitting the rep cap, but not for going "above and beyond".
    – Eric Petroelje
    Commented Dec 23, 2009 at 14:16
9
votes

Out Of Ammo - Used all his/her votes for a day.

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  • Up-voting is something to promote, but up-voting to get a badge ... I have a strong feeling that this would lead to people up-voting bad answer just for the badge.
    – HoLyVieR
    Commented Jul 25, 2010 at 21:22
  • 1
    This is a dupe of a suggestion made a year earlier. Kind of moot now though, it's been implemented as Suffrage.
    – Pops
    Commented Oct 19, 2010 at 14:30
  • @Popular Demand: Sorry. I didn't know it existed.
    – Macarse
    Commented Nov 19, 2010 at 13:34
9
votes

Great Mystery

This badge is awarded for question having at least 5 up vote and at least 500 views and no up voted answer. This would award great question that the answer is unknown.

World Mystery

This is basicly the same as Great Mystery except that it would require at least 20 up vote, 1.5k view.

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votes

Weekend Warrior

Reaching rep cap on 13 Sundays.

Now with charts! (from source)

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    sundays in .. what time zone? We can't do these :(
    – Jeff Atwood
    Commented May 2, 2010 at 10:18
  • @Jeff: just pick a time zone. Maybe Saturday is better so it won't overlap on Monday.
    – polygenelubricants
    Commented May 2, 2010 at 22:26
  • Saturday in SO's timezone (UTC) would do. Although, I'm not sure that adding more rep cap badges would add any value -- we'd see the same people getting them that already have hundreds (or thousands!) of badges.
    – Ether
    Commented Jul 11, 2010 at 19:53
8
votes

Controversy

Question or answer voted up and down at least x times.

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    I suggested something like this back on UV, and the feedback was that they didn't want to create incentive for controversial posts.
    – chaos
    Commented Jul 7, 2009 at 20:54
  • That does make sense.
    – jjnguy
    Commented Jul 7, 2009 at 21:33
8
votes

How about something to encourage people to apply more effort to questions asked by users who don't often bother to accept answers to their questions?

Thankless

Answered a question posed by a user who has a worse than 20% accept rate, and that answer is voted up 10 times, is the top answer for the question by votes, and the asker doesn't accept any answer for the question for a month.

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    Interesting idea, but a lot of conditions in it.
    – Andrew Grimm
    Commented Apr 11, 2010 at 23:34
  • Yeah, it's tricky, but it's not unusual for a low-accept-rate user to ask a question and -- despite the question occasionally being pretty good -- get a lot of snide remarks from commenters about their refusal to answer a question from someone who doesn't appreciate their answers. I think it would benefit the community to have some of those answered, and a badge might help motivate people to answer even though there's little hope of getting a checkmark by your answer.
    – Chris Farmer
    Commented Apr 14, 2010 at 19:50
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votes

Beginners Luck - accepted answer in the first 2 days of joining / or with you first ever answer.

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    except most of us could never get this since we're already here :(
    – warren
    Commented Sep 17, 2009 at 8:54
  • 2
    not that I'm complaining, mind you :D
    – warren
    Commented Sep 17, 2009 at 8:54
7
votes

Burning the midnight oil

Awarded for activity (vote, question, answer, comment) at least once per hour, for 24 hours in a row.

Selfless (or Communist, even if it was mentioned elsewhere)

First community wiki created (not turning a question into a community wiki, but really starting it as a wiki in the first place.) (No longer relevant)

Elitist

Has at least 50(?) Ignored Tags for every Interesting Tags (or has had that for x days).

Renaissance Man

Has had a high number(?) of Interesting Tags and no Ignored Tags for x days.

I really like how the last two play against each other :) (I don't even remember what I meant)

Addition:

Train wreck

Similar to a tumbleweed, with a twist: Asked a question with no votes, no answers, no comments, but high views (say 100), over any amount of time.

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  • We don't want to encourage SO addiction ... at least officially. What about "graveyard shift" (or "Mumbai calling", or "always daytime in Iceland"), for answering questions in low-activity times though?
    – Andrew Grimm
    Commented Apr 11, 2010 at 23:36
  • 1
    Definitely Graveyard Shift.
    – MPelletier
    Commented Apr 11, 2010 at 23:57
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    Selfless badge would also need to require a minimum number of votes on the question so that we don't inadvertently encourage bad cw questions.
    – Joel Coehoorn Mod
    Commented Apr 14, 2010 at 13:59
6
votes

Didn't see the concept anywhere in these three pages...

Radio Star: awarded for asking a question that is singled out on the StackOverflow podcast (either by SO guys or guests)

6
votes

Stalker - For having more than 20 upvoted answers on different questions by the same user. In other words, following someone around on SO answering their questions.

Paparazzi - For having more than 20 upvoted comments on different answers by the same user.

Single - For posting an accepted answer on February 14th.

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  • What's the significance of 14 February?
    – random
    Commented Jan 21, 2010 at 8:48
  • en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentines_day
    – Rich Seller
    Commented Jan 21, 2010 at 10:07
  • How about "Single ton" - Gaining more than 100 rep on February 14th? en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ton#Noun
    – Andrew Grimm
    Commented Jan 21, 2010 at 11:43
  • 6
    Well, I guess we know now that @random is single. No guy with a girlfriend or wife would be allowed to forget 2/14.
    – gnostradamus
    Commented Jan 21, 2010 at 22:03
  • Being in a relationship has nothing to do with love (which is what is celebrated on valentines day) @gno @ran
    – juan
    Commented Feb 4, 2010 at 16:17
  • 2
    @Downvoter: Love? I thought Valentine's Day was a celebration of chalky, antacid-like candies made from bone meal and earwig honey. ;) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweethearts_(candy)
    – gnostradamus
    Commented Feb 4, 2010 at 17:42
  • 1
    @gnostradamus - they're not all chalky; some are waxy and some are chocolate. (also: earwig honey?? eww...)
    – quack quixote
    Commented Feb 6, 2010 at 14:03
  • Wouldn't Stalker and Paparazzi encourage repwhore's to just create 2 accounts. One, to ask answer questions/comment, a second to upvote the first on everything.
    – Evan Plaice
    Commented Jun 12, 2010 at 0:10
6
votes

[Silver] Silk purse - Edited someone else's question with a negative vote count which later reaches a score of 2 or greater before it is edited again by anyone else.

Thanks Ether for the name.

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    "Made a Silk Purse from a Sow's Ear"? :)
    – Ether
    Commented Jul 11, 2010 at 19:52
  • 1
    "Plz help" if you're fixing obnoxious grammar?
    – Andrew Grimm
    Commented Jul 12, 2010 at 0:05
5
votes

Jack of All Trades — amass a certain amount of rep (say, 1000) on each Trilogy site (excluding Meta).

You'd have to associate all your accounts to get this badge, but that's kind of the point.

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votes

Referenced
Post directly linked by 10 other questions or answers.

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  • Not counting duplicate links?
    – juan
    Commented Jul 1, 2010 at 23:48
5
votes

Donator
Received x upvotes on wiki answers posted on non-wiki questions.

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    This is tricky to award because technically, there's no guarantee that your upvotes will be for that user's content. You could easily award this badge for "seed" answers.
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Commented Jul 13, 2010 at 14:09
  • @Grace: what are "seed" answers?
    – Andy E
    Commented Jul 13, 2010 at 14:37
  • 2
    A seed answer would be the root from which a real answer grows. In other words, someone else might have posted the original answer, and as CW encourages other people to add their say, it evolves into a lovely answer that attracts many votes. Note that I don't think seed answers are bad - after all they yield good answers and are perfectly a good idea. But I think it kinda conflicts with what you might be intending for your badge (with a name like "Donator"). But I could be wrong, I could see a seed being a perfect setup of a donation, the first cent that starts a revolutionary benefit.
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Commented Jul 13, 2010 at 14:45
  • @Grace Note: I see now, that's a very good point. I hadn't thought about that, but the same is true of non-wiki answer badges like enlightened or great answer - those could have been edited by another user too. The badge name comes from the idea of not receiving anything in return (in this case, rep) when giving something away (knowledge), although I can see you got that :-)
    – Andy E
    Commented Jul 13, 2010 at 15:07
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