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I suspect that some bug makes internal linking count towards Publicity badges too.

The badges are said to be:

These badges are specifically for linking to questions like the description says.

The link must be clicked from outside the network in order for it to count for this purpose.

However, 2 days ago I was awarded Announcer for a question that I really feel does not need such linking to start with: Add paging for user activity section. Also, I always try to use full links.

And above all: searching Google for the link gives me a single hit, for Recent feature changes to Stack Exchange.

Maybe it's thinking that empty REFERER headers (for those that block that, or for Safari users who open a link in a new window) should be counted too? Or maybe some search bot is using lots of IP addresses? Or visitors of Stack Overflow clones are to blame?

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  • 3
    Tim Stone and I have observed the same thing with a few of our links.
    – Jeremy
    Commented Jun 1, 2012 at 12:01
  • I think this is a bug but it would be nice if it was status-bydesign. Rewarding people for providing good references in answers and comments
    – Richard Tingle
    Commented Aug 28, 2013 at 13:39
  • I very much dislike people using those short links that one needs to click to tell what's being linked to, @Richard... Also, I'm tempted to say that people who use those short links on Stack Exchange sites don't even realise their user id is in there.
    – Arjan
    Commented Aug 28, 2013 at 13:46
  • @Arjan, why? Using short links doesn't pre-empt using human-readable link descriptions.
    – Wildcard
    Commented May 30, 2017 at 11:44
  • True, if people using those short links would do that, @Wildcard :-) (Also, my browser does not indicate I might have visited that link, if I visited the full link earlier.)
    – Arjan
    Commented May 30, 2017 at 16:38

1 Answer 1

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In May 2017, this bug was made : the badge was redefined to take internal links into account. In other words, the specific criterion you cite is now no longer part of the badge criteria. This was done for technical reasons resulting from the move from HTTP to HTTPS.

Users were also retroactively awarded badges in case they had shared links within the network and would now earn it under the new definition.

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