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Should there be a new level of badges added above gold, ie Platinum badges? My reasoning is that two questions on SO (the programmer cartoons and jokes questions) have greater than 100k views, and several others are well above the 10k view requirement for the "Famous Question" badge.

Maybe SO should implement platinum badges, say for 250k views, getting 1k favorites or upvotes, things that are extremely rare but will happen eventually. Since gold badges are so common now, I think it's fair to have some achievements that are extremely difficult to achieve. What are your thoughts?

Edit: Maybe the things like view-counts and stuff aren't the best example for achieving platinum badges. Maybe it would be best to reward extremely stellar contributions, but I just like the idea of having some super-rare achievements.

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  • instead, i propose such a badge for answers. like, how about one gold badge for every 1K upvotes you get for a tag? 3K woudl then mean 3x gold. or the first with 1K, the third with 4K, fourth with 8K, then 16K, and so on...
    – Johannes Schaub - litb
    Commented Jul 1, 2009 at 21:39
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    What about titanium? It's the new platinum.
    – Jason S
    Commented Jul 1, 2009 at 22:01
  • 42
    Does Jon Skeet really need more badges?
    – Ether
    Commented Oct 10, 2009 at 19:20
  • 1
    If this would ever be introduced (this doesn't have my vote btw), a redesign might need to be done as well since four badge counts on a row ain't going to fit in the user info section of every post...
    – user138231
    Commented Jun 4, 2010 at 19:53
  • 2
    I like this idea for things like 100k points, something-useful-on-the-site every day for a year, etc.
    – Dave Newton
    Commented Jun 2, 2012 at 16:40
  • @Ether - even Chuck Norris needs them...
    – ysap
    Commented Apr 19, 2014 at 23:14
  • 1
    The question is, after we add the platinum, why would we stop there? Why not add titanium, diamonds, ruby, sapphires, emeralds, etc...
    – ArtOfWarfare
    Commented Mar 18, 2015 at 14:23

14 Answers 14

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69

Eh... Do we really need to heap more rewards on that cartoon question?

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  • 17
    Exactly. We don't want badges that reward poor contribution.
    – Jeff Yates
    Commented Jul 1, 2009 at 20:07
  • 2
    That's why having them for tag badges only may be a good idea.
    – Brian R. Bondy
    Commented Jun 4, 2010 at 18:07
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    @JeffYates THEN WHY DON'T YOU DELETE IT IF YOU THINK IT'S NOT A GOOD QUSETION??? (RESURRECT THE DEVIL)
    – bobobobo
    Commented Aug 11, 2012 at 22:31
  • @bobobobo: The question is fine. It's goal is not. Better to retain the discussion than stifle it.
    – Jeff Yates
    Commented Aug 12, 2012 at 16:36
41

Heaping reward on top of reward is not the goal of badges.

Ideally, new badges explore a different dimension of participation, some behavior that is positive but we don't sufficiently acknowledge yet.

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  • 6
    I'd say a platinum badge for passing 1 million rep might be fun, if not necessarily in the spirit of your declaration here. Of course, Mr. Skeet will be the first recipient of said award, but isn't he always?
    – Randolpho
    Commented Jun 4, 2010 at 18:29
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    I'm not sure how to warrant silver+gold tag badges but not warrant a new almost unattainable platinum level tag badge.
    – Brian R. Bondy
    Commented Jun 4, 2010 at 18:48
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    "some behavior that is positive but we don't sufficiently acknowledge yet". In other words: finally reward closevoting
    – Gordon
    Commented Feb 18, 2012 at 10:30
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    This idea looks like a good candidate: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/57838/cross-site-badges?rq=1
    – Nikana Reklawyks
    Commented Nov 8, 2012 at 23:50
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Come on! Like it's not expensive enough now with all the gold badges, and silver badges, and bronze badges we're minting over here.

Sheesh. I had to drive an armored car over to Jon Skeet's house just to deliver them to him.

And the air freight charges, don't even start! Not only that but UPS has been telling me that some of the badges are getting lost! No one has emailed me yet about their badges not arriving so maybe they're wrong.

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  • 20
    remember, Joel has to WORK with this guy.. :)
    – Jeff Atwood
    Commented Jul 2, 2009 at 3:01
19

I agree, I think Platinum (or maybe Green Silicon, since Platinum would look like Silver) Badges are a good idea. But I would put the bar very high, and instead of making them of the form "Answer/Post a Thing with X Views/Favorites", make them more action oriented towards excellent behavior or contributions.

Populist is a good example: Provided an answer that outscored an accepted answer with 10 votes by 2x

Along those lines, but slightly more difficult. For example:

  • Authority - Lead a tag in upvotes for two months straight
  • Hacker - Responsibly disclosed a security flaw in Stack Overflow
  • Clean Sweep - 90% Accepted Answer ratio for a month, with at least 50 answers
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  • 3
    I'm not entirely convinced, but if we must have a higher level of badge, I agree that they should be for exemplary conduct in a particular area (like 10000 upvotes for a particular tag, or a 90% ratio of upvotes to downvotes).
    – Jeff Yates
    Commented Jul 1, 2009 at 20:06
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    What if we didn't set the criteria in stone, but instead had the owners/moderators give the badges for over-and-above contributions to Stack Overflow. That way you could recognize users for doing hard work that falls through the cracks of the reputation and/or badges system.
    – Kyle Cronin
    Commented Jul 1, 2009 at 20:09
  • 2
    That's certainly an interesting idea and perhaps fills a gap in the current reps and badges system. Perhaps those who were up for such badges could be nominated here on Meta and upvoted by Meta denizens or perhaps those with a particular rep count, to determine who gets the badges.
    – Jeff Yates
    Commented Jul 1, 2009 at 20:13
  • @JeffYates: What about a system of nominating and voting that only appears in the UI of moderators and/or SE employees?
    – hippietrail
    Commented Jan 4, 2014 at 4:36
12

I think you have to look at what the reasoning behind the badge is, what is the motivation for providing that badge? Are you encouraging better behavior on the site? I don't see badges as merely flair, but more goals that encourage better contributions and I'm not sure that a platinum badge for Awesome Answer or Godly Question is really going to do anything more than the existing gold badges.

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9

As other people have pointed out, most badges exist to motivate certain types of behaviors, and platinum badges aren't likely to motivate users any more than the existing badges already do.

But setting that aside for a moment, let's say we do implement platinum badges. What happens five years from now, when platinum badges aren't rarities anymore? Do we add even higher "diamond badges"? What about ten years from now, when there are lots of diamond badges floating around?

Merely adding more levels isn't a solution. At best, it's a patch. It can even be harmful, because each additional level reduces the value of the levels below it.

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8

Your example is a fun question. Probably only fun questions will reach this view count. Do you want to scatter fun questions all over SO, because they try to get that badge?

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7

In my opinion, if we are going to get Platinum badges, they should be rewarded based on qualitative/exceptional factors rather than quantitative factors.

Examples

  • Proposer - Proposed feature has been approved and implemented by Stack Overflow
  • Keeper of the Gate - Been a moderator before
  • Representative - Official developers from partners/affiliations
  • Hacker - Responsibly disclosed a security flaw in Stack Overflow (From Tom Ritter)
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  • 3
    Good ideas but I think they will most probably end up as Gold badges.
    – SMTBF
    Commented Aug 12, 2012 at 6:57
  • 2
    "Been a moderator before" We already have Constable and Sheriff badges.
    – user
    Commented Mar 19, 2016 at 23:06
3

I would make them gold badges with star, which would be easily extensible to gold badges with two stars, three stars,...

Badges with bronze/silver/gold versions could easily be extended by requiring 2.5-times the gold badge requirements for gold-with-star, 10-times for gold-with-2-stars, 25-times for three stars,...

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1

I think it's a great idea.

I could see them only for tag badges. The bar should be extremely high though. For example 100k up-votes instead of 1k for the gold badge. This would enforce long term contributions into a certain tag.

It would encourage the power users to try that much more. I think the power users do provide significant contributions to the site and although these badges would not apply to 99.99% of the users, the 0.1% of the users really are worth spending time for since they form a large part of the content.

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  • 1
    The last thing I need is more incentive to answer more questions :-P
    – James McNellis
    Commented Jun 4, 2010 at 18:42
  • @James: Exactly why it should be implemented :)
    – Brian R. Bondy
    Commented Jun 4, 2010 at 19:01
1

Platinum would look like silver? Mayby ruby or emerald badge would be better?

I feal the same, StackOverflow is growing and most of the golden badges have already a few thousend users that have them awarded. There are questions with over 1000 upvotes, 10.000 views also isn't so big number for a few years. 600 upvotes on questions can be done in a few months of active participation.

So, my proposal for emerald badges are:

  • Extraordinary Question - Question score of 1000 or more
  • Extraordinary Answer - Answer score of 1000 or more
  • Patronage - Voted on 3000 questions and at least 25% upvotes are on questions
  • Epic Question - Asked a question with 100,000 views
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  • Most of these would be restricted to a very small subset of content on Stack Overflow. Almost none of the other Network sites will ever have any of these awarded. (And I did not dv, but I dont think we need this)
    – asheeshr
    Commented Jul 19, 2013 at 14:16
  • Did someone say that everyone should have them? Gold badges are too common, they can be granted for not taking vacations for 3 months. Those ones would be really elite.
    – Cjxcz Odjcayrwl
    Commented Jul 19, 2013 at 19:26
  • Two things : 1) Its a matter of cost-benefit for developer time required versus expected effect on users. As no sane person would ever "aim" for these badges, you cant expect much of a positive effect. 2) Theones who have posts in these categories are not motivated by rep scores or badges (mostly). Their motivations for participating have shifted. Jon Skeet himself mentioned this somewhere on MSO.
    – asheeshr
    Commented Jul 20, 2013 at 1:28
-1

I think exceptional skills in editing at this level should be rewarded as well.

  • Neat Freak - 3,000 edits

Currently, that could only be given to 45 users. That's REALLY helping to clean up SO.

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  • Why the down-vote? I don't think it would increase Edit Wars, and if anyone wants to "game" up to this, they're qualified enough to be making the correct decisions on edits and are only going to improve the site.
    – DanM7
    Commented Oct 12, 2012 at 22:03
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    I see you're still fairly new to Meta; welcome! On this site, downvotes to feature requests often mean "I think this is a bad idea" or "I don't want this to be implemented," not "your post is poorly written." I can't speak for the first downvoter, but I'm going to downvote you because I'm against adding platinum badges. "Neat Freak" would have to be in a new level, because there are already three grades of editor badges.
    – Pops
    Commented Oct 12, 2012 at 22:16
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    @PopularDemand - Thanks for the welcome! But... I respectfully disagree. If gold badges exists to quantitate the "highest" degree of contribution, and there are users who have far exceeded the average amount of contribution, why not further award them? As I've said before, I can't see any downfall to this specific award. The entire network of sites only stands to benefit from the badge I suggested.
    – DanM7
    Commented Oct 13, 2012 at 3:50
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    + some badge for 10k reviews
    – Cjxcz Odjcayrwl
    Commented Jul 19, 2013 at 14:00
-1

I'm not sure if this example is cautionary or prescriptive, but if you look at MOORPG's like World of Warcraft, they increase their max levels by 5-10 every time they release an expansion pack. Maybe a better analogy is the rarity levels of items like swords and shields: The vast majority are Common/Uncommon/Rare, but there are also Epic and Legendary tiers. I'm not a WOW expert but they've gone slowly with adding new ones, if at all: I assume they started with the first 4, they've been at Legendary forever and have few items at that tier.

So actually the lesson, if you take WOW as a guide to "developers dealing with inflation" is that you actually DONT need to add many tiers, but that you SHOULD have some things that reflect extra rare achievements, a "WOW factor" if you will, pun intended. That's what I think is missing on SE, I want to be WOW'd by your achievement! I am no longer wowed by gold because so many have it.

And yes, please for something other than "most views" or "most votes." I wouldn't be wow'd by that, because the most votes are for things like "how can I do X basic thing in Python that everybody googles and lands here"? But THAT problem is another problem for another time.

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  • You're confusing having one badge with having many. On SE, it's not impressive to have a gold badge. It's hard to get more than 5-10 on any site other than SO. Even rare items in MMORPGs have different rarity within the main bracket. Some "rare" items are more common than others.
    – Catija
    Commented Jul 7, 2017 at 3:53
  • Yes but what draws the eye most (on the user name placard) is the gold number and symbol: its mere presence. Reading the number also happens, but it somewhat secondary and more conscious. I can't prove it but that's my impression.
    – Stephen
    Commented Jul 7, 2017 at 3:55
  • I can't call your impression "wrong" because it's subjective but you need to adjust how you think about it. This isn't a game. Badges are for fun. You shouldn't expect to be impressed by one gold badge. It's simply not impressive. Look at Jon Skeet on SO. His badges don't even fit half of the time.
    – Catija
    Commented Jul 7, 2017 at 3:59
  • It's not a game but it's definitely gamification. I'm here for the questions and answers, not badges. However I like badges and I seek them (a little bit) and am impressed by them (a little bit), even though that's at a secondary level. That's what gamification is, that's why it's effective.
    – Stephen
    Commented Jul 7, 2017 at 4:12
  • And wow yeah I looked up Jon Skeet. It says he's a senior software engineer at Google, but I wonder how much time he has to code with THAT many badges! Meant jokingly Jon, if you read this.
    – Stephen
    Commented Jul 7, 2017 at 4:18
-2

I had same question in my mind. But same question was asked 2 and half ago. I thought there is need of platinum badges. Users and questions are increasing tremendously. It would be great idea. (It's my opinion. I am not against of anyone.)

I think this can be platinum badges.(Many users who have contributed a lot could have this badges.) But I am unable to judge name for it.

  • Visited site 500 days(not saying consecutive)

  • Asked a question with 25,000 views - Fabulous Question

  • Earned 200 daily reputation 200 times

  • Answer score of 150 or more

  • Question score of 150 or more

  • Question favorited by 150 users

  • Raised 750 helpful flags

  • Edited 750 posts

  • Voted on 750 questions

If possible, please suggest names for badges.

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  • 2
    I agree with your idea, but I don't find those values suitable for platinum badges. It's too easy to get them. So, 1. Visited site 1000 consecutive days. 2. Asked a question with 1,000,000 views - just because there are some very old questions that have a lot a views & likes that today won't be considered good questions (on-topic). ... 8. Edited 10,000 questions. 9. Voted on 10,000 questions.
    – ROMANIA_engineer
    Commented Jan 22, 2016 at 8:43

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