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So, I ran into a user today who has been a member for about 9 months. I was suitably impressed by the number of bronze badges they had earned:

Badge Count

So I viewed there profile and to my surprise, they had a really low answer count, but several 'Nice Answer' badges. So I take a look at their answers, sorted by vote:

Answers by Vote

The user doesn't have one answer with a score of more than 9! Yet 'Nice Answer' requires 10. Now, I was really curious, so I took a look at their badge breakdown:

Badge Breakdown

19 'Necromancer' badges? Only two of their answers has a score more than 5, they shouldn't have any of this badge at all. And they shouldn't have any 'Enlightened' badges either. Overall I'm curious what might be causing the display mismatch (restored user showing the wrong member for value?, hacks? any other reason?).

I did load the profile on a separate computer and it shows up exactly the same, for reference.

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    Most likely those badges were earned by mischief and the answers deleted or votes canceled, but the badges remain.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Apr 3, 2013 at 7:38
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    Would people really bother with the mischief once they've earned their first badge @Sha? (I know, I know, never underestimate people - but still). It could easily be on old not-constructive questions that have since been deleted.
    – ben is uǝq backwards
    Commented Apr 3, 2013 at 7:40
  • @ShaWizDowArd - that was my first thought as well, but was (and am still unsure) as to what happens when sock puppets get their answers hammered. So, their (mis)earned badges aren't affected?
    – Perception
    Commented Apr 3, 2013 at 7:42
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    @Perception only a dev can take badges away from users, it's manual process.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Apr 3, 2013 at 7:48
  • The user still gets my respects for having earned Marshal badge \m/
    – hjpotter92
    Commented Apr 3, 2013 at 8:09
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    @hjpotter92 Actually the fact that the user decided to take the -3867 and continue using the same account already earns my respect. Most users who are busted like this probably either quit, or start fresh with a new account.
    – Mysticial
    Commented Apr 3, 2013 at 8:18

1 Answer 1

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That user had some sockpuppets destroyed a while back:

enter image description here

There's enough of them where if they all voted on the same posts, it would go above 10 and give those badges...

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    Needless to say, let's try not to antagonize this guy. He already got his punishment...
    – Mysticial
    Commented Apr 3, 2013 at 7:44
  • Good find, this almost definitely explains it. I guess the rep goes buh-bye but the badges dont.
    – Perception
    Commented Apr 3, 2013 at 7:45
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    11 times user was removed. Oh my ...
    – Himanshu
    Commented Apr 3, 2013 at 7:46
  • @Perception Generally speaking badges don't get removed once you earn them, and they aren't important enough for someone to remove them manually if mischief is involved. And although it certainly looks like there was mischief involved here, we can't be absolutely certain (I've been serially upvoted by colleagues before and I had no idea about it).
    – yannis
    Commented Apr 3, 2013 at 7:48
  • I'm also pretty sure he got suspended for at least a week when the sockpuppets were found and nuked.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Apr 3, 2013 at 7:51
  • @Yannis - I bet you weren't serially upvoted by 10 of your colleagues!
    – Perception
    Commented Apr 3, 2013 at 7:51

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