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According to this Data Stack Exchange query I have performed more than the 100 edits necessary to receive the archaeologist badge on Stack Overflow. My guess is that the logic for awarding the badge is different than what the query is representing. That being said, since I have edited 107 posts which seem to match the six month criteria why have I not been awarded the badge?

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    Wait a little while Indianna Jones. These things needs to process. How long has it been since you reached the required amount of edits ? Jun 11, 2013 at 18:26
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    Edits to your own posts probably don't count.
    – FDinoff
    Jun 11, 2013 at 18:28
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    @ʞunɥdɐpɐɥd I actually guffawed at "Wait a little while Indianna Jones." That said the beginning of the month according to the query. I would have expected it to award by now. :)
    – ahsteele
    Jun 11, 2013 at 18:29
  • @FDinoff that's probably a good observation I'll fork this guy's query and drop my own posts from it. See what my count is at that point.
    – ahsteele
    Jun 11, 2013 at 18:30
  • @FDinoff I forked the query and I'm at a total of 97 edits. Will report back when I get three more to see if I satisfy the condition.
    – ahsteele
    Jun 12, 2013 at 3:26
  • @FDinoff that was the issue. #sigh
    – ahsteele
    Jun 12, 2013 at 5:17
  • May I ask if you've been awarded the badge yet? On your forked query it states I have edited only 87 posts while on other queries it says between 103 and 107. So, I'm a little bewildered. Nov 30, 2014 at 10:52
  • @Mari-LouA Yes I was awarded the archaeologist badge on June 12 2013.
    – ahsteele
    Nov 30, 2014 at 18:06
  • Thanks, so your forked query works the best then. Oh well, the badge will come for me next year. Nov 30, 2014 at 20:00
  • I did a few edits yesterday, posts along with tag edits but today the forked query still reports I have done 87. How come? Dec 1, 2014 at 9:10
  • @Mari-LouA the data is not in realtime. According to the Stack Exchange Data Explorer FAQ the data is currently refreshed Monday around 3 am UTC.
    – ahsteele
    Dec 1, 2014 at 17:15
  • I have to wait a week before I see my edits appear? In other words any edits I did on Monday after 3 am UTC won't be recorded until next Monday? Sugar... :( Dec 2, 2014 at 6:10
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    @Mari-LouA the edits you performed have been recorded it's just that the dataset for Data Explorer is only refreshed once a week. if you did 13 edits prior to next Monday you'd earn the badge before then.
    – ahsteele
    Dec 2, 2014 at 7:36
  • Thank you, I haven't done 13 edits but I was wondering what had happened to the four or five edits I did on Monday. Thank you very much for being so clear. :) Dec 2, 2014 at 7:40
  • Got the badge! (Why is it only silver?) Dec 2, 2014 at 9:22

1 Answer 1

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I think this badge needs a lot more clarification from the devs. The description from the list of all badges simply says:

Archaeologist

That is probably as undescriptive as you can possibly get. The only thing it even outlines is that edits to your own posts do not count. But that leaves a user asking:

  • What does "inactive" mean?

    This question asks a key question, and got two answers that somewhat outline what inactive means, but doesn't really clarify anything at all, nor is any of it verified by devs. Does the inactivity always apply to the parent question? Does it mean that the entire question has to be inactive for 6 months and any edit to the question itself or its answers will then qualify for the badge and reset the last activity date (again for the entire question and all answers under it)?

    This turned out to be fairly straight-forward. The entire question doesn't matter, and the system only looks at the revision history for the particular post you edited. So an an example, you could edit an old answer, then edit a second old answer to the same question, and then edit the question and all of that activity would count three times assuming that all three posts hadn't been created or edited within the past 180 days. The "last activity" date on the question is not ever looked at and is irrelevant.

    Bottom line: as long as the specific post you are editing was not created or edited within the past 180 days, editing it will increase your progress.

  • Do tag-only edits count?

    This question was answered, and the answer was "no." However, there's no verification from any devs. Can we get that verification please?

    No, the system does not look at tag edits when calculating progress - only edits to the title and body will count.

  • Do edits to the same post count multiple times?

    I haven't found this question yet on Meta. If we're going off the rules of other editing badges, the answer is probably no. Other editing badges only count the first edit to a post towards the badge.

    No, you can only edit a single post once for the badge.


The specific query mentioned in the question here is inaccurate in a few ways.

  • Most importantly, it doesn't have any exclusion for if you own the post that was edited, so if you've ever edited your own inactive post, that query will count it. Only edits to other users' posts count.
  • It could also decrease your count inappropriately in a lot of cases, because it looks for your edit to be 180 days after all other post history, but post history also includes close and reopen, tag edits, etc which don't actually affect the badge.
  • It doesn't lookup the post itself to make sure it is a question or answer. Edits to old tag wikis and excerpts do not count.
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    In this case (and only in this case) I think the ambiguity is warranted. Archaeologists dig up a lot of broken pottery and copper coins, without a promise of ever hitting the "jackpot." When it happens, it is usually a surprise. Jun 11, 2013 at 18:49
  • Editing of own posts don't seem to count. Here's a fork of the above query which filters a users own posts out.
    – ahsteele
    Jun 12, 2013 at 5:18
  • Now that you have the keys to the kingdom, do you feel like updating this post? :-D Aug 25, 2017 at 14:06
  • @MartijnPieters Enjoy your simplistic answers that took way too long to get. ;)
    – animuson StaffMod
    Aug 25, 2017 at 15:28
  • @animuson: thank you, your efforts have been noted! :-) Aug 25, 2017 at 16:11

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