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I've seen several cases where newcomers are confused about not receiving badges like Nice Question and Good Answer, even though they have posts with "scores" that seem to justify the achievement (or tags where they seem to have earned the badge). A couple of examples:

Missing Reputation Badge

Understanding Tag badges

In SO I have questions with score of 25 or more but no good question badge, why not?

Why didn't I recieve the "Good Answer" badge?

I suggest the wording be updated to say something other than "score" since it is currently ambiguous whether it means rep or number of votes, and also whether it is net or gross, e.g. if I get 10 up-votes and then a down-vote, did I earn a badge? What about if I get 9 up-votes, then a down-vote, then a 10th up-vote? Does order matter? Is this calculated once daily, or as soon as my post receives 10 (or 25, or 100) up-votes?

I realize that we can't encompass all of that text into a simple badge description, but how about instead of:

Answer score of 25 or more.

It says:

Answer with net up-votes of 25 or more.

This will help eliminate any confusion that users have, thinking that "score" means "reputation."

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  • Much more confusing that system in my opinion,SO should edit that.
    – ridoy
    Jul 10, 2013 at 17:10
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    It's not support; you know how to use the site. The site "works fine" so it's not a bug. IMHO, this is a feature-request.
    – JoshDM
    Jul 10, 2013 at 17:58
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    It is mentioned in the Glossary: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/40353
    – user102937
    Jul 10, 2013 at 18:09
  • Related: the tag wiki for [score] is "means the total number of upvotes minus the total number of downvotes"
    – Doorknob
    Jul 10, 2013 at 18:49
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    By ridoy's thinking every answer with 1 upvote is a nice answer. If that and the giant number next to the answer doesn't clue you in, no amount of tooling with the description is going to make a difference.
    – Some Helpful Commenter
    Jul 10, 2013 at 19:19
  • @SomeHelpfulCommenter but if the terminology were clearer, maybe the next person might not make the same inference.
    – Aaron Bertrand Staff
    Jul 10, 2013 at 19:20
  • Related request; this text is inconsistent between the individual badge page and the badges page meta.stackexchange.com/questions/186304/…
    – Richard Tingle
    Jul 10, 2013 at 19:34

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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+100

Alternatively, we can put a note on top of the Badges page:

Note: Some badges are awarded based on score. The term “score” means the total number of upvotes minus the total number of downvotes.

The note above is taken from the FAQ: List of all badges with full descriptions

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  • 2
    I think the intent is to prevent people from having to ask what score means. Having the explanation consolidated at the top rather than just one-time replacing references to "score" outright with the proper terminology is more work on the part of those who are confused and still ask and ultimately more work for the rest of us.
    – JoshDM
    Jul 10, 2013 at 18:11
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    @JoshDM, I think replacing every single occurrence of the term "score" on Stack Exchange network is more work.
    – Old Checkmark
    Jul 10, 2013 at 18:13
  • It's less work over time since it's a one-time replacement.
    – JoshDM
    Jul 10, 2013 at 18:32
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Using wiki-style page design, link the first instance of the word "score" on the page to the tag wiki for score.

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  • 2
    Well, since the term appears on every individual badge page in addition the grouped badges page, it may as well be in every definition, rather than just the first. I still think that we can find better terminology than score, though, that would preclude the need for a link in the first place.
    – Aaron Bertrand Staff
    Jul 10, 2013 at 19:05
  • Linking every instance is gross. What I propose is like when someone uses a Large Word (LW) at the start of a long document, immediately followed by an abbreviation in parenthesis, and uses the abbreviation for any further reference of LW. You have to assume the reader has read that the abbreviation means LW.
    – JoshDM
    Jul 10, 2013 at 19:32
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    Linking at all is gross, but clearly you missed my point. In a document, someone is reading the whole document, not skipping to page 36. On the badges page, someone might be there specifically to look at the description for some badge, and if it's not the first instance on that page that mentions score, it seems silly to expect that they'll scour the rest of the page looking to see if any of the instances of the word score are linked.
    – Aaron Bertrand Staff
    Jul 10, 2013 at 19:54
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The problem here is "score" is not necessarily the number of up-votes gained, but the sum of up and down votes.

You can't call it "vote total" because that could be interpreted as the total count of all votes (up and down).

You can call it "vote sum", but that's weird.

It can be called "Vote Score" and then defined. That might be better.

I'd also go with replacing "or more" in every description with a + sign after the number.

Proposed re-names (note complete revision of Populist):

Nice Question
Question with a vote score of 10+

Good Question
Question with a vote score of 25+

Great Question
Question with a vote score of 100+

Student
Asked first question with a vote score of 1+

Enlightened
First to answer and accepted with a vote score of 10+

Generalist
Provided non-wiki answers with vote scores of 15+ in 20 of the top 40 tags

Guru
Accepted answer with a votes score of 40+

Nice Answer
Answer with a vote score of 10+

Good Answer
Answer with a vote score of 25+

Great Answer
Answer with a vote score of 100+

Populist
Answered with highest vote score outscoring by double an accepted answer with a vote score of 11+

Reversal
Provided answer with a vote score of 20+ to a question with a vote score of -5 or less

Revival
Answered more than 30 days later as first answer with a vote score of 2+

Necromancer
Answered a question more than 60 days later with a vote score of 5+

Self-Learner
Answered your own question with a vote score of 3+

Teacher
Answered first question with a vote score of 1+

Tenacious
Have 6+ accepted answers with 0 vote score; must be 20%+ of total answers

Unsung Hero
Have 11+ accepted answers with 0 vote score; must be 25%+ of total answers

Pundit
Left 10 comments with 5+ vote score

Tag Badge (Bronze)
Have total vote score of 100+ in at least 20 non-community wiki answers to achieve this badge.

Tag Badge (Silver)
Have total vote score of 400+ in at least 80 non-community wiki answers to achieve this badge.

Tag Badge (Gold)
Have total vote score of 1000+ in at least 200 non-community wiki answers to achieve this badge.

Disciplined
Deleted own post with a vote score of 3+

Peer Pressure
Deleted own post with a vote score of -3 or less

Sportsmanship
Up voted 100 answers on questions where an answer of yours has a positive vote score

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  • 2
    What is the problem with "net up-votes"?
    – Aaron Bertrand Staff
    Jul 10, 2013 at 18:58
  • What isn't the problem with "net up-votes"? :)
    – JoshDM
    Jul 10, 2013 at 18:58
  • For one, by use of the term "up-votes", the suggestion is created that it's only up-votes, even if preceded by "net".
    – JoshDM
    Jul 10, 2013 at 18:59
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    Well, could you be more specific? It makes sense in English, and how is "vote score" any more explicit than "score"?
    – Aaron Bertrand Staff
    Jul 10, 2013 at 18:59
  • Check the links that started this question. The user thought score meant "reputation", not sum of votes. By specifying the word "Vote", we've aligned "score" with whatever it is we're... scoring.
    – JoshDM
    Jul 10, 2013 at 19:01
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    sigh Vote score could still be interpreted as the total reputation score earned from votes.
    – Aaron Bertrand Staff
    Jul 10, 2013 at 19:02
  • No it can't. 1 vote on a Question = 5 reputation. 1 vote on an Answer = 10 reputation. At no point is the word "reputation" used.
    – JoshDM
    Jul 10, 2013 at 19:02
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    Neither was it used when it was just score. I like your other suggestion better - linking the word or phrase or whatever is used to the wiki definition - than replacing one ambiguous term with a very slightly less ambiguous term.
    – Aaron Bertrand Staff
    Jul 10, 2013 at 19:03

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