Clarify the Populist badge description

Question

I noticed there are quite a few questions about the Populist badge. Some people are confused about its purpose, or upset about its existence, yet others simply wonder why they didn't get theirs.

I just want to change the Populist Badge's description from:

Highest scoring answer that outscored an accepted answer with score of more than 10 by more than 2x

to

Highest scoring answer that outscored an accepted answer with score of more than 10, by more than 2x

Adding only a single comma. Yes - this is a tiny change, but I think it will be clearer, because in my opinion the original description tend to mislead you to think that your own qualifying answer had to have at least 10 upvotes and be 2 times the accepted answer's score. I believe this change makes it clear that the accepted answer's score must be at least 10, while the qualifying answers score should be twice the accepted answer's.

Answer 1

Given Unaccepted Answer U, Accepted Answer A: U.Score > A.Score x 2, while A.Score > 10

Screw it. Just post the real code. People will have a better chance at understanding it than this convoluted English thing.

Answer 2

Even with the comma added, the description of the badge is still convoluted.

I propose some version of any of the following sentences [braces indicate a text choice]:

Highest scoring answer scoring more than [double | twice] the value of an accepted answer which [scored | scores] 11[+ | or more].

or

Highest scoring answer outscoring an accepted answer [with a score of | scoring] 11 [+ | or more] by more than [twice | double].

or

Highest scoring answer outscoring by more than [twice | double] an accepted answer [with a score of | scoring] 11[+ | or more].

Of the listed versions, my personal preference/combination is:

Highest scoring answer outscoring by more than double an accepted answer scoring 11+.

which is 15 characters less than the original (14 if you count the period) and says the same thing much more clearly. I have a personal preference to use "+" instead of "or more" and if given the chance would replace most instances of "or more" in the badge descriptions with "+". Since my request to replace "or more" likely won't happen, my alternate preference would be:

Highest scoring answer outscoring by more than double an accepted answer scoring 11 or more.

which is 7 characters less than the original (8 if you count the period).

Answer 3

How about:

Highest scoring answer, scoring over twice the score of the accepted answer, and the accepted answer has a score of at least 11

Even when I posted this, I considered a more detailed explanation, which I didn't post, as the descriptions are usually concise. However, there are other badges (e.g. Outspoken) that have a concise description as well as a detailed description.
So here's the detailed description I propose:

I've been thinking about this for a while and have come up with what I think is a better suggestion than I made in my previous answer:

A populist badge is awarded to a user for an answer (A) to a question (Q), if all of the following conditions are met at the time of awarding:

1. A is not the accepted answer
2. A is the highest scoring answer (say the score is S)
3. the accepted answer (A') has a score of S' and S' <= S/2
4. S' >= 10

Answer 4

If we have decided to go for rephrasing then I would suggest something simple on the eyes and on the English language (many users have trouble with confusing English) and not something that is trying to be as short as possible.

Have the highest scoring non-accepted answer which scores at least twice as much as the accepted answer. The accepted answer's score must be at least 10.

However, Regardless of the way you write the description, I think it is fundamentally a badge with more than a few pitfalls. I won't discuss them to much here, there are entire posts devoted to modifying the badge parameters, however - I think a much simpler explanation of the badge (which is not exactly following the formula, but makes it simpler to understand:

Have a non-accepted answer that scores at least 20 and twice as much as the accepted answer.

I know this makes it seem like it is changing the definition, but really - it is not, if I must be simultaneously both double the score of the accepted answer, and at least 20, then the accepted answer must be at least 10.. satisfying all conditions, and making the wording easier.

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I have recently found this list of the full descriptions of badges where it is written about the Populist badge:

Populist

• gold; awarded multiple times
• Provide an answer that meets all of the following criteria (source):
  • it is the highest scoring answer on the question (source)
  • it does not have the accepted checkmark
  • it has a score of at least 23
  • it has more than double the score of the accepted answer
  • the accepted answer has a score of at least 11
  • it is not an answer to your own question (source)

Following these rules, I would re-word my "simple" idea to the following:

Answer another users question with the highest scoring non-accepted answer that scores at least 23 and is scored at least twice as much as the accepted answer.

Answer 5

Here's my formulation (may contain traces of nuts):

Highest scoring non-accepted answer with more than 2x the score of the accepted answer. The accepted answer must have a score of at least 11.

I think instead of forcing everything into a single sentence, splitting into 2 sentences might allow for a clearer explanation (yes, I know that the first sentence isn't a complete sentence, but you get my gist).

Answer 6

I’d suggest something along the lines of:

Highest scoring answer with score of 22 or higher and more than twice the score of the accepted answer

Or whatever’s actually right — I’m not sure I even understand the actual badge criteria. Do you need 21? 22? 30? 33?