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I just noticed that I've been a member for 1 year and 2+ days. I hovered over the 1 year text to see the date. I have exactly 200 rep.

I found multiple questions about the Yearling badge not being awarded, but the users hadn't quite reached the 1 year mark yet.

I thought maybe I needed more than 200 rep, but the badge description says at least 200.

So perhaps the association bonus doesn't count? Or perhaps the description is incorrect and should read more than 200. Or perhaps the badges aren't awarded in real time and I have to wait for some scheduled calculation?

This answer says that rep > 200 is required. However, this answer says rep >= 200 is required. And this answer says the association bonus does count, but rep > 200 is required. A comment on this question says the calculation is done nightly.

Just curious. Why haven't I received my Yearling badge for meta? If I need more than 200, the description should be corrected. And does that mean I have to wait another whole year?

Updated

If we consider the comment by Sha Wiz Dow Ard and take the definition of earn literally, we didn't earn our first rep point. But that is misleading because what about rep that you earned and then gave away as a bounty (or lost by other means)? You still earned it.

For reference, this is the description at time of writing.

Active member for a year, earning at least 200 reputation

It seems that it is calculated on how much you have and not how much you earned. So you need to have rep > 200. And thus, it should be explained that way.

I think the description on the badge page and the description in this wiki answer should be updated. I know I can edit the answer, but while I now have anecdotal evidence, I am still not exactly sure how the calculation is done behind the scenes.

For reference, the wiki answer has this description at time of writing.

Have a reputation ≥ (number of years as an active user) × 200

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    You need to earn 200. Since you start with 1, having 200 now means you earned only 199. No badge for you. :( – Shadow 10 Years Wizard Dec 4 '13 at 8:08
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    Gave you 5 more rep, see if you get your badge now. – Szymon Dec 4 '13 at 8:09
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    Yeah, you got it now! – Shadow 10 Years Wizard Dec 4 '13 at 8:10
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    Ah yes... I wasn't thinking about the fact that you start with 1. Good point, but kind of sneaky in the wording. Strange that it's now been awarded since I thought the calculation was only done on the anniversary. – toxalot Dec 4 '13 at 8:17
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    LOL... My activity tab now reads asked "When "exactly" is the yearling badge awarded?" followed immediately by awarded Yearling. – toxalot Dec 4 '13 at 9:13
  • Enjoy - I've updated the wiki answer. Note that it originally used the greater than symbol (>), not the greater than or equal to symbol (≥) -- the difference is crucial. Assuming x is an integer, x > 200 is the same inequality as x ≥ 201, so it is technically correct. – Qantas 94 Heavy Dec 4 '13 at 9:41
  • I'm the one that just changed it from >= to >. It was indeed >= when I quoted it. The quote in my question above is a copy and paste. – toxalot Dec 4 '13 at 10:00
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Looks like an extreme edge case you just found: you need to earn 200, not have 200. So having 200 means you earned only 199 thus not yet qualified.

And as mentioned in the full list of all badges and their description:

  • If at any point you qualify for this year's badge, you will receive all badges you had previously missed up until this year whenever the script runs again.

The script itself appears to runs every 5 minutes, looking for users who won the badge as can be seen here:

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  • So is the badge revoked if the reputation falls below 201 after the badge is awarded? – SudoRahul Dec 4 '13 at 8:26
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    I thought the general rule was that badges don't get revoked unless there's extraordinary circumstances (such as cheating or legal issues) – Dennis Meng Dec 4 '13 at 8:29
  • @R.J as Dennis said above, it won't be revoked. In this case the OP didn't earn it until having 205 points i.e. gaining 204. Only tag badges are revoked automatically when reputation is changing downwards. – Shadow 10 Years Wizard Dec 4 '13 at 8:39
  • I missed the part about "If at any point you qualify..." because I already had it in my head that it only happened on the anniversary due to this question. Apparently, that is how the list page used to read. That same question also has a comment about the script running nightly. – toxalot Dec 4 '13 at 8:57
  • @toxalot yep, things might have changed in the last couple of years. – Shadow 10 Years Wizard Dec 4 '13 at 8:59
  • I still think that using the word earn makes it misleading. See my updated question. – toxalot Dec 4 '13 at 9:03
  • I just looked at the yearling page, I see badges awarded as little as 5 minutes apart. – toxalot Dec 4 '13 at 9:06
  • @toxalot right, my bad! Probably even on Stack Overflow there's not always a winner every 5 minutes. Hopefully 5 minutes will be final and correct answer, however notice we never see user with 200 rep there, only 201 and above which pretty much prove my assumption. – Shadow 10 Years Wizard Dec 4 '13 at 9:13

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