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Many bronze badges are awarded for just for using features of the site. This is a simple and efficient way to advertise features.

One feature that took me (and probably also others) a while to find was the filter option on the Close Votes queue. This feature is extremely useful, an therefore we should make sure that everyone knows about it.

So, there should be a bronze badge for using the filter on the Close Votes review queue.

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    First new review badge idea that sounds reasonable. It's a lesser known feature, so a badge would certainly help teach new users.
    – psubsee2003
    Commented Feb 13, 2014 at 10:53
  • Nice idea. But I doubt it may be limited to Stack Overflow only. Wait.. the use of this feature is required on other sites as well because this feature will give us high quality reviews as they will be reviewed by related users of particular tags (if they apply the filter).
    – Himanshu
    Commented Feb 13, 2014 at 11:18
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    Should there also be a count associated to the review? Like "reviewed 1 filtered Close Vote(s)" or "reviewed 10 filtered Close Votes".
    – Jehof
    Commented Feb 13, 2014 at 11:26
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    @Jehof would a count really make a difference? You are just trying to introduce a feature to users, so a single one should be enough.
    – psubsee2003
    Commented Feb 13, 2014 at 11:50
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    That filter is a good feature that makes that queue less mind numbing to work with, so anything that promotes its use is good.
    – slugster
    Commented Feb 13, 2014 at 12:37
  • It sounded good at first. But now that I think of it, people already get a badge for casting closing votes. If the sole reason is to make the option more visible, maybe it can be done by visually changing the hyperlink text. True that I also didn't notice it before, but if it were highlighted better or the users were notified of it's existence somehow(tooltip or similar), it could work. Even if you introduce a badge, how would the user know that the badge exists for using that particular option?
    – Bibhas
    Commented Feb 13, 2014 at 12:56
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    @Bibhas I would have known because I looked through the badge list several times when I was new to the site. As it is now, people get a badge for looking into the close vote review queue, and then they realize "hey, this is a lot harder than the other queues, I'll stop working on it." Chance missed, and often just because they didn't find the filter, which was the only option to make that queue work for me.
    – oberlies
    Commented Feb 13, 2014 at 13:29
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    @Bibhas badges are traditionally established for 2 reasons - Encourage positive behavior or teach users about a feature. This is definitely the latter. There used to be a badge for clicking all of the links in the old FAQ. It was to teach users where the FAQ was and that there was more detail behind the links. This is the same idea, just to draw attention to the link. We don't need to clutter up the UI making the link more visible for everyone, just users who don't know where it is.
    – psubsee2003
    Commented Feb 13, 2014 at 13:33
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    @Bibhas Even if you introduce a badge, how would the user know that the badge exists for using that particular option? - because users look for badges. They will see a badge name in the badge list and say "what's this", and they will find the feature. It works day in and day out on this site.
    – psubsee2003
    Commented Feb 13, 2014 at 13:42
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    Interesting. In that case This has my upvote.
    – Bibhas
    Commented Feb 13, 2014 at 13:52
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    Wait a sec. Hold the phone! Shut the front door! There's a way to filter the close votes review queue? How did I miss this feature??!
    – Krease
    Commented Feb 13, 2014 at 15:57
  • I agree with @Bibhas, much of the sites effectiveness could be improved with an improved UI. Adding the badge is helpful, but that is a marketing pitch. A newcomer to the review queue shouldn't have to know about the badge to know about the review filter. The review filter should be obvious when they are reviewing. Adding the badge should be a perk of the job, not the purpose for wanting to use the review queue as it would make it feel. Sure it will educate users, but improving the UI will accomplish the same result.
    – Anil
    Commented Feb 13, 2014 at 19:52
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    @SlyRaskal if this badge helps 100-200-300 more reviewers turn into long-term contributors, instead of quickly dropping off (because of unfiltered crap vomited at them by default), this alone might turn out sufficient to overturn queue dynamics. 100 x 40 = 4000 reviews a day, 500-800 questions off the queue. 200 regular reviewers would make 1000-1500 questions off the queue a day, 3-4 months to drain 110K that are there now, go figure. Not bad for a marketing pitch huh?
    – gnat
    Commented Feb 13, 2014 at 20:55
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    @SlyRaskal I would agree that getting UI right would make a reasonable first course of action, but thing is, dozens of prior attempts to move things in this direction failed. Given this, I would like to try something new, or per past attitude of SE team, I am kind of curious to see how this attempt will be declined or swept under the carpet, into routine status-don-t-hold-your-breath
    – gnat
    Commented Feb 13, 2014 at 21:23
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    @gnat, that is very disheartening to hear, especially when you consider the SE network is a trusted resource for so many programmers and designers. Our sites should be very well designed and usable if we are also expected to house the information that we expect others to trust to solve their own problems. I'd +1 your comment, but I'm at my limit for the day. Cheers.
    – Anil
    Commented Feb 13, 2014 at 21:27

1 Answer 1

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Sniper or Marksman sounds like an appropriate name for such a badge: pick a target, focus on it and be persistent in following it.

To leverage educational effect of a badge and highlight that "advertised" feature is intended for long term use, I would consider awarding it after 10 (better 20, or maybe even 40) reviews in the row using the same filter.

Intent is to teach reviewers that working in queue may be easier than it seems, in order to address concerns laid out here (bold font in quote is mine):

users grouped according to the number of reviews they've done

...Sharp drop at 10-50 likely indicates that many users find it difficult to work in review queue. Drop after 250 (silver bagde) suggests that even after substantial amount of reviews, many users still fail to discover a way to work productively (filtering 1, 2, 3)...

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    In the current, temporary version of the queue it's becoming increasingly hard to use the same filter for many reviews. But I guess we'll be back to the normal queue soon.
    – Szymon
    Commented Mar 3, 2014 at 5:07
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    Marksman is a euphemism for sniper that can be more respectable given the audience. Personally, I'd prefer it, due to the difference in connotations between the two terms. But overall I like this theme.
    – doppelgreener
    Commented Mar 3, 2014 at 5:42
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    @Szymon When the next adjustment occurs, there will be enough questions in the queue, I think, to make filtering worth it. And there are only 562 items left in the queue, so I imagine this will happen soon.
    – user206222
    Commented Mar 3, 2014 at 6:49

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