-21

There is a "Critic" badge for down-voting for the first time, so I propose to create a "Judge" gold/silver badge for users who down-voted a considerable (to be defined) amount of questions/answers.

Improve this question
3

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
20

This would only encourage people to downvote posts for the sake of a badge, rather than because they honestly feel that a given post is truly unhelpful. You'll see at least some people downvoting good posts, or acceptable posts, just to get a badge. This isn't behavior that we want to encourage.

Improve this answer
8

From what I've learned of the site, bronze badges generally are to raise awareness of features, while silver and gold badges may be considered to be rewards for a particular practice. Providing a silver or gold badge that is tied specifically to upvoting or downvoting will skew the actual practice of voting as people will begin to game the system to earn this gold badge that you are proposing. Bronze Badges aside, the other badges relating to voting are neutral of the type of vote for this reason.

I agree with Servy, adding this badge would affect the quality of the voting system and which posts truly deserve an upvote or downvote.

Improve this answer
2
  • 2
    That's generally true of bronze badges, but gold badges, and many silver badges are generally rewards.
    – Servy
    Commented Feb 25, 2014 at 17:00
  • 1
    Good point, I'll amend my statement. Thanks @Servy.
    – Anil
    Commented Feb 25, 2014 at 17:01

You must log in to answer this question.