Should I feel bad if most of my famous question badges are from duplicates?

Question

I asked some questions on Ask Ubuntu. Some of them even got me a few Famous Question badges. Then something happened and they all got closed as duplicates.

After seeing this I started to question if I deserved the badges. Sometimes I even try to virtually remove them: I may tell someone I only have 2 gold badges when I really have 5, pretending to remove the 3 Famous Question badges.

I didn't do it just to get the badges. In fact, I didn't even know the duplicates existed when I asked those questions. Let's call it an accident, so no cheating involved.

Answer 1

Duplicate questions are often just as valuable as their target!

When users search for content, they may search for words that appear in your duplicate that don't appear in the master for some reason. Without your duplicate, they may have never found the question at all. This is why we keep duplicates around rather than deleting them.

See:

• Do not delete good duplicates!
• How should duplicate questions be handled?
• Dr. Strangedupe: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying And Love Duplication

So, the fact that your questions are getting a lot of views means that users are finding them and (hopefully) getting the helpful answer they need, either there or on the master.

So, don't feel bad! Be glad you helped others.

Answer 2

It takes 10K views to get the badge and in two of the cases it took a couple of years to decide it was a dupe, so you shouldn't feel guilty - it works that way by-design.

It is possible to tag your question "support" and request a couple of badges be removed.

That the badge should be automatically removed if a question (or answer/comment/edit) were found to not meet requirements is a valid point, it likely wouldn't be retroactive so you're still entitled to your gold badges.

The usual process for badges is that if you meet the requirements, and sometimes an interval must pass, you get the badge - if you fall below the requirements you don't lose the badge (unlike "privileges").

You met the requirements, obtained the badge, then were found beneath the requirements - you keep the badge.