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I see a ton of great comments on SOFU. But only two badges relate to comments, Commentator (Left 10 comments) and Pundit (Left 10 comments with score of 10 or more).

I suggest we should have more badges for commenting; I'm thinking a bronze and a gold version of Pundit. Maybe left 1 comment with a score of 10 or more and left 10 comments with a score of 20 or more... thoughts?

Also, if in favor, name suggestions?

EDIT: Almost a year later and I still think this is a good idea... but, I know most people seem to disagree with me. I counter the "comments are second class citizens" and "there is no need to encourage more commenting" arguments with a simple point: we still want to encourage the highest quality content possible, right? Even if it is the highest quality second-class citizens?

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  • Im not understanding this Badge.. i have answered a question, got 5 points and a green tick.. i commented more than 10 times in a conversation.. but still not Pundit?? how does this work?
    – Arenstar
    Nov 18, 2010 at 13:35
  • @Arenstar: You need 10 upvotes on one single comment.
    – The Unhandled Exception
    Nov 20, 2010 at 15:03
  • Ohhhh right right right... hehe... Thats vague.. :/
    – Arenstar
    Nov 20, 2010 at 16:23
  • 1
    Note that (pundit) is currently degraded to 10 comments with score of 5 or more because it was relatively hard to earn (on Stackoverflow.com, at least).
    – user138231
    Feb 4, 2011 at 19:36
  • 12
    I earned my (10 comments with 10 points at that time) Pundit badge mainly by talking crap, just sayin'.
    – BoltClock's a Unicorn
    Feb 4, 2011 at 19:38

4 Answers 4

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We very intentionally do not have a gold comment badge, and never will.

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  • Okay, I guess I have no choice but to accept this answer as the definitive one. Thanks Jeff!
    – The Unhandled Exception
    Feb 5, 2011 at 17:41
  • 63
    Just wanted to know what is the reason behind this?
    – Sachin Shanbhag
    May 24, 2011 at 9:01
  • 26 upvotes on @SachinShanbhag's comment. it means 26 other are wanted to know the reason
    – Sumit Bijvani
    Mar 19, 2013 at 18:43
  • definitely deserves a badge.
    – Karoly Horvath
    Aug 19, 2014 at 10:06
  • 1
    57 upvotes, no answer
    – Alec
    May 15, 2019 at 21:00
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Comments do not contribute nearly as much to the site as questions and answers do. They are not as visible, they cannot be downvoted, they cannot be accepted, they do not earn or lose reputation. It was only recently that they even got some formatting.

I find comments useful for three things:

  1. Making smart remarks that I wouldn't make in an answer.
  2. Asking for clarification/pointing out errors.
  3. Giving a pointer when I don't have the time or the inclination to write a full answer.

I do not think any of these things is worth a gold badge. Silver I can agree with, because useful comments are... useful. But gold badges aren't awarded for things that are merely useful, they're for going above and beyond.

As for the bronze badge, the Commentator badge is basically the bronze version of Pundit (10 comments with 0 votes or more).

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9

I'm not saying I disagree, but I doubt they'd want to encourage more commenting, so I don't think they'll do it.

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  • 1
    Why is that? I personally find the comments / discussion some of the most interesting content on the site.
    – The Unhandled Exception
    Apr 5, 2010 at 20:25
  • @josh, because there's already enough commenting without those badges
    – juan
    Apr 5, 2010 at 20:27
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    @Josh: Comments are intentionally second-class citizens of the site. If there is good material in a comment, it should generally be in an answer instead.
    – mmyers
    Apr 5, 2010 at 20:29
  • OK. Those are both good points. :-)
    – The Unhandled Exception
    Apr 5, 2010 at 20:37
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    And here's a (fairly obvious) counterpoint: Both your good points are... comments...
    – The Unhandled Exception
    Apr 5, 2010 at 20:47
  • 2
    and they were posted without the need of a badge as an incentive @josh
    – juan
    Apr 5, 2010 at 20:54
  • @Downvoter: Yeah... I'm leaning toward accepting your answer because I do agree with what you said about there being enough commenting without the badges. But at the same time I still have this feeling that we should reward great comments more than we do now. I don't know -- I'm torn between my original thought and the counter-points by you and @mmyers (both are people I respect ;-)
    – The Unhandled Exception
    Apr 5, 2010 at 21:02
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Back in the day, Pundit only counted comments that achieved score of ten, not five as it does today. Maybe we could bring that back for the gold-level Pundit. I always felt bad for people who earned Pundit before the change; this would assuage raw feelings that those people may or may not actually be feeling.

Here are SEDE queries for Pundit progress under the current rules and the old rules

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  • Thanks! That's very helpful. I will upvote when I get more votes tomorrow.
    – The Unhandled Exception
    Feb 4, 2011 at 19:48
  • 1
    You might find this one helpful also.
    – mmyers
    Feb 4, 2011 at 20:37

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