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In this question: First name, middle name, last name. Why not Full Name? my answer has 34 votes and the accepted answer has 10. But no sign of a Populist badge - should I have one?

Edit: The accepted answer on that question has received another upvote, so I now have the badge. But either the description needs fixing, or the number of votes required by the accepted answer needs to drop to 10. If Chris F's answer is right then "outscored an accepted answer with 10 votes by 2x" is wrong. It should be "11 votes" or the condition should be reduced to 10 to match the description.

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  • I've just checked the question and the accepted answer's now got 11 votes so you should have your gold badge.
    – ChrisF Mod
    Jul 18, 2009 at 16:32
  • 2
    Which one "by design": >10 or >=10 ?
    – Kirill V. Lyadvinsky
    Oct 19, 2009 at 17:57
  • 10
    Even if it works as designed, it's not publicly documented as designed.
    – brian d foy
    Nov 1, 2009 at 15:22

4 Answers 4

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The accepted answer has to have 11 or more up-votes. I was confused when an answer of mine beat the accepted answer by 2x and I didn't get the badge so I e-mailed the team. This is the reply I received:

rule is actually > 11

and the test is > 2 * 11 on the post as well.

The minimum number of votes you would need to get it, is 23.

I suspect that the "> 11" is a typo and means "> 10".

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  • 19
    Is it >= 11 or > 11? This conflicts again...
    – Ian Elliott
    Jul 18, 2009 at 16:57
  • 6
    I see what you mean. I think they meant > 10 or >= 11 ;)
    – ChrisF Mod
    Jul 18, 2009 at 17:28
  • 2
    Ah... and this is why my 94-vote answer doesn't have a gold badge yet, despite the accepted answer being on 47. And there was me hitting refresh a few times waiting to see the badge kick in.
    – Rob Farley
    Mar 11, 2010 at 23:01
  • @RobFarley 94 isn't 'more than 2x' 47. So that makes sense now.
    – iwein
    Jul 13, 2015 at 8:52
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Although it wasn't relevant in this case, if anybody else stumbles upon this question in the future wondering about their lack of a Populist badge, it's important to note that, either accidentally or by design, only one badge is awarded per question, to the highest scoring answer. So even if you outscore the accepted answer (of score more than 10) by more than 2x, if you yourself are outscored by another answer you will not get the badge. I propose amending the description to make this clearer:

Provided highest scoring answer that outscored an accepted answer with more than 10 votes by more than 2x.

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7
  • 7
    Definitely, the wording on this badge is confusing.
    – ChrisF Mod
    Jul 18, 2009 at 20:13
  • 7
    +1 for a definitive description of the badge - Jeff, can we see it adopted?
    – RichieHindle
    Jul 18, 2009 at 20:15
  • 2
    How does it behave when the highest scoring answer gets below another answer? does that other answer then get a badge too?
    – Johannes Schaub - litb
    Jul 18, 2009 at 20:31
  • @litb: that would be my guess, but I've never been able to observe it
    – Kyle Cronin
    Jul 18, 2009 at 20:55
  • 3
    The corresponding feature-request: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/7389/…
    – Gnome
    Mar 17, 2010 at 12:37
  • 1
    We'll be changing the description with the next build to clarify the high-answer-only portion of the badge query.
    – Nick Craver
    Dec 14, 2011 at 1:50
  • +1 for trying to get you said gold badge :)
    – iwein
    Jul 13, 2015 at 8:53
3

You do realize that it take a while for the stats to be re-calculated. I got the Civic Duty badge, after I already up-voted about 320 items.

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2
  • I got "C gold" after i already had 1000 ups for half a day. I suspect it all has to settle down first.
    – Johannes Schaub - litb
    Jul 18, 2009 at 15:53
  • I got Civic Duty within two minutes of my 300th vote.
    – mmyers
    Dec 7, 2009 at 16:08
2

For completeness, I will answer the actual question:

No, the Populist badge is not broken

The description now says:

Highest scoring answer that outscored an accepted answer with score of more than 10 by more than 2x. This badge can be awarded multiple times.

There are some subtleties that are not very clear from the description:

  • the minimum score for the accepted answer is 11 ('more than 10')
  • the minimum score for your answer is answerScore*2+1 (23 is the absolute minimum) ('more than 2x')
  • the badge is awarded at most once per question ('Higest scoring')

A better description would be: "Highest scoring answer that outscored the accepted answer of at least 11 by more than 2x. This badge can be awarded multiple times, but only once per question."

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  • 1
    I'm not sure about the 'once per question' part. I'd say that if you hit the conditions you get the badge, and if someone else outscores your answer later they get the badge too… please edit if you're sure.
    – iwein
    Jul 13, 2015 at 8:51

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