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How about recognizing upvotes which do not convert to reputation after the daily cap is reached?

I am still thinking up a good name for such a badge (ProBono is a good name) and,
suitable criteria when it should be given (some initial thoughts below).
That matters if this is seen motivational and good-to-have.

Towards Motivation and Forming rules for this Badge. 

The 200 rep cap per day is well taken.  
But, that should not demotivate (deter?) someone wanting to answer.  
And, if there are sufficient upvotes for an answer,  
  that do not translate into rep,  
    beyond a certain point, 
    those upvotes should convert into another recognition.  
Badges seem to be the perfect path here.  
Do write about counter points, 
  meta is supposed to be a forum for that too.

It would be a good idea to extend this Badge consistently with the rep earning logic.
The accounting for the Badge works only when,

  • the user has reached the daily cap for earning reputation points
  • the user is doing activity beyond that point that is earning upvotes
    • but, the cap is preventing the upvote to rep conversion
    • this means, like regular rep, this counting also skips wiki activity
  • to avoid top users from getting one on daily basis, it should be timed like the Woot badge;
    • once instance at a time, retained for about a week or 3 days

Another way could be to award the badge only if the user crosses twice the cap (effectively 400 rep) for a day so that they have 'lost' 200 rep only because of the daily cap (all other constraints being active).

Towards naming the badge: ProBono quite aptly catches the motivational aspect.

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    I honestly don't understand why people are so focused on this idea... The last 10 badge suggestions all revolve around the rep cap.
    – Ian Elliott
    Jul 19, 2009 at 5:41
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    nik: If you are having troubles, you may need to clear your cache and do a hard refresh on your browser. You may have cached some malformed jQuery code.
    – TheTXI
    Jul 19, 2009 at 6:00
  • @TheTXI, Well said about the cache. I got things working now.
    – nik
    Jul 19, 2009 at 6:23
  • meta.stackexchange.com/questions/7020/…
    – Brad Gilbert
    Jul 20, 2009 at 1:10
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    @Ian - It's because people inherently don't like the rep cap. It's a leash, of sorts, that says you can't run further than 200 miles a day in the race. The alternative is worse. So people think, "Well, if I can't increase my salary, maybe I can increase my perks."
    – Pollyanna
    Jan 15, 2010 at 4:08

5 Answers 5

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This was implemented with the Mortarboard (bronze), Epic (silver), and Legendary (gold) badges!

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I don't know if it should apply to all votes after the rep cap is reached. Instead, how about a badge for a non-wiki answer with X upvotes that was posted after the author reached their daily cap?

As a side note, this happened to me the other day on SuperUser - I was capped out and I posted an answer that rapidly gained 15 votes. I'm glad it was so well received, but I couldn't help but wish that the question (and my answer) were posted when I wasn't already capped out.

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    That happens to me more times than I care to imagine. I also think it is a good idea to possibly limit it only to questions you answer AFTER you hit rep limit. That way you would be rewarded for activity after you hit limit (when most people would just stop for the day).
    – TheTXI
    Jul 19, 2009 at 6:04
  • @TheTXI: Yes, exactly. Badges are supposed to reward positive behavior, not simply getting lots of votes.
    – Kyle Cronin
    Jul 19, 2009 at 6:06
  • @TheTXI, I am completely for the idea of limiting such a badge to activity after rep limit has reached. The intent of the badge is exactly for that.
    – nik
    Jul 19, 2009 at 6:24
  • nik: I was meaning activity on answers given after the rep limit was reached, not just upvotes that happened to come around after your rep limit. There's a subtle difference there.
    – TheTXI
    Jul 19, 2009 at 6:26
  • Hmmm, missed that part. When you said "AFTER you hit rep limit" there, I assumed you meant rep-carrying activity. I have a small difference of opinion here. Just like someone can answer all they want and not get rep (through upvotes) they should not get Badge-invoking-rep either (so, what if they got reps to hit the daily-cap, it would not be consistent to Badge w/o rep-driving efforts).
    – nik
    Jul 19, 2009 at 6:33
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I think this could be potentially refined into something like if you manage to get X amount of upvotes above the rep limit (say +10).

I would call it Pro Bono, which is derived from the act of lawyers and other professionals taking on a case and not getting paid for it.

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I don't think the Mortarboard, Epic, Legendary badges are quite the same.

Those badges simply award (repeatedly) hitting the rep cap; this question is asking for a badge for going beyond the rep cap

I'm no Jon Skeet, bu on many days, I've received thirty or forty votes for answers given after hitting the cap.

I think that there should be bronze, silver, and gold badges for getting 10, 20, and 40 votes on answers given after hitting the cap.

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    That only seems to reward good answers on popular questions, which already get Nice/Good/Great/Enlightened/Guru badges. A gold badge for 10 upvotes on each of 10 different answers all within a day would be something else though.
    – Gnome
    Jan 15, 2010 at 15:32
  • @Roger: Very good point. Perhaps limit only count up to 7 votes from each answer.
    – SLaks
    Jan 15, 2010 at 15:43
  • I kinda like +10 each on 10, call it the Centurian gold badge. :) Would be hard to get though, except on really popular tags. I just realized I didn't say it, but my idea was all 10 of those answers had to be new answers (so really hard), but I think that captures something of the "on this day you went above and beyond". Doesn't seem to fit in well with other badges, what do you think?
    – Gnome
    Jan 15, 2010 at 16:46
  • You want a badge that requires at least 120 upvotes in a single day? Has that ever happened?
    – SLaks
    Jan 15, 2010 at 16:54
  • I knew it needs tweaking :), only 100 (wasn't tying it to "after hitting rep limit", but obviously you'd hit it), hence the name, but it is gold! More of the "went above and beyond on this day" than related to rep.
    – Gnome
    Jan 15, 2010 at 17:46
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I like the concept. The situation happened to me several times, mostly before I got close to the daily cap and posted my final answer for the day. Next day I noticed I did not receive 180 rep from it - I felt cheated and discouraged.

There are one option which could set things strait again: ask for rep recalc and hope you won't loose rep due deleted questions. I guess I'll try it, just to see.

I suggest other names:

  • Free advice - you did a good community job for free due The Cap.
  • Out of business - you almost received rep from the community after you were out.
  • Singularitee - your rep was absorbed by a wormhole
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  • Rep recalc won't give you rep for something where you got little or no rep cos of the daily cap.
    – cletus
    Jul 19, 2009 at 7:41
  • Singularitee is an interesting name :-)
    – nik
    Jul 19, 2009 at 8:22
  • I've heard that usually Rep-Recalc will take away more rep than you will receive.
    – Brad Gilbert
    Jul 19, 2009 at 15:35

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