Referral badges for new members

Question

I'm aware that this has been asked before, but as a considerable period of time has passed, it might be worth reviewing, especially as there are now a plethora of Area 51 originated sites which would benefit from growth in their user base.

There have been occassions where I've pointed people towards Stack Exchange sites and it may well encourage others to do the same if they could say:

Go to http://sitename.stackexchange.com/refer/7872, create yourself an account and ask your question because you'll almost certainly get a fantastic answer to your question there. Even if you don't right away, you will eventually and either way, you'll probably find yourself visiting the site daily to add to it!

(or something like that, anyway! :)

I'd like to propose a couple of badges:

• BRONZE BADGE; Referred a user who has completed their profile and asked a question which has received X (2? - ensures that the badge can't be "gamed" by the referrer up-voting the referee's question) up votes.
• SILVER BADGE; Referred a user who has asked X (2?) questions, given Y (5?) answers and received Z up-votes (10?)

Note: The definitions I've given for the badges are entirely speculative and I look forward to up-voting any suggestions, in answers, that are better than mine. I don't doubt there will be many that are better =)

Answer 1

Admittedly, my initial instinct was to object to this suggestion, but the more I think about it, the more I like it.

Area 51 already has badges for referring users, so it stands to reason (well, my reasoning, at least), that these would make sense for a mature site as well. I think that the OP's suggestion for requirements from those referred users are a bit strict, though. Some users join SE to ask questions they need answers for, some join in order to hone their skills (and public profiles) by answering questions, and some a bit of both. All of these are acceptable SE behaviors, and I don't see the need to demand a certain behavior pattern from referrals. Moreover, SE already has a mechanism to judge users' participation - reputation, which comes built-in with a mechanism to prevent (blatant) abuse in the form of serial up/down-voting prevention.

So, perhaps we could simplify and end up with (terms borrowed from Area 51 badges):
Bronze - Lobbyist - Referred 1 user who gained X reputation.
Silver - Campaigner - Referred 25 users who gained X reputation.
Gold - Activist - Referred 100 users who gained X reputation.