I always found it odd that although I could compose [meta-tag:questions] and [meta-tag:answers] with [meta-tag:tags] in [meta-tag:markdown], I can't do the same for a [Great Question](http://meta.stackoverflow.com/badges/22/great-question), [Great Answer](http://meta.stackoverflow.com/badges/25/great-answer), or [any other badge](http://meta.stackoverflow.com/badges). I assume that this is because, outside of Meta Stack Overflow, there is no real need to reference badges? Be that as it may, would there be any interest in adding badges to Markdown?

I am envisioning a syntax similar to the one used for tags. For example,

> [badge:great-question] Question score of 100 or more. This badge can
> be awarded multiple times.

or ([as suggested by](http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/100306/add-badges-to-markdown/100348#100348) [M. Tibbits](http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/152009/m-tibbits)):

> [gold-badge:great-question] Question score of 100 or more. This badge can
> be awarded multiple times.

would be displayed as

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/b9GUh.png" alt="" title="Hosted by imgur.com" />

Note that *I am not proposing that you need to enter the badge description to display the badge, nor that the badge description will be automatically inserted.* Typing `[badge:great-question]` (or `[gold-badge:great-question]`) would be sufficient to display the "Great Question" badge, which would ideally have a tooltip with the badge description and link to the badge page. (I used the badge description text in the example above only because it was easier to take a screenshot that way.)

[This answer](http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/99370/what-should-we-do-with-anonymous-user-feedback/99879#99879) and [this answer](http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/99370/what-should-we-do-with-anonymous-user-feedback/99862#99862) are great examples of posts that would benefit from the addition of badges to Markdown.

**UPDATE:** [Martin Clayton](http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/138400/martin-clayton) has brought it to my attention that the idea of a badge creator is not a new one. Check out [this post][1]. Given the popularity and utility of these badges—their use in jokes notwithstanding—wouldn't it be better to have Stack Overflow host this functionality itself rather than have users rely on an external service that will inevitably go down?


  [1]: http://meta.stackoverflow.com/a/92550/152859