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I'm surprised there are no straightforward quantity-based Answer badges. The closest is the Illuminator badge: "Edit and answer 500 questions" but this requires editing the questions as well providing the answers (within 12 hours).

How about a gold badge for having written 1,000 answers with a positive score (regardless of whether one edits the question)? It would also be nice if this badge can be earned multiple times to give incentive for long-time users to keep contributing.

Case in point: @ermanen just wrote the 1,000th answer in English.SE and @toolic almost reach 2,000 answers in StackOverflow.

Responding to comments received so far:

  1. To those who think that reputation alone should be a sufficient motivator:

    I see various badges as providing multiple dimensions of a user's contribution:

    • Some prefer to ask questions, for which there is a Socratic badge.
    • For users who would rather work the queues, we already have a Steward moderation badge that can be earned multiple times.
    • This proposed badge is for those (like me) who prefer to answer rather than to ask or to moderate.

    I agree that badges ultimately are for encouraging the right kind of participation. If a site has many unanswered questions, maybe the new badge is one way to invite more answers.

  2. To those who think that that the proposed badge would discourage activity toward the Illuminator badge:

    I would rather see it as a both-and:

    • There are situations where the questions are already good (some even with existing answers); so this new badge will those who provide better answers later without question editing.

    • But if one also edit the question within 12 hours, the effort will count toward earning both badges.

    In either case I don't see why there is any discouragement toward the Illuminator badge.

An optional side question: I wonder whether the new badge can be added only to an individual SE site after proper discussion in its meta site, or do badges need to be uniform (apart from the label) across all sites? If it can, a less busy site may want to lower the threshold, say 500 answers instead of 1,000 answers.

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    To answer your side question: site-specific badges (apart from tag badges) are rare (example), and I am not aware of badges having different requirements on different sites. Commented Mar 24 at 14:36
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    I guess that's just going to reward prolific answerers of homework questions. Commented Mar 24 at 14:52
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    @Glorfindel When comparing SO (the most active SE) with GenAI (beta), SO has 16 additional badges (3 of them retired). However, the requirements for the badges they share are the same. Commented Mar 24 at 15:13
  • @Velvet that's an original use of diff mode you have there :) I guess it's just SO then that's special, if you compare it with e.g. Math.SE you'd get (almost) the same result. Commented Mar 24 at 16:00
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    Maybe also silver for 100 Commented Mar 24 at 17:16
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    Interesting idea! It sounds like you're looking for a way to better recognize long-time users. Curious: What made you choose 1,000 answers as the milestone for this badge? Do you see a badge like this more as a personal achievement or something you'd want to show off/share with others? Commented Mar 24 at 19:53
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    @EmmaBee (EDITED) I see various badges as providing multiple dimensions of a user's contribution. Some prefer to ask questions, for which there is a Socratic badge. The proposed badge is for those who like to answer more. And we already have a Steward badge (can be earned multiple times) for users who would rather work the queues. Personally, I it would motivate me to keep contributing to Christianity.SE, but I agree that badges ultimately are for encouraging the right kind of participation. If a site has many unanswered questions, maybe the new badge is one way to invite more answers. Commented Mar 24 at 23:12
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    About how much rep does the avg... well, user, knowing full well this is a super minority, have when they reach 1000 positively scored answers? i ask, because, i have 2300 answers on SO, and i have only 1793 with a positive score because quite a few answers just never get voted on. Probably even more so now, than back when i was actively answering 10+ years ago. I was never really motivated by badges, it was more about unlocking the ability to see deleted posts at 10k, then the increased ability to cast delete votes at 20k, then the site analytics at 25k Commented Mar 24 at 23:35
  • ... it was always about privilege, moreso than badges to show off. Sure, there was a point where i wanted to hit 100k and earn swag, but... the jump from 25k to 100k is kinda crazy, given there's literally nothing between the two and by that time you've kinda... hit a point where you'll see dupes everywhere you look. Commented Mar 24 at 23:36
  • @KevinB Me too. I was also motivated more by passing the milestone for privileges, but once a user is past 25k points (I'm not even aware of the 100k milestone), having another gold badge for every 1,000 answers could be a motivator. Commented Mar 24 at 23:39
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    I'd be good for 2 or 3 MAYBE - the no editing requirement makes it uncertain. I have people who seem to follow me around correcting my grammar, sometimes usefully, spelling (they can't spell antipodean English style) and sometimes for no obvious reason. Commented Mar 25 at 3:27

1 Answer 1

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  • Badges are there to encourage people to do things that are useful to the site that they might not otherwise have the motivation to keep doing. Review badges are a case in point for instance.

  • If we're in a situation where people with 700-900 useful answers drop out and don't answer any more then this seems like a useful badge as it might encourage them to keep going to get the badge.

  • If however we either don't have users who get anywhere near 1000 answers or users who once they get to 700-900 answers generally carry on anyway to 1000+ answers anyway then this badge isn't adding anything because we're going to get that behaviour anyway.

  • Adding good answers is already encouraged by reputation and therefore privileges on the site so it seems like an additional badge is probably surplus to requirements.

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    Also, isn't 10 thousand reputation point one would earn from the answers on their own reward enough? Commented Mar 24 at 19:56
  • @user3840170 See my comment above (edited). Commented Mar 24 at 23:12

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