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Background

Stack Exchange recently added a new feature: Community Badges. These are site-specific badges which can be manually awarded by moderators. In order to create a badge we need a meta post which demonstrates consensus. This meta post is, as far as I'm aware, the first such community badge request.

What I'm proposing below is what I think is the most obvious use-case for our site. We do love our Advent event! However, Puzzling is quite an odd duck in the SE system, and I'm sure there are other badges that would be appropriate for us to have. (There has already been some discussion in our site chat.) Please feel free to propose other badges in new meta questions. Answers to this question should, however, be reserved for discussion of this particular badge.

Proposed badge

Changed per this answer

  1. Badge Name (25 characters): Seasonal Setter
  2. Badge Class (Bronze, Silver, Gold): Bronze
  3. Badge Description (200 characters): Post a seasonally themed puzzle as part of a community event (e.g. Puzzling Advent Calendar)
  4. Awardable Multiple Times? (Yes or No): Yes, but only once a year (i.e. if you post one puzzle in 2023 and one in 2024, then you get two badges, but if you post two in 2024, you get one badge)
  5. Criteria to Earn: Post at least one puzzle as part of a year's Puzzling Advent Calendar (or separate seasonal event).

Notes

  • Name suggestions will be accepted, though I'm quite fond of the alliteration.
  • This badge is bronze because posting a single question doesn't really qualify for a silver. There is already a bronze badge for a first positively voted question, which is precedent.
  • I don't think answerers need a badge. They already get a bounty. Nor am I proposing a badge for other parts of the event, such as organizing. That would just be a gimme to Lukas anyhow.
  • We want to get more people to participate in the event, not just have the regulars hog the spots. That's why I'm proposing a max of one badge per year.
  • If this badge goes through, I (or another mod, but probably me) would go back through the previous Advent events and award badges retroactively.
  • I considered adding a requirement for the puzzle to be positively received, as that's a condition of some other badges, but there has never been a poorly received Advent puzzle.

An upvote on this meta post will be understood as a general approval of the badge concept. A downvote, visa versa. Please use answers to suggest modifications, as then they can be properly voted on.

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    $\begingroup$ Discussion about event name is now in a separate meta question. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 30 at 18:21
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    $\begingroup$ I am tagging this for CM approval. Please use the "Seasonal Setter" name/description from below as that change has clear community support. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 6 at 16:49
  • $\begingroup$ You should edit the badge name and description in the main post to reflect the final version of the badge you want the CMs to implement, so that it's easy for whoever picks up this task to simply find all the relevant info in one place. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 6 at 17:09

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Prepare yourselves to set... Seasonally.

Seasonal Setter is now available as a Community Badge for moderators to award. I'll be in your mod room if you need any assistance using it!

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Okay, I'm going to take a gander at a name-change proposal to Seasonal Setter.

  • Description changes to "Post a seasonally themed puzzle as part of a community event (e.g. Puzzling Advent Calendar)"
  • Absolutely no change to the event itself is required. We already require all puzzles to be tagged and be seasonally-themed, so this is a direct reference to an important aspect of the existing event. Thus it matches the event as well as before.
  • Removes "Advent" from the name of the badge, which handles the concerns brought up especially by Xander.
  • Could be used for other events with if anyone bothered to run them.
  • I even prefer "Setter" to "Asker" since original puzzles aren't really "asked", they're made and then shared, even though we use a Q&A format.

I am not even touching on the validity or naming of the event. I simply think that this name change would cause no harm and would cause at least a little good.

Basically a combination of Will's answer (but now with a concrete proposal and more detailed explanation) and Xander's answer (but now with a name that I think works better, and hopefully without the distraction of arguing that "Advent" is OK. It's okay, it's just that this seems even better.)

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  • $\begingroup$ The term "Setter" reminds me of the dog breed more than a "puzzle-poster" of some kind. But I do like the overall concept. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 2 at 17:44
  • $\begingroup$ $+1 \ $ for Seasonal Setter. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 4 at 6:11
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I am posting this here, rather than in the other thread because my concern is not really about the name of the event, but about the "official" recognition of that event via a Community Badge.

Advent is a Christian holiday. Several commenters have asserted, more or less, that it has become secularized, and that anyone can enjoy an advent event. I think that this speaks to having grown up in a Christian bubble in which Christianity is the "default", even for those people who end up outside of Christianity. However secular it may feel, it remains a Christian event.

When you mark the event an Advent event, you are putting up a sign that will make some people feel unwelcome. This might be a small number of people, or it may be people (like me) who don't spend a lot of time participating on this particular part of the network, but there will be a non-zero number of people who are turned off by the Advent theming. Maybe the community here is not concerned about this group of people, but if the goal is to be as welcoming and inclusive as possible, I would recommend against making the Advent theming "official" through a badge.

I have little objection to the event itself having Advent theming. The event is not for me, and I feel somewhat disinvited from it, but it is a community-run event, and it doesn't have to be for everyone. However, if the Advent theming is adopted via an official Community Badge, it ceases to be simply a community-run opt-out event, and becomes an official event—it is the difference between my neighbors putting up a manger in their yards vs the city itself putting up a manger display. One is community-driven and can be opted out of, while the other is government run and cannot meaningfully be opted out of.

The SE network is not a government entity, and is not bound by the strictures of the first amendment to the US constitution. An SE community can, if it wants, make religious accouterment official. There is nothing preventing this from happening. But I think that this is a poor choice for a community that is not intrinsically sectarian.

Possible alternative names for the badge:

  • Winter Party Guest
  • Seasonal Greeter
  • Holiday Host
  • New Year's Quizzer
  • Puzzling Party Poster

I kind of like the last one, as it leaves the door open to other events, eg something themed around Holi, or Channukah, or there mere fact that it is summer. And it's alliterative.

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    $\begingroup$ You say it can't be meaningfully opted out of... but that's not true at all. Having a badge for it changes nothing in that regard, you can still choose to participate or not completely of your own free will. It is still a community event, and having a bonus badge doesn't change that at all? $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 31 at 15:19
  • $\begingroup$ @BeastlyGerbil Sure, you can choose not to participate. And then you will never get the gamified object that is rewarded to people who do participate. There is a difference between a subset of the community saying "we're going to do a thing that isn't welcoming to everyone" and the site saying "here is some official bling that you can only get if you participate in this sectarian event". $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 31 at 15:28
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    $\begingroup$ Changing the badge name but not the event name would have the major issue of making the connection less obvious/discoverable. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 31 at 16:27
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    $\begingroup$ @bobble Okay? That seems like a solvable problem? My basic point remains: having a sectarian event which is given official support (in the form of a badge) is going to have the effect of making some users feel unwelcome here. Maybe you don't feel that this represents a major problem, and are willing to sacrifice the comfort of a potentially very small number of users who may or may not participate here, anyway, in order to elevate the Advent event. But please make that decision conscious of the fact that you will be making a non-zero number of people feel less welcome here. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 31 at 17:29
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    $\begingroup$ imo your "manger display" analogy here is way off. to me it's much more like the whole community coming together to host a cooking competition, vs the whole community hosting a cooking competition but doing a little bit of fundraising beforehand so they can award some prizes for the folks who competed. you're still not obligated to participate, you just won't get the prize; but if you're not interested in the cook-off to begin with, it's not likely that prize will have any value for you anyway $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 31 at 18:54
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    $\begingroup$ @juicifer Let be more clear: the Advent event is not for me, and I choose not to participate because it is clearly not for me. I can choose not to participate and feel no great loss, because it is not an "official" event. If the event is given an official standing however, as a badge would do, the message being sent is that Puzzling SE is not for me. That's fine---I have only two answers and a question on the site, and can easily delete my profile. What I am trying to get across is that there are other users who are also going to feel unwelcome. Is that the goal? $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 31 at 21:28
  • $\begingroup$ "Advent is a Christian holiday" - as I mentioned on another thread, I and millions of others grew up with advent calendars but never heard of the Christian holiday of Advent. The concept of a seasonal box of chocolates isn't a Christian one at all, even if the same word is used for both. Do you also feel excluded from Easter egg features just because of their name? $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 1 at 17:13
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    $\begingroup$ I feel similarly. I know what Xander means from personal experience. To me, Advent isn't a secular concept. For people who are Christian, grew up in a culture that has subsumed certain Christian norms, or even grew up agnostic in a Christian culture, I can imagine the use of "advent" wouldn't feel particularly notable. But I grew up Jewish. To me, "advent" isn't inclusive. I may explicitly be invited to join, but my feelings aren't rooted in the presence or absence of an invitation to participate. I can only speak for myself, but I know my feelings are shared. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 1 at 21:58
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To make this badge more general, I suggest replacing the name Advent Asker with something like Seasonal SSSS, or Holiday HHHH. I don’t have any specific suggestions for SSSS or HHHH.

Clarification:

I am not suggesting that the Advent Calendar event be renamed. It appears that Advent Calendar questions are all tagged . I am simply suggesting that perhaps the proposed badge could have a general name as I mentioned. Then the badge could be used for the Advent Calendar event and perhaps other events if deemed appropriate.

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    $\begingroup$ This is basically the same as Criggie's answer and has the same problem, namely that "Advent" is the name of the event that the badge is for, so you'd have to propose a change to the name of the event itself, which is an entirely separate discussion. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 30 at 13:42
  • $\begingroup$ @F1Krazy Please see the clarification I have added to my post. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 30 at 17:46
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Consider that "advent" implies a religious connection, which may or may not be acceptable in this modern day and age.

Is there another word that can be used? "northern winter/southern summer" or something related to year-end? (which ignores cultures whose year ends at a different time.) Perhaps "solstice" thought that also has some lesser level of religious association.

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    $\begingroup$ That would be a change to the event itself, which isn't really in scope for this question. The badge name reflects what the event has been called for years. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 27 at 2:57
  • $\begingroup$ Considering that the Advent Calendar is specifically for Christmas, I think it's fine to keep Advent for the religious connection. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 27 at 2:58
  • $\begingroup$ @bobble to rephrase "we've done it this wrong for years, so creating a new thing with the same wrong name is therefore okay" Does that match what you're saying ? $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 27 at 4:02
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    $\begingroup$ @Criggie Now you're outright stating that the current wording is bad/unacceptable. If you want to challenge the event itself, that would be, again, a separate discussion. This comment section certainty isn't a good place for that. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 27 at 4:05
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    $\begingroup$ Hi Criggie, the key thing here is that the event is a play on the concept of an 'Advent calendar', which is an actual thing - there is no such thing commonly in popular usage as a 'Solstice calendar' or 'winter/summer calendar' involving opening one door per day in the run up to a big seasonal event. Whilst some may object to religious or cultural connotations it is still a big focus for the global community, and Christmas itself is celebrated in the modern way by millions who would not claim to be Christian. I feel we don't need to read too much into it. (Just my two cents...) $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 27 at 6:42
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    $\begingroup$ Yes, there’s religious overtone to the Advent Event. Personally, I don’t observe Christmas or the like, so I don’t participate in these posts. But lots of Puzzling users do — it’s a part of Puzzling.SE culture. And I’ve got no problems with that or with this proposed badge. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 27 at 7:13

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