7
$\begingroup$

With the new custom badges feature, we've decided we want tag badges for askers. However, compared to the other custom badges, there are a few hurdles in implementing these:

  • While answer tag badges are formatted and handled specially, it's unlikely at this point that SE will be able to provide the same custom support, so any badges would have to be generic like the custom badges we already have - we would need to figure out how to fit them into that format:
    Generalist Asker badge
  • Doing the above would result in at least 20 new badges. Currently, custom badges are formatted under "other badges" in the Help Center, and I'm not sure how much can be changed here without custom support from SE, but we might want to consider how this would be formatted.
  • Likewise, we probably won't receive any support in automating these, and GentlePurpleRain's query gives 368 badges that would need to be awarded, which would be a lot of moderator effort.
  • Questions are significantly different to answers in terms of taking more effort to create and recieving more votes, so we might want to tweak the thresholds from the answer badge default of 100/400/1000 votes for 20/80/200 questions.

This post is meant for us to discuss how to implement these badges, and anything else that might come up along the way.

$\endgroup$
1
  • $\begingroup$ Tossing a [featured] on here in the hopes that we'll get a clearer signal on the answer about thresholds. +5 or more at least. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 25 at 0:33

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
7
$\begingroup$

Badges should be split by tag

Just to be very clear about this: we definitely want to have asker tag badges named separately for each tag. While it might be easier on the system to have, say, only a single bronze asker tag badge which applies to any tag, a generic badge would be significantly less meaningful. Specifically named badges make it clear exactly which tags someone is good at making questions for.

CMs have said that it's possible to make separate badges for each tag/level. Modsi.e. me can work with that. (Just don't expect them to all be awarded in one go, or I'm going to get carpal tunnel.)

$\endgroup$
5
$\begingroup$

The question count threshold should be halved

Unlike most SE sites, questions generally take significantly more effort to create than answers, which is the reason for these badges' creation. While the average score for answers on this site is 6.5, the average question score is 8.8, going up to 10.0 when closed and/or negative score questions are excluded.

The current suggested thresholds of 100/400/1000 score for 20/80/200 questions require an average of 5 votes per question. This is fine for answers, but from the above, the average asker would have a score of roughly 200 in a tag by the time they achieved the requisite 20 questions (probably higher for most established askers, feel free to look through GPR's query for an idea of how tag scores and question counts tend to correspond).

Since post score is a reasonable measure of overall effort, I think it's worth leaving the score requirements the same, but halving the question count requirement to 10/40/100 questions for bronze/silver/gold. Question tag badges should represent roughly the same amount of effort as the existing answer tag badges of the same type, and to demonstrate with statistics:

  • For answer tag badges, we currently have 698 bronze, 87 silver and 19 gold badges awarded.
  • With the current suggested thresholds, we would award 331 bronze, 30 silver and 7 gold question tag badges.
  • With the halved question count, we would award 676 bronze, 85 silver and 17 gold question tag badges, which is startlingly close to our existing counts for answers, meaning that question tag badges under this system would be about as significant as our existing answer tag badges.
$\endgroup$
7
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ I was already thinking this when I was making the query and seeing the relationship between question counts and scores. 100 good questions in a single tag on Puzzling is beyond Gold. That should be a "Platinum" badge or something. But your numbers make a lot of sense. Asker badges should be at least as easy to get as answerer badges. I would even argue more so. On other sites, the real value is the answer, but here, the answer is kind of incidental. The real value is the question. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 10 at 17:41
  • $\begingroup$ I disagree. The fact that 7 gold badges would be awarded, under the assumption of the same thresholds as the answer tag badges, proves that they're not unattainable. Hard to get, sure, but so are the existing gold tag badges for answering. And 368 badges is already a lot to award without making it even more by weakening the criteria. (I'm speaking against my own interests here, btw, as your proposal would give me a gold riddle asking badge even though I don't have 200 questions in that tag.) $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 11 at 19:04
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ The mods have chatted a bit about this and the main worry for the lower thresholds is the amount of badges that would have to be awarded. So I'll post here that I'm happy to do even the higher count :) It will just take me longer. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 17 at 21:10
  • $\begingroup$ You say half the requirement to 10/40/100 is this a typo because the gold one already says 100, unless I am missing something. $\endgroup$ Commented 23 hours ago
  • $\begingroup$ @Mike You might the thinking of the Socratic badge? The gold tag badges require 200 answers. $\endgroup$ Commented 20 hours ago
  • $\begingroup$ @emanresuA just before it says the requirement is 20/80/100 ? $\endgroup$ Commented 20 hours ago
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @Mike Ah, I see what you were pointing out - I typo'd writing 100, the actual value would be 200. Fixed now $\endgroup$ Commented 18 hours ago

You must log in to answer this question.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.