I think it would be neat to earn a badge for having X number of profile views. You could have different levels, for example:

    Bronze - [Renown]    - 300 views
    Silver - [Celebrity] - 1000 views
    Gold   - [Eminence]  - 3000 views

I know this really doesn't necessarily "encourage positive behavior" directly, but it is a good indicator that people are either eager to read your other questions/answers (which is likely because you've provided a thoughtful response). It could of course also be that you've offended someone for some reason. Either way, it shows you are participating in the community.

What do you think? If you agree, would you suggest any changes on the name/count/type of badges that would be awarded?

Bounty added:

I'm still interested in whether this will become a badge or not...

General consensus (thus far):

  1. Number of views should be increased
  2. Remove gold badge altogether (I didn't like the name celebrity anyway...)


    Bronze - [Renown]   - 1000 views
    Silver - [Eminence] - 3000 views

Another general problem seems to be "how does this encourage positive behavior", which I have already outlined above. It's more of a metric that shows your participation in the community through a "wow" factor (again, this could be seen as negative). Why is it even in the profile in the first place if it's a negative thing?

Any other thoughts?

share|improve this question
(-1) I've detailed why in my answer. –  devinb Jul 17 '09 at 15:18
Also, since my OWN views, and anon views count, it would be incredibly easy to game. –  devinb Jul 17 '09 at 15:21
My own views don't count on mine –  John Rasch Jul 17 '09 at 15:24
If you don't keep cookies around, clear cache and everything, the next time you log in, it would add one view to your profile. –  devinb Jul 17 '09 at 15:48
Re-consider the thresholds, at least, as pointed out in meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/6578/… and meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/6578/…, etc –  Jonik Aug 4 '09 at 17:46
This is such a strange question to put a bounty on because it isn't asking for a solution to a problem. If you just really want these badges to exist for some reason, that isn't something anybody here can do for you (well, I guess Jeff could). If you want a really good reason for these badges to exist, I doubt there is one. If you want a good reason the badges shouldn't exist, I think you already have it: a badge should encourage some desirable behavior, and it's hard to imagine what concrete desirable behavior these badges encourage. –  Anton Geraschenko Aug 5 '09 at 0:02
@Anton - true that, the point of the bounty was to generate views and have a little fun in the process. Whoever comes up with the most clever answer regarding this idea will likely get the rep (I like RSolberg's answer the best so far). Why does there need to be a "good" reason for badges? For example, [Tumbleweed]... and what defines "good"? Isn't this "good enough?" –  John Rasch Aug 5 '09 at 3:41
@John: If somebody is awarded a badge, it should be because they are doing something right, whether it be learning to use the features of SO, actively participating, or posting a very successful question or answer. To answer RSolberg's question, a big purpose of the badges is to make people feel good when they get them; the badge is more to reinforce positive behavior than to show other people how cool you are. I don't have a problem with there being lots of badges, so long as each of them encourages some desirable behavior. I think [Tumbleweed] is a bad badge. –  Anton Geraschenko Aug 5 '09 at 6:05
Since it's declined, who gets the bounty? –  mmyers Aug 5 '09 at 20:32
Consider multiplying those numbers by 10, or 0x10, or squaring them. –  Łukasz 웃 L ツ Nov 29 '13 at 15:15
add comment

15 Answers

up vote 15 down vote accepted

This is an interesting idea, but in time, everyone will get the gold badge... Maybe some sort of time frame to achieve these results?

I think the bigger question that needs to be addressed is, what is the purpose of the badge. Is it just Flair? Is it a trust mechanism? is it a little of both?

We all know that reputation is a measurement of trust, but really, what the heck does a badge mean or signify?

To me, gold badges show a great question and great answer which aids the reputation score in trust, but to be honest, the rest of the badges just seem to be "flair." I think that folks try to make badges more than "flair" which is why some don't like the idea of generating new badges, but since it ultimately is just "flair" for anything below the current gold medals, what is the issue with this one?

share|improve this answer
Yeah, or just remove the gold altogether –  John Rasch Jul 17 '09 at 15:12
Perhaps leave them in - there are some of us for which this might be the only gold badge :) –  ChrisF Jul 17 '09 at 15:17
I'm torn. On the one hand, it's a gold that's awarded without doing anything. On the other hand, I'm 5 views away from a gold on SO... –  Kyle Cronin Jul 17 '09 at 15:19
RSolberg: You have the gold Yearling badge...I don't see how the fact that everyone will eventually get it is the problem. –  TheTXI Jul 17 '09 at 15:25
make that silver badge for yearling, my mistake. –  TheTXI Jul 17 '09 at 15:26
@John Rasch - I'm off on holiday in a couple of weeks so I'll have to start again when I get back :( –  ChrisF Jul 17 '09 at 15:28
I managed to be in two places at once, I have a Firefox addon that automatically updates it-self. So when I was browsing SO from somewhere else, I noticed it said I was last seen 14 minutes ago. Even though I hadn't done anything online for several hours. –  Brad Gilbert Jul 17 '09 at 19:09
Given enough time, everyone will get a 1000 upvote badge for any answer they've ever given ;) Seriously though, I doubt everyone's profile will be viewed enough to get a badge if they aren't active and participating in the site. –  womp Aug 5 '09 at 17:31
You are given a badge now for how many times you shared a link.. this could go along the same lines. –  GI Joe Sep 26 '11 at 19:33
add comment

I don't really think this is relevant at all. All the guys on the top of the users page would end up with huge views. Any moderator, anyone who angers lots of people (Rich B) they would all get this badge. This wouldn't reward or recognize anyone who isn't ALREADY getting rewarded and recognized.

share|improve this answer
Uhoh.... I have 1000 views! doh! –  RSolberg Jul 17 '09 at 15:19
If anything this proves that it would encourage bad behavior, to provoke others to view your profile. –  Brad Gilbert Jul 17 '09 at 19:10
add comment

Out of curiosity, here are the current profile views of everyone on the first page:


Out of 35 users, 15 would qualify for the gold badge.

I'm not sure if it's a good badge or not, just thought I'd mention it.

share|improve this answer
I wonder who has 43990</sarcasm> –  Joel Coehoorn Jul 17 '09 at 15:35
Man, I hope you wrote a script to get these numbers –  John Rasch Jul 17 '09 at 15:37
You just skewed the numbers by viewing them all! Unfair to EVERYONE else on the site =P –  devinb Jul 17 '09 at 15:49
I was going to whip up a Python script to do this, actually, but I was concerned I might get flagged for too many requests in a short span and have my IP banned or something like that (I know they have checks in place, just not sure how strict they are). It didn't take that long, though, 4-5 minutes and my curiosity was satiated. :) –  Paolo Bergantino Jul 17 '09 at 15:50
Deserves a +1 for compiling the data. For future reference, if you throttle your page requests based on response time, no one will complain. –  Bill the Lizard Aug 4 '09 at 19:10
add comment

I can't come up with a good justification for a viewed-profile badge to exist.

We do have viewed-question badges, but some people use their profiles as their de-facto start page for the site, which means they'd give it to themselves given enough time.

I feel there are significant differences between a question badge of this type and a profile badge of this type.

The user page view counts are mostly just informational.

share|improve this answer
add comment

This is the first step to TheTXI monetizing his profile. Bad idea.

share|improve this answer
Not sure how he would do that, but you do bring up an interesting metric that I overlooked, getting people to the site to see your own profile... –  John Rasch Jul 17 '09 at 15:13
I lol'd –  bananakata Aug 4 '09 at 20:02
add comment

My profile on SO has over 600 views, and I'm certainly not renowned, let alone 60% of the way to being a celebrity.

share|improve this answer
My thoughts exactly - I have 1260 views on SO, but could hardly be counted as a 'celebrity'. So at the very least, the thresholds should be upped. –  Jonik Aug 4 '09 at 17:39
add comment

I think if you did a regression analysis you'd find the number of profile views was a function of two things:

  • User ranking (which would probably have exponential dropoff so take a logarithm of this); and
  • Time at that ranking.

User ranking itself may be reducible to one of the following:

  • Number of questions + answers; or
  • Views of questions + answers.

I would expect this to explain 90%+ of the views seen and you already get badges for this kind of thing. There are of course some outliers in this relationship.

share|improve this answer
+1 for mathematical analysis leading to practical conclusion. –  AndrewC Feb 7 '13 at 16:52
add comment

This should be based on unique visitors (excluding anon) to your profile, not on number of views.

You know, there are a number of interesting things that could be quite easily generated with sufficient knowledge of the code...


share|improve this answer
add comment

Private badges X 4

Renown Your profile was viewed 300 times

Celebrity Your profile was viewed 1000 times

Eminence Your profile was viewed 3000 times

The best thing about private badges (as Jeff answered here) - you track it and you award it to yourself. Put it into your description area so next time it gets viewed, your badge will be at the top, immediately visible to the world.


share|improve this answer
add comment

I have to agree with devinb. Jeff has stated several times that badges are really just a way of encouraging desired behaviour. You do not however have control over who views your profile, and there is no way of finding out why someone viewed your profile. The reasons could be because you give very helpful answers, you tell people contact you with the info in your profile, or because you're a total asshole. Only one of the above is a desired behaviour (giving helpful answers) but this is already rewarded in a ton of other ways.

As an example of how the system is flawed, consider MSO. Rich B has the 5th highest number of views but many people complained about his behaviour (although personally I have no issues with what he does). Should this be rewarded? Also it seems like I have several more profile views then other users around the same rep level as me, but I don't feel like I've been more helpful than any of them so I have no idea why this is the case. This just leads me to believe that view count is a trivial statistic; it serves as a good metric to see how many people are interested in you, but doesn't really quantify any meaningful information.

share|improve this answer
Yup. We're not a social network we're a Q&A site; who's interested in me as a person is irrelevant. –  AndrewC Feb 7 '13 at 16:54
add comment

I proposed this exact idea weeks ago here. My view estimates were much higher, however.

share|improve this answer
I guess that means you're on board... lol - I never saw that thread oh well - I also suppose I have to upvote that –  John Rasch Aug 4 '09 at 18:42
I'm always on board with expanding the badge possibilities. It's what keeps it interesting for people that have no trouble getting rep. –  womp Aug 4 '09 at 19:19
add comment

People like to get badges. So with these badges it could go like this

  • How do I get people to visit my profile?
  • I know - I put a photo of a nice girl on my profile to make people interested!

Please don't add those badges.

share|improve this answer
add comment

I think the view counts are too low and the badges are too high. I suggest removing the gold level and making it 1000 views for bronze and 3000 for silver.

But I don't really think this is a good badge idea anyway. Badges are awarded for useful contributions, but how do viewcounts on your profile contribute to the site?

share|improve this answer
add comment

I do not think that a person that have many profile view's deserves a badge.

For me, a badge is a earning that you got answering good questions or helping many people or being a nice user here on Stack Overflow.

Badges makes you aim for that, and why would you aim for profile views ? this will improve the forum quality?

Think about that.

share|improve this answer
add comment

My Suggestion,

Bronze - [Renown]    - 500 views
Silver - [Celebrity] - 3000 views
Gold   - [Eminence]  - 10000 views

Otherwise, the Gold badge 'Eminence' will become a common one in many profiles.

share|improve this answer
add comment

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .