https://cooking.stackexchange.com/users/16874/kevin?tab=badges 92 Years old? Really? Badge for 30 days consecutive...badge for 100 days consecutive...1 reputation point.

EDIT: Oh, and exactly 1 profile view, I'm guessing that's me.

FURTHER EDIT: Last seen in July - that can't be good.


I know that you're just joking, but in case anyone else reading this doesn't realize that... badges are supposed to reward behaviour that we want to encourage on the site. Lurking is definitely not one of those.

You can refer to Meta Stack Overflow for the litany of badge requests that were declined for this very reason. New badges generally come about when there's a new feature that we want to get used, like awarding 3rd-party bounties or approving suggested edits (which weren't in V1 of the site). You won't ever see a badge for getting 50 downvotes or for asking an unanswerable question because those aren't actions we want them to repeat.

In fact, we already have a badge that is essentially the exact opposite: Yearling. You get a badge just for being a member - but you have to get at least 200 reputation in that year (which on SE basically means having a pulse). We definitely don't want to encourage people to register and not post.

Now, I don't work for SE, but I know that the Business Intelligence and Marketing teams at my company would be whipping themselves into a frenzy over this and trying to figure out how to get more engagement from these people, starting with email campaigns and targeted advertising and so on. I've no doubt that at least a few people at SE headquarters are putting their minds to the problem.

But my guess is that he just wanted the "enthusiast" and "fanatic" badges and either wasn't that interested in the questions here or simply didn't feel that he had anything to offer. Another example of even well-meaning badges sometimes having negative side-effects.

  • 1
    Your "having a pulse" comment brings up one possibility. Maybe he had all those windows open (see Peter's comment) then croaked in front of his computer. His skeletonized remains may still be clutching the mouse. That could very well be how they find me! Maybe someone should call 911. – Jolenealaska Oct 13 '13 at 16:31
  • Maybe he's got the most tremendous, amazing answer to a problem that has plagued cooks for generations. It's all there, ready to go...If someone would just hit "post"! – Jolenealaska Oct 13 '13 at 16:50
  • @Jolenealaska: If he is dead and decomposing, I don't think a badge will help. :) – Aaronut Oct 13 '13 at 19:49
  • There is a case for Archaelogist encouraging undesirable activity... – Peter Taylor Oct 14 '13 at 9:30
  • HE'S NOT DEAD! He was seen today on Stack Overflow! – Jolenealaska Oct 14 '13 at 20:06
  • 1
    There are also already badges for "active" reading - the ones for voting. I'm not really sure that we want to encourage reading without voting. Lurking and voting is cool though. – Cascabel Oct 28 '13 at 4:51

A badge for visiting x times per year, and reading an average of x articles per year would be OK

It would encourage repeat visits and readership, which is VERY important, and is where new posters come from ("frequent listener, first time caller")

You must log in to answer this question.

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