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Discussing this in chat...

Per this question: How to stop Host (A) records from being auto-created

I posted an answer...no upvotes.

Dan comes along and instead of creating his own answer with a nice screenshot instead adds his screenshot to my answer to further clarify the answer.

Next thing...3 upvotes.

Recommendation (if there's a way to even quantify/qualify it):

"Philanthropist" - Edited someone else's answer resulting in that answer being accepted"

PROBLEMS

How to qualify it? Someone could simply edit a brand new answer for spelling/grammar that ends up being accepted. Is that really philanthropy? Some might say yes, others it was a simple badge earn.

So maybe just make it a "bronze" badge? Or maybe there is a way to qualify it?

Just a recommendation...thought it was very cool that Dan put the good of the community above his in consolidating his "answer" into mine...

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    Should we have the "misanthropist" badge for edits resulting in downvotes and un-accepting as a counterweight then?
    – the-wabbit
    Apr 2, 2013 at 16:13
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    @syneticon-dj, badges are to reward good behavior. We don't want badges that reward bad behavior because some perverse individuals might actually try to get them, and make this site worse.
    – Zoredache
    Apr 2, 2013 at 17:38
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    fwiw, Dan did originally post that in his own answer, and then he deleted his answer and decided to move it to yours. Kudos for him. Apr 2, 2013 at 20:30

3 Answers 3

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I like the idea of rewarding people for helping others, but:

  1. As you point out, it's incredibly hard to quantify what qualifies, or the threshold.
  2. There's already multiple badges for editing posts. This is essentially the same idea, as you're only supposed to edit posts to improve their quality.
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Helping others is THE reward. Badges, reputation, and privileges are just fluff and will not last long (in geological terms).

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Love the idea. Could it be a manually awarded badge? I'm not very familiar with SE mod/admin roles and methods yet, so please excuse my ignorance. But.. if the OP flagged the post for mod intervention, made the nomination. Then maybe mods could discuss it here and award it. It should be a rare thing, like a George Cross [or you countries highly regarded award], and thus should be Silver I think :)

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  • No. Thousand times no. You open a rats nest of meta-discussion about who is getting such a badge and why or why not. If at all, it must be completely automatic and based on fixed criteria.
    – Sven
    Apr 6, 2013 at 10:23
  • Ah ok. I see that it would be an admin nightmare now. Thanks. Apr 6, 2013 at 11:38

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