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I was scrolling through my badges today and noticed that beside the "Archaeologist" badge, it said x0. I checked SO and there was a plausible number beside the same badge but not on Programmers.

Bug?

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I'm not seeing any number beside the badge.

Given that the requirements are:

Edited 100 posts that were inactive for 6 months

(emphasis mine), and the more ephemeral nature of posts on Programmers as compared to Stack Overflow (for example), I'm not surprised that there are no recipients of this badge. There are only 189 recipients of the badge on Stack Overflow with its 3,000,000+ questions, four year history and many 1,000s of users.

The thing to do is compare the number of "Excavator" badges (Edited first post that was inactive for 6 months) that have been awarded. It's 260 here on programmers compared to 15,244 on Stack Overflow.

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    It really should be gold...
    – Ben Brocka
    May 30 '12 at 13:12
  • There is no number using the desktop site but there is a 0 on the mobile site. Good answer though, thank you!
    – Austin Henley
    May 30 '12 at 15:45
  • However I still think it is an issue that this badge isn't gold since 0 people have it.
    – Austin Henley
    May 30 '12 at 16:05
  • @AustinHenley - that's a separate question :)
    – ChrisF Mod
    May 30 '12 at 16:08
  • @AustinHenley well rarity per se is not sufficient to justify the gold status. To me, Archaeologist fits more to the way how silver is defined at "Legend" section of Badges page: "Silver badges are awarded for longer term goals. Silver badges are uncommon, but definitely attainable if you’re interested" than to gold: "Gold Badges are rare. You’ll have to actively work toward these. They’re something of an accomplishment!"
    – gnat
    May 30 '12 at 16:28
  • @gnat "Gold Badges are rare." Isn't 0 people having it mean it is pretty rare?
    – Austin Henley
    May 31 '12 at 3:05
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    @AustinHenley The number of people who get a particular badge can vary wildly site by site and depends on whether or not people on that site are interested in that particular badge. That's not necessarily a reason to change the colour of the badge. I'd say Archaeologist is definitely attainable here on Programmers... there are plenty of old questions that could use an edit.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    May 31 '12 at 3:08
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    Since it would be easy to game the system and get this badge, I think it's better not to make it gold.
    – user281377
    May 31 '12 at 6:46
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    @AustinHenley rare, yes - but would it make "something of an accomplishment"? with 1000+ edits I easily made on Programmers I really doubt that 100 changes to old messages are a serious accomplishment
    – gnat
    May 31 '12 at 8:27
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    @gnat You deserve a gold star for that BTW.
    – maple_shaft Mod
    May 31 '12 at 15:17
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    @maple_shaft I am sufficiently rewarded looking at score bumps my edits sometimes do. Copy Editor badge is nice, too
    – gnat
    May 31 '12 at 15:37
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    @user281377 Game the system? Take a look at our editors page (only 22 editors with more than 100 edits), if making archaeologist gold provides an incentive for people to start editing, I'm all for it.
    – yannis
    Jun 1 '12 at 3:50

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