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The way stats used to be shown during a moderator election have recently been changed. It now shows a "candidate score", which appears to be an amalgamation of total rep and certain badges, awarding a point for each badge and each 1000 rep. This change is retroactive, so all the previous and closed election pages have been updated with this new feature.

For example:

What are the details in how this score is calculated? What are the badges that contribute to it? Are these badges awarded on main or meta?

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2 Answers 2

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The Candidate Score can range from 0 to 40, and is calculated as follows:

For badges that can be awarded multiple times only 1 point is granted for each badge type, thus ensuring a maximum score of 40 points.

Stats are calculated based on the current state of the candidate, so scores on past elections will not reflect the state of the candidates at the time the election was run.

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    You say that "stats are calculated based on the current state of the candidate", but could it be possible to lock this as of the beginning of an election? I'm concerned that candidates will rush to game whatever badges they don't have, in order to boost their score during an election. We've certainly seen this with flags during an election. Commented Apr 3, 2015 at 3:39
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    Badge gaming can be a problem even outside elections, @Brad; that said, I think there's a good mix of really easy and really hard badges here, with little to be gained by going half-way on the harder ones (and a lot to lose if your antics get the badge revoked or worse).
    – Shog9
    Commented Apr 3, 2015 at 3:53
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    @BradLarson I've reviewed what the badges are and the hard ones are not something you can usually get in a week. In fact, some of them have yet to be awarded at all on some sites. The easy ones are probably easy enough to get that most users will have already gotten them, except for the most passive users, which is obvious with their question and answer count.
    – user212646
    Commented Apr 3, 2015 at 4:27
  • If you got the "Reviewer" badge for all six review types, would that give one point or six? Commented Apr 3, 2015 at 18:27
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    1 point per badge type, @Mr.Bultitude - even for badges that can be awarded multiple times for different actions.
    – Shog9
    Commented Apr 4, 2015 at 2:10
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    Does it have any actual meaning e.g. in case of same number of votes, candidate with higher score wins? Or is this just another useful stat? Commented Apr 7, 2015 at 12:22
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    "Just" a useful stat, @sha. Winners are picked via STV as usual.
    – Shog9
    Commented Apr 7, 2015 at 14:53
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    Some of these links are for MSE badges; others are for SO. Can we have a little consistency? I would edit but I don't know what you intended. Commented Dec 4, 2015 at 12:00
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    @LightnessRacesinOrbit Those are mostly MSE links, with the exception of three badges impossible to earn on MSE (as they have to do with voting in elections and participating in the per-site meta). Commented Apr 20, 2018 at 15:15
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    Why Sportmanship is useful for mod candidates? Is it a measure of fair-play or what's its importance? Commented Nov 14, 2021 at 15:40
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What are the details in how this score is calculated? What are the badges that contribute to it? Are these badges awarded on main or meta?

The webpage: "List of all badges with full descriptions" (last updated May 12 2018) shows that all badges with 3 asterisks (***) counts towards your candidate score.

"Any badge with a *** next to it is one of 20 badges that count towards the candidate score displayed on a moderator candidate in an election. The candidate score is a total of 40 points: the first 20 are awarded based on the user's rep divided by 1000 and rounded down; the second 20 represents the total number of unique badges earned of the 20 that count. Note that if the same badge is earned multiple times, it will only count once towards the candidate score.".

Run a Candidate Score query on the data.SE (Stack Exchange Data Explorer). This details how you would score if you were to run for election and shows how it is calculated.

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    I was the one who added the asterisks above, using Shog's answer above as a source. Commented Jul 10, 2018 at 3:35

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