Every time I notice the following suggestion, I get slightly amused:
You don't have a gold badge yet. Write an answer that scores 100 or more to earn your first.
I think this is not helpful advice at all, and even comes off slightly derisive, especially on smaller sites (perhaps anything smaller than StackOverflow, actually).
With my entire, more than 3-years old network profile, I have received just one of these Great Answer badges, and it was certainly not my first.
There are gold badges that are arguably easier to obtain (e.g. the Fanatic, Copy Editor, Electorate, and Steward badges do require much more time, but are guaranteed and can even be tracked).
Wouldn't it be better if this 'advice' were changed, or at least randomized, that upon visiting your profile this message would be randomly selected from the pool of gold badge descriptions?