-2

I think the disciplined badge is a bad idea.

We are trying to get good answers and questions on this site (and, I guess, all SE sites). There have been 192 of these badges awarded to users, but, those upvotes meant the question/answer was good! So, why are we encouraging users to delete those good posts? So they cannot be seen my future users.

Please do add your own thoughts to this discussion.

3
  • 2
    From what was explained to me, this badge represents the situation when two people post similar answers at the same time. While both are correct, they don't add anything new. It rewards a user for recognizing this situation and being disciplined enough to delete their answer. Of course, once you get the badge, you can undelete it without losing the badge.
    – Cfinley
    Commented Oct 2, 2014 at 20:27
  • I am not sure if that is how it is being used or not. We will have to wait for somebody who can answer that question. If it is being used that way, I say leave the badge the way it is. Either way, 192 is not that much for the 5-6 years this site has been around.
    – Cfinley
    Commented Oct 2, 2014 at 20:35
  • Delete, then immediately undelete. Benefit: Badge stays with you and can't be revoked. Drawback: Generates unnecessary entries in the post's revision history.
    – gparyani
    Commented Oct 3, 2014 at 1:01

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
6

There's two (normal) situations that I can think of where this badge would apply:

  1. The disciplined user posts a duplicate answer around the same time as another user. Upon checking the question later the disciplines user sees the duplicate, and removes their own answer.
    • On a fast moving question with lots of views and eyeballs, it's possible that their score was 3 or higher

  2. The disciplined user posts an answer that is originally thought to be correct. It garners some upvotes. A second user posts a counter-argument that is actually correct.
    • The disciplined user recognizes this, and removes their answer.
    • This can happen more often than people think. One example would be:

      Answer 1: No, that simply isn't possible.
      Answer 2: Actually, it is, if you take steps 1,2,3.

Stack Exchange isn't just about good answers, we're also about keeping the quality of the site up, so that the good content can actually be found. Removing a wrong (but upvoted) answer or a duplicate answer helps visitors find the right info faster.

1
  • On a side note, this is why we try to keep comments separate to answers (and why they have no history and can be removed at a whim) - Too many comments clutter the site up, noone likes sifting through 30 comments to find the solution buried in between.
    – Robotnik
    Commented Oct 3, 2014 at 4:32

You must log in to answer this question.

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