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September 21, 2014 9:19:34 PM

I don't really like pointing directly at another member but I have to in this case. I don't understand how it's possible for this member Joeteoh99 to have earned all the badges he's gotten in less than two months time. He has more than most members that have been constantly responding to questions for a year or two. Plus, he's got an eternal champion badge (5 months at the top of a category) and has only been a member since July 19th of this year. Something smells bad and needs to be taken a look at.

Sorry if it looks like an attack on an individual, but you have to point out blatant problems if you see them. Maybe he's just the smartest computer tech to ever have been a Tom's member and all those badges are somehow legit, but having read many of his posts I know that despite having some knowledge and a lot of enthusiasm, it's not that. And there is no way to be at the top of a category for five months when you've only been here two.

Also a returning champion (3 months) , master (500 best answers). How in the world can anybody get 500 best answers in less than two months legitimately?

Another member, Zircoben, has the same awards and while he's been here for exactly five months, it doesn't look to me like he's got enough best answers to have been at the top of any categories either. I could be wrong on this, but it sure seems highly unusual. My apologies if I'm off base here. Perhaps there is an issue with the award system that has nothing to do with the members themselves?

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September 21, 2014 9:52:29 PM

I believe that the champion badge is awarded per section. If you're at the top of two sections in one month, then that counts twice. You don't need to be top of the whole forum.

Sum of all the badged BAs is 711, about half again the total number of BAs. That's pretty normal - he's probably adding a few tags, but not excessively.

Mainly, it's that he has 4k posts. That's a lot, and he's really working to post that much. More posts means more BAs, pretty much linearly. About 12% of posts resulting in a BA is pretty normal.

He's fourth on the monthly rankings. Some of our members are churning out more than twice as much. I'd say that's not a major cause for concern - we have lots of people turn up, light up the rankings for a month or two, and then burn out and disappear.


Zircoben looks pretty fine to me, just someone who focuses on CPUs.
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September 21, 2014 10:36:40 PM

darkbreeze said:
I don't really like pointing directly at another member but I have to in this case. I don't understand how it's possible for this member Joeteoh99 to have earned all the badges he's gotten in less than two months time. He has more than most members that have been constantly responding to questions for a year or two. Plus, he's got an eternal champion badge (5 months at the top of a category) and has only been a member since July 19th of this year. Something smells bad and needs to be taken a look at.

Sorry if it looks like an attack on an individual, but you have to point out blatant problems if you see them. Maybe he's just the smartest computer tech to ever have been a Tom's member and all those badges are somehow legit, but having read many of his posts I know that despite having some knowledge and a lot of enthusiasm, it's not that. And there is no way to be at the top of a category for five months when you've only been here two.

Also a returning champion (3 months) , master (500 best answers). How in the world can anybody get 500 best answers in less than two months legitimately?

Another member, Zircoben, has the same awards and while he's been here for exactly five months, it doesn't look to me like he's got enough best answers to have been at the top of any categories either. I could be wrong on this, but it sure seems highly unusual. My apologies if I'm off base here. Perhaps there is an issue with the award system that has nothing to do with the members themselves?


This tends to happen a lot. Some users sign up and post like mad for a few months and gobble up the easy BAs, namely part picking advice. After a while they get burned out and either leave or move on to the more challenging questions.
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September 21, 2014 11:06:58 PM

Alright, no problem. I guess I just didn't understand the criteria for the badge. It seems to clearly say to me that it's one month, three months and five months at the top of a ranking. That would seem to indicate that for example, if you had the most best answers in cpus for a month you would be awarded champion. Three months at the top ranking of that category would be returning champion. And the same for five months. Regardless though, how can you be awarded a five month badge in anything if you haven't been a member for five months?
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September 21, 2014 11:42:12 PM

Because he could have had (for example, I haven't checked)

Month 1: Top of CPUs and Networking
Month 2: Top of Networking
Month 3: Top of CPUs and Motherboards.

Top of a category for a particular month five times.
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September 21, 2014 11:48:11 PM

Hmm. I mean, ok, it's just that the badge description itself specifically says five months at the top of a ranking. It doesn't say top monthly ranking for five categories. Eh, just nomenclature I guess but if that's the case perhaps the badge description should be changed to accurately reflect that. If it says top of a ranking for five months, that's what it should be. It also doesn't make sense that it would say "returning champ", indicating that you had already done it before, if other top rankings in the same month factored in. I mean, I understand if that's the way it is. But it clearly says "5 months at the top of a ranking", not "Five top rankings in a month" or "Five top rankings in a five month period".
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September 22, 2014 6:45:02 AM

That's really just how the badge system works. It doesn't track time, it just checks certain criteria. Each time he ends a month at the top of a category, it will add one count to that badge; if he tops two in a single month, that will be two counts all at once. It's a bit of a design flaw, I suppose, so I will make sure it's cataloged as something that needs fixing but this is really a pretty minor issue that would require a fair bit of work on the entire badge system and I can't see how it really harms anybody.
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September 22, 2014 8:32:22 AM

Titillating said:
That's really just how the badge system works. It doesn't track time, it just checks certain criteria. Each time he ends a month at the top of a category, it will add one count to that badge; if he tops two in a single month, that will be two counts all at once. It's a bit of a design flaw, I suppose, so I will make sure it's cataloged as something that needs fixing but this is really a pretty minor issue that would require a fair bit of work on the entire badge system and I can't see how it really harms anybody.


I guess it doesn't, it just seems misleading. Seems like it would be fairly easy to just change the description of the badge, rather than to change the way the entire site gets tracked for that badge. Either way, thanks for the clarification.
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