Aren't these badges supposed to symbolize and showcase distinguished achievements (such as asking good questions, reviewing stacks, etc.)? You should be proud of having these badges, and I think the rest of the community thinks so too, but this "peer pressure" badge seems to have a negative impact. I personally don't think this badge is worth trying to get (and whether or not I try to get my posts downvoted play a big factor in that), and I vote for its removal. Does anybody else think so, and why? If not, then why not?
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16$\begingroup$ I don't think this badge is one someone should "try to get" (and I'd be surprised if this was common). But, if they write a "bad" answer, then deleting it is good for the site, and this badge rewards them for doing it. $\endgroup$– Antonio VargasNov 20, 2014 at 1:12
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$\begingroup$ meta.stackexchange.com/questions/231270/… meta.stackexchange.com/questions/107628/… $\endgroup$– Najib IdrissiNov 20, 2014 at 7:32
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4$\begingroup$ There's an answer I'd like to delete and I won't due to it being heavily down voted which would result in me getting the peer pressure badge. I won't succumb to peer pressure, metaphorical or otherwise. $\endgroup$– Git GudNov 20, 2014 at 10:48
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1$\begingroup$ @AntonioVargas The thing is it's not a reward at all. So what if it's badge? It's still a badge with a negative connotation, no different from a badge called 'stupid person'. $\endgroup$– Git GudNov 20, 2014 at 12:21
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1$\begingroup$ @GitGud, I can definitely see how it would seem less lighthearted for some, but I always thought the name had a jovial, tongue-in-cheek connotation. $\endgroup$– Antonio VargasNov 20, 2014 at 14:20
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1$\begingroup$ @GitGud If you post a link to answer here or in chat, I'll spend a delete vote, and hopefully two other 20K users will do too. Then you won't get the badge. =D $\endgroup$– user147263Nov 21, 2014 at 3:17
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1$\begingroup$ @Rafflesiaarnoldii Are you sure I won't get the badge that way? I wouldn't be surprised if the system still awarded me the badge. $\endgroup$– Git GudNov 21, 2014 at 10:58
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$\begingroup$ @GitGud Posts that you own but are not self deleted do not count $\endgroup$– user147263Nov 21, 2014 at 12:06
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$\begingroup$ @Rafflesiaarnoldii Thanks. Here it is. $\endgroup$– Git GudNov 21, 2014 at 12:26
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6$\begingroup$ Are you trying to peer-pressure the community into removing the Peer Pressure badge ? ;-$)$ $\endgroup$– LucianNov 21, 2014 at 16:14
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1$\begingroup$ @GitGud Now I really want to know what your answer was. How bad could it be? Also, didn't you succumb to peer pressure by asking to get it deleted anyway? :P $\endgroup$– Zubin MukerjeeNov 21, 2014 at 16:47
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$\begingroup$ @GitGud It turned out I didn't have any delete votes left today, but others took care of the business. Remarkably, one of delete votes there was from 2013! They never expire. $\endgroup$– user147263Nov 21, 2014 at 17:40
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$\begingroup$ @GitGud On second thought, it would be far easier for someone to upvote the answer; once it's at -2, you would delete without getting the badge. Next time... $\endgroup$– user147263Nov 21, 2014 at 17:47
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$\begingroup$ @ZubinMukerjee It was simply saying to take any group with the trivial order. It's my choice to delete it. I had given such a simple answer to make a point because the OP said 'simple' (it doesn't get any more simpler than trivial) and he ignored me in the comments to the question, so I gave him the answer he deserved. Afterwards I decided to keep the answer up to show how incongruent and biased this community can be. There are tons of 'example' questions in which people give the most trivial answer possible and are heavily up voted. The bias is more than clear now, so I can delete it. $\endgroup$– Git GudNov 21, 2014 at 18:51
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1$\begingroup$ What happens when the 'community' has deeply held views which ultimately turn out to be wrong? If one asks questions which implicitly questions these views then one takes the risk of being downvoted. I think the 'peer pressure' badge shows forth the implicit acceptance of this state of affairs. For mathstackexchange, can there really be any 'bad' questions? $\endgroup$– Thomas BenjaminNov 22, 2014 at 10:33
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2 Answers
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I agree the badge is somewhat pointless, but I don't think it's detrimental to the site.
I think it's fair to say that most people here not only care about their "reputation" in terms of the site's points, but also their intellectual reputation they convey when asking and answering questions. This provides an incentive for users to not write poor posts in the first place- they don't want their contributions to be seen negatively.
However, consider the user who has made a mistake or unintentionally wrote a post he/she realized was poorly received. Under the same conscientiousness mentioned in the previous paragraph, this user probably doesn't need a badge to know he/she should delete their comment.
Of course, every now and then, you will stumble across users who have forgotten to delete their scores of $-7$ or $-8$. These badges encourage users to "try new features" and delete their poor responses.
If there are a select few writing poor posts just to delete them instantly, then I highly doubt they're a burden to the system much. Usually there is something wrong with their posts, and the site's moderators do a fine job of closing flagged posts that accompany poorly-received posts.
Bottom line? Having the badge isn't much of an issue. Furthermore, if it was an issue, its removal should probably be discussed on meta.stackexchange.com instead of Math Meta.
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I recently learned about the existence of this badge ... after it was "awarded" to me. I just shrugged it off. I had posted a correct and complete answer (I know when I do) and it kept being downvoted, along with several other correct answers to that same problem. It seemed strange, I flagged it, this didn't seem to change things much, I got tired of it (seeing new downvotes for that same answer for several days, and not just my answer, but also as I said other correct answers to that question), and I deleted my answer, after I decided I didn't want to have anything to do with that question.
Now, I tried to look at that same question, so I could provide a link. I got a "Page not found", with the explanation This question was removed from Mathematics Stack Exchange for reasons of moderation. https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/1022883/let-xn-be-a-bounded-but-not-convergent-sequence-prove-that-xn-has-two-subse/1022892#1022892
But, I seem to keep the badge ... (and, for that matter, I do not seem to really mind it ... the more badges, the better :)
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4$\begingroup$ What happened is that there's a gang of %^&*()@# who go around downvoting answers, regardless of the content of the answers, because it makes it easier to delete questions they don't like. I'll see what I can do about getting the question undeleted. $\endgroup$ Nov 27, 2014 at 5:17
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$\begingroup$ @Gerry thank you, perhaps you need not do anything about it. The question itself got down to $-5$ before it was closed (it wasn't a difficult question, but nevertheless it seemed to me that it got too many downvotes for a reason which wasn't clear to me). I just saw a minute ago that it was already reviewed by a moderator (don't know when): My flag: there seems to have been a strange quick serial down voting of all answers to this problem. – user48481 Mirko Swirko Nov 15 at 14:36 declined - a moderator reviewed your flag, but found no evidence to support it. $\endgroup$– MirkoNov 27, 2014 at 18:24
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1$\begingroup$ I feel much the same about my Tumbleweed Badge, another dubious accomplishment for "Asked a question with no votes, no answers, no comments, and low views for a week." After a year the unanswered/uncommented Question got removed by an automated cull, but my Badge remains! $\endgroup$– hardmathDec 3, 2014 at 19:44