# Why was the "curious badge" badge not being awarded?

Recently, I visited my profile page, but got surprised by seeing this.

Actually, long days ago, I chose the Curious badge as my next target badge. The criteria for this badge says, Ask a well-received question on 5 separate days, and maintain a positive question record.

And now, the BADGES zone in my profile page shows I have surpassed that criteria. Look at the screenshot below.

So, why haven't I been awarded that badge yet?

P.S. I am not eager to get that badge, just curious to know if any other policy applies to it.

• That is a curious situation, I admit.
– Asaf Karagila Mod
Jun 11 '16 at 22:40
• Rather than suspect a bug in the SE software, why not admit that you really are not that curious? The software knows it, and it acts accordingly. Jun 13 '16 at 23:04
• @SubhadeepDey: I am really sorry, I should have placed a smiley in my comment to show what I really meant - it was supposed to be a joke, a meaning that this type of non-visual communication has not been able to convey. Jun 14 '16 at 7:49
• That's not just on Mathematics; I have that on Code Golf too. Jun 24 '16 at 17:04
• See also: What is a positive question record? May 11 '18 at 9:40

It seems you do not fulfill all criteria, namely you miss the 'positive question record.' You are informed about this when you click the progress bar.

This may be due to you having some deleted questions; from those visible it seems you would fulfill it but it is close enough to be plausible that a few deleted questions would change it.

In more detail, the criterion for having a positive question record is:

$$Q_T \ge 2(Q_N + Q_C + Q_D)$$

where $Q_T$ is the total number of questions ever asked (i.e., including deleted ones), $Q_N$ is the number of questions with negative score, $Q_C$ is the number of questions closed, and $Q_D$ is the number of deleted questions. (Side-note: to be precise, questions closed and/or deleted only after 60 or more days do not count as closed or deleted here.)

The visible record gives $$27 \ge 2(5 + 6 + 0)= 22$$ with the deleted one in the comments we are at
$$28 \ge 2(5 + 6 + 1)= 24$$ so this would still be alright.

Yet, with just one more questions closed with negative score and then deleted, it would not be alright anymore. Indeed, according to Jyrki Lahtonen there are a couple of deleted questions, yielding $37 \not \ge 2(6+7+10) = 46$.

To sum it up the badge was not awarded yet because while OP did "ask a well-received question on 5 separate days" OP did not "maintain a positive question record," which is part of the condition for this badge. If one does or does not "maintain a positive question record" is indicated in the window one gets when clicking on the progress bar.

• That's not that much. Can you check on your question-tab at the very end 'delete recent questions' to see if there are more?
– quid Mod
Jun 11 '16 at 22:54
• From the visible record you have a record $5$ negatively scored, and $6$ closed if I counted correctly. Over $27$ questions, this is still alright. With the $1$ deleted we are at $28$ questions and $12$ cumulated problems. This would still work. But if you would have just one more neg scored, closed, and then deleted one that you forgot about, then it is $29$ to $15$ and that's not good anymore. I cannot know if this is the case, but it seems plausible. Perhaps a moderator can tell us.
– quid Mod
Jun 11 '16 at 23:14
• I see $Q_T=37$, $Q_D=10$, $Q_C=7$, $Q_N=6$. Not surprisingly a lot of overlap in the $D/C/N$ categories. I don't know how that overlap is tallied. I did not bother checking the 60 day condition for any of them. Jun 12 '16 at 5:18
• @JyrkiLahtonen Thanks. The overlap is not tallied in any way, that is, each category is counted separately and one question can increment multiple, in fact all, counters.
– quid Mod
Jun 12 '16 at 10:31