Badge revamp project?

+13

Submitted by Quizmaster on March 13, 2026

I've been thinking of improving badges.

People constantly ask me for more badges. However, the process of adding new badges is quite time consuming.

Introducing user-created badges would make it possible to add more badges without increasing the workload. Then I could choose which badges to "feature".

But there are some practical considerations.

Let's say there 100,000 user badges. We can't calculate and display which user badges were earned on every quiz take since it would too much processing power. Also, no one wants to read messages like: "You earned these 7,435 badges".

So I think quiz takers would have to "register" to be eligible for a badge (unless it was a featured badge).

Does this make sense?

What other considerations am I missing?

26 Comments

Level ∞

Mar 14, 2026

I decided not to work on badges for now.

Level 83

Mar 13, 2026

Well, playlists are already a thing. Can users just go through an extra process on playlists they think would make a good badge? Like, check a box and add score requirements and a badge name?

Level 83

Mar 13, 2026

Also, I think the fun part of badges is seeing you’re unlocking them. Maybe badges should have a minimum number of quizzes, so they aren’t literally always being unlocked. Automatic messages for progress should occur only for popular/featured badges.

Level 83

Mar 13, 2026

It also occurs to me giving the option for speed requirements would be cool, too. A badge for certain scores, and then a platinum badge for getting 100% on all quizzes with a fastish time. You could even make quizzes just automatically set required scores to 90th percentile and, if the data is easily available, 60th percentile time used of quiz takes that scored 100%.

Level 18

Mar 13, 2026

Higher levels of badges baseed on time would be awesome!

Level 83

Mar 13, 2026

Sorry, more thoughts… if you had lots of featured badges it’d be totally rad to have a daily badge on the front page (or a different random badge every time the page opens might get more clicks/takes in the long run… hard to say).

Level 18

Mar 13, 2026

A lot more badges out there would open the door to allowing players to challenge each other to beat badge collection times, like with quizzes. But this probably could be done with playlists too.

Level 39

Mar 13, 2026

Daily badge. Perhaps users could submit playlists and then they would be evaluated and the best one would get a set date for it to be on the front page

Level 52

Mar 13, 2026

I don’t understand why you would have to calculate all 100.000 badges. You could just do that for the featured ones and it would still be as interesting.

The unfeatured badges can stay uncalculated and not displayed, or only be available while specifically looking for them.

Level 18

Mar 13, 2026

I don't know if there needs to be new badges on a mass scale. The low amount of them makes them fun to earn. But getting a batch of new badges every couple months would probably be exciting and would likely temporarily drive higher site traffic as people rushed to complete new badges.

I think the more featureable things you allow users to make, the more the site's focus broadens beyond quizzes. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, it's just something to be considered as the site expands. Quizzes, word searches, badges, what's next?

Also, I find it hard to believe that new users would flock to the site because of the badges. I didn't even realize badges existed for like over a week, I started because of the quizzes. Badges are this little bonus thing, but is it something really compete over? I dunno.

I'm just not really convinced it's a prominent-enough feature to justify opening up to user creation, especially since, like Dimby pointed out, playlists exist already.

Level 82

Mar 13, 2026

I'd say leave the featured badges as they are (or maybe add a couple ones) but add an "official" way for users to make their own other than blogs

Level 15

Mar 13, 2026

I like the idea for badge creation and featuring to be similar to user quiz creation and featuring. However, you'd definitely have to only automatically count and track the automatic ones.

Unless you went to a user's profile and played through their badges for fun? If you earned user badges it'd have to not display on your own profile though, that should be reserved for featured badges

Level 71

Mar 13, 2026

I don't think there's anything wrong with the current badges.

Level 81

Mar 13, 2026

I think the low amount is good as is. Add too many and it'll look ridiculous.

Level 71

Mar 13, 2026

Like a particular orange site...

Level 82

Mar 13, 2026

Unrelated, but I think an achievement system would be cool

Level 61

Mar 13, 2026

Please fix the capitals badge!

Level 52

Mar 13, 2026

You could have user badges but they don’t do anything until you feature them.

Level 67

Mar 13, 2026

I would be very keen to have more badges, QM. Something I’ve been saying for years!

I’m a pretty big fan of the user-made nomination scheme idea

Level 52

Mar 13, 2026

I never expected you to suggest user-made badges.

Level 23

Mar 13, 2026

I think I agree with everything you said here, and it's a great idea imo. If I could just add something, I'd suggest that a person can only choose a certain amount of badges to be displayed on their main profile, and the others would be deeper, still visible but only after like clicking sth or something like that.

Level 54

Mar 13, 2026

I do feel they need some kind of change, but i honestly have no clue how i would do this while minimizing work for qm

Level 63

Mar 13, 2026

I like having badges as they are now, rather than people making their own badges for themselves, and lessening the uniqueness of the official ones

js pls fix the capital badges

Level 81

Mar 13, 2026

I think the badges are OK as they are, maybe add a couple more, but that's it.

Level 36

Mar 13, 2026

Maybe we could have a vote for user-created badges or not? I think we should, and agree with a lot of these comments. The stats would only show if it’s featured, and maybe you have to be at level 50 or something a little high to make badges. Maybe you can only make once a week, or even once a month, if you want to really minimize badges. We shouldn’t have them searchable though, that’s taking it too far. Badges could just be on the menu, like where it already is, but you could get options like “Recent User-Created Badges” and “Popular User-Created Badges” and “Featured Badges” that QM picks, like how Stewart chooses which word searches to feature. Badges could be as relevant to your profile as charts, and show up in a similar spot. It can be a little like playlists, and you would be able to have others’ quizzes/(maybe word search badges?) Included on your badges. They would have to have a set amount of quizzes (like 2/3 at the least to 100 at the most or something).

Level 36

Mar 13, 2026

How’d I write 1000 characters? Comment continued: It would also though be a hassle to make a blog and set it up user-friendly for users to set the order the quizzes appear, the number of questions correct needed on each one, time needed maybe (as some other comments were saying), and everything like that. Would it really be worth it? I would say yes, but to the point where people can nominate and comment on badges, I would say no. Same thing if there was a leaderboard or “views” or something, but fortunately I don’t think that will happen. I think user-created badges are okay, and I’ve wanted them for awhile, so I’m excited to hear that it might actually be happening, but I feel like QM has to draw the line somewhere, and badges shouldn’t be more than a thing as playlists or charts are. I think QM knows what’s right for JetPunk, but I do like the message board posts, look how much feedback you got from me! We will see though, time will tell if user-created badges become reality.

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