I received the Yearling badge yesterday, which is normal, but then got another one today. Perhaps I am just confused on how this badge works, but it seems like it should wait a year before awarding it a second time.
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How long has it been since you were last here? Is it possible that you had last year's badge spooled up and then received this year's badge? You've certainly been here long enough.– CatijaCommented Mar 16, 2017 at 16:33
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You've certainly been here long enough to have 2 badges - so the overall number looks correct. Also you might get a separate badge for the Meta site - which has separate badges.– iandotkelly ModCommented Mar 16, 2017 at 16:51
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@iandotkelly So is it based off how long you have been here and not just the past year? I mean my account creation here is from 2013, so I could theoretically get 4 yearling badges within a week?– David StarkeyCommented Mar 16, 2017 at 16:53
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You get a badge for each year you get 200 reputation.– iandotkelly ModCommented Mar 16, 2017 at 17:19
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@iandotkelly I'm not actually sure that's true... David joined the site way back in 2013 and earned no reputation other than the association bonus. All of the rest of the reputation (330 rep) has been in the past week or so... there's no way to have 200 rep in two years.– CatijaCommented Mar 16, 2017 at 17:35
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1@Catija in which case either the algorithm is broken or the description of the badge is incorrect– iandotkelly ModCommented Mar 16, 2017 at 17:48
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1 Answer
The badge has a very simple algorithm. As quoted by Jeff Atwood:
You'll get the yearling badge as long as you have at least (Years * 200) rep by the target date.
Details on how the Yearling badge works
They don't actually check that the 200 reputation was gained in separate years.
Since your recent answer has gathered a lot of reputation in the last couple of days, and you have more than 3 years time on the site, its retrospectively triggered 2 yearling badges. Infact if you continue to gain reputation, and hit 600 you will gain another yearling badge at that point, but you won't get a 4th until you hit 4 years and 800 reputation.
The fact that this happens for your meta profile too is not surprising, since you don't gain separate meta reputation, that is linked to your main profile.
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1So yes, theoretically you could gain 4 yearling badges in a week in the right circumstances.– iandotkelly ModCommented Mar 16, 2017 at 18:09
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2Seriously? Oh my, that's just awfully implemented.– Napoleon Wilson ModCommented Mar 18, 2017 at 4:14