Renounce Tag-Badge feature request

Question

I would like the ability to renounce a gold tag badge, specifically my "Discussion" badge.

Since pretty much every question on Meta gets tagged with discussion it's essentially meaningless, overly broad and affords any user with this badge the ability to insta-close almost every question that gets asked, something that doesn't seem to be desirable from a non moderator.

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Assuming such a thing is possible, I would also seek to encourage any future users who also get this badge to take the same action, although I wouldn't expect the results of this meta question to be binding on them if they feel they can justify not doing so to the community.

Answer 1

Just don't use it.

The ability to renounce a specific type of badge isn't something SE are going to implement on a site-by-site basis, so the place to request this would be main meta. IMO, they're unlikely to want to implement this at all, but if you can convince them to abolish discussion dupehammer powers (or, more likely, all dupehammer powers on meta sites), great!

Until then, my suggestion is that you simply stop using your discussion dupehammer. That way, you're acting as if the badge has been abolished already, which has the same effect in practice. If you see a question here which you think is a duplicate, just leave a comment saying so instead of voting.

In other words, you can always choose to renounce it voluntarily even if the system won't let you do so automatically. This is entirely up to the individual dupehammer wielder, of course, and it's possible that future discussion gold tag badge holders may disagree with your call for renunciation and use their dupehammers liberally.

Answer 2

When the Dupe Hammer was introduced over on Meta.SE, some people objected, saying that the domain knowledge required to achieve a gold badge doesn't necessarily imply the responsibility and understanding of SO mechanics required to wield the Dupe Hammer responsibly. SE's management obviously think otherwise, both because traditionally privileges were awarded based on rep, and because the Dupe Hammer doesn't require you to be super-involved with SE moderation - just to be familiar enough with the body of questions in a given tag to know when something has come up before already.

In Meta, however, even that original objection doesn't really apply.The domain knowledge here and the site-organization knowledge are one and the same. It's not easy to get a gold badge, even with mandatory tags in Meta. It means you read and participated in many previous Meta discussions. That makes you eminently qualified to notice duplicate questions, even here on Meta. This is exactly what the Dupe Hammer is for - for people who are involved enough in the questions on the site to know when something has been asked before. No more, no less.

So carry your Dupe Hammer proudly! You don't have to use it - and VtC-Dupes are much rarer on Meta than they are on Main anyway - but don't feel bad about it, or that it's unearned.