Maybe, like me, you got an email this week telling you that you won a badge for your contributions to MATLAB Answers. And maybe, like me, you even won more than one, and all on the same day. The reason is simple enough: we just introduced badges for Answers this week. Before now, there was no such thing. So people who have been active on Answers for a while are catching up on a lot of badges quickly. If you got one, you probably got more than one.

Badges are fun. After you earn them, they give you a sense of accomplishment, and before you earn them, they give you goals. But one of the things I like to do is see who has earned some of the highest level badges.

Here’s one that I earned.

It’s called the “First Answer” badge. You win it the first time you answer someone else’s question. That’s a worthy thing to do, but as badges go, it’s not a very high bar. I’m one of 12765 people who have received it so far.

But look at this one.

This is the “Knowledgeable” badge, and the little inset number means that 100 of your answers have been accepted. It’s hard enough just to answer 100 questions. The Contributors list shows us that only 146 people have managed it so far. If we limit it only to people who have had at least 100 of their answers accepted, the number drops to 82. Who are these people? Here they are (or rather, here are 40 of them). I think this is a well-named badge, because you can bet they are a knowledgeable bunch.

So the Knowledgeable badge is a pretty slick achievement, but check out this baby: “Most Accepted of 2016”.

This is for the contributor whose answers received the most acceptances in 2016. By definition, there can be only one. And who won this? If you spend much time on MATLAB Answers, you can probably guess: Walter Roberson. It may not surprise you to see the tugboat full of badges that Walter has amassed so far, including the Most Accepted Answers for 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, and 2016.

What about Most Accepted Answers for 2014? For that one, we applaud the illustrious Image Analyst. He has seven hard-hitting badges of his own, including one of my favorites, the Streak 36 badge.

You want one of these? It’s not easy, my friend. This gem is reserved for the 23 people who have contributed at least one answer each month for 36 consecutive months. Yowza! That’s what you call staying power. A Contributor with a capital C. All you streaky people, my hat is off to you.

But really, if you won any badge at all, you’re making a difference on MATLAB Answers. You’re a generous soul, and we thank you for it. And if you haven’t won any badges yet, you’re still a good person. But you may want to look into earning that “First Answer” badge. Only watch out! Badges are habit-forming.