I think a badger for 1000 or 2000 or whatever merits is unnecessary.
I think it's too early for this. I doubt theymos is going to introduce a badge for which
only he qualifies (>2000), with only satoshi reaching the badge for 1000+.
It's something to strive for. No point adding something that everybody is going to have or get straight away. It would be meaningless then. Merit is still young and it won't be that long before some people start reaching it, but for those that do it should be rewarded with a badge (and possibly some other privileges should come along with it).
Agreed, that would be better. However, I've suggested this before in other threads, and it didn't get implemented. That's why I tried the second best option: a "banned badge".
Plenty of things have been suggested by numerous people to try combat a wide variety of issues, but rarely anything gets implemented that is suggested whether it's a good idea or not.
It's annoying when users sometimes report
It's useless work for the user too, and would safe all parties time if it can be prevented. If that time can be used to report others, the banned tag can actually help cleaning the forum.
It's a waste of everyone's time. Not sure why it would be much of deal to alert people that a user is banned. Many other forums have such a feature. I've seen ones before that change their rank to banned, or even change their avatar to a prohibited sign:
I think a badger for 1000 or 2000 or whatever merits is unnecessary.
Merit already shows off in your profile. And the forum's discussions are too focused on merit already.
Badges could try to move the attention somewhere else...
Maybe something more bitcoin related. A community helper badger? I see some users like bob123 that are always helping users in the Technical Support board....
You could say the same thing about the rank badges. Rank is already displayed so why do we need the coins? Also, who gets to decide who is 'helpful' or not for the "community helper" badge? What do you measure helpfulness in? Why not let merit be the decider of that? If someone is getting a ridiculous amount of merit then I think it's safe to say that they're pretty helpful or are a worthwhile contributor. Why wouldn't the "community helper" badge also "move the attention somewhere else"?