### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2025, 1:12am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/has-anything-changed-on-what-qualifies-for-the-nice-share-badge/385296/1 "2025-10-11T01:12:23Z")
Has anything changed on what qualifies for the “Nice share” badge?
In 4 years, I never received this badge. But since the beginning of September, I have received 3. That’s not much in total but a lot compared to the 50 months where I didn’t receive any.
In the rare cases where I have shared a link externally, I have usually also removed the username. And while I couldn’t remember any reason why I might have shared this post somewhere else at all, I wasn’t 100% sure that this didn’t happen. I thought maybe I had shared them with one user in a DM chat on another Discourse forum, though it seemed unlikely that this could result in 25 shares. But after the third badge, I checked this. Links to those topics aren’t in our chat conversation, so I wonder where those shares come from.
I noticed that all three posts, which I got the badge for, are posts which I linked to in other posts here on Meta. (For example, I linked to [UPDATE: Cloudflare outage! - Discourse update to "3.5.0.beta6" failed - #2 by haydenjames](https://meta.discourse.org/t/update-cloudflare-outage-discourse-update-to-3-5-0-beta6-failed/369925/2?silent=true) in [I tried to rebuild but I can't finish cause this error - #2 by Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/t/i-tried-to-rebuild-but-i-cant-finish-cause-this-error/369940/2?silent=true)). But I wouldn’t expect clicks on that to result in the badge, because users clicking a link here on Meta aren’t “outside visitors”, would they? At least that’s how I understood the check for the host in the incoming link model.
I also noticed this pattern on other posts for which users received the badge recently. For example, Tobias got a badge for sharing [🇩🇪 Fehler in der Deutschen Übersetzung? Hier melden! - #108 by Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/t/fehler-in-der-deutschen-ubersetzung-hier-melden/47320/108) in September. Of course, I don’t know if he shared that somewhere else. I can clearly tell that he linked to it in [🇩🇪 Fehler in der Deutschen Übersetzung? Hier melden! - #108 by Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/t/fehler-in-der-deutschen-ubersetzung-hier-melden/47320/108) because there is the backlink below my post. But of course I cannot know if the users shared those links also somewhere else.
Is it possible to find out where I shared these links? There is a [feature request](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-see-where-my-links-for-nice-share-are-coming-from/74448) for this, so probably not.
So for now, I’ll stick with ‘I have the feeling that something has changed here and is no longer working as expected’. But I have no idea how to proceed.
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### Author:  [@tobiaseigen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tobiaseigen)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2025, 3:28pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/has-anything-changed-on-what-qualifies-for-the-nice-share-badge/385296/2 "2025-10-20T15:28:23Z")
Is this only happening to you here on meta, or have you experienced it on other sites too?
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### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2025, 3:31pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/has-anything-changed-on-what-qualifies-for-the-nice-share-badge/385296/3 "2025-10-20T15:31:36Z")
It hasn’t happened anywhere else. But I would be surprised if it did, as the other forums are much smaller – meaning fewer posts from me linking to other posts and fewer readers clicking on the links.
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### Author:  [@tobiaseigen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tobiaseigen)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2025, 3:44pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/has-anything-changed-on-what-qualifies-for-the-nice-share-badge/385296/4 "2025-10-20T15:44:30Z")
I think what’s probably happening here is that meta has been hammered recently by bots:
> This badge is granted for sharing a link that was clicked by 25 outside visitors. Thanks for spreading the word about our discussions, and this community.
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### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2025, 3:46pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/has-anything-changed-on-what-qualifies-for-the-nice-share-badge/385296/5 "2025-10-20T15:46:07Z")
I think you need clicks on a different host than the current forum, so bots here shouldn’t trigger that. At least that’s what ask.discourse explained based on
>
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### Author:  [@tobiaseigen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tobiaseigen)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2025, 3:18pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/has-anything-changed-on-what-qualifies-for-the-nice-share-badge/385296/6 "2025-10-29T15:18:24Z")
Slipping this across to #Contribute > Site feedback since it seems to only be affecting us here on meta.
I think it’s probably still bots and there isn’t really anything to do here. I haven’t noticed getting any more badges myself or heard anyone else mention it. 🤷
We can keep this topic open in case it occurs again and we learn something new.
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### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2025, 10:27am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/has-anything-changed-on-what-qualifies-for-the-nice-share-badge/385296/7 "2025-11-06T10:27:03Z")
Today I received the badge on another forum. I joined that forum almost a year before I joined Meta, and today is the first time I’ve received the badge. Again, I don’t remember sharing that link anywhere else, but I used it in one post within the forum in August.
Not sure if this adds any helpful information. The forum is still on `3.6.0.beta1-dev`.
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### Author:  [@tobiaseigen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tobiaseigen)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2025, 2:16pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/has-anything-changed-on-what-qualifies-for-the-nice-share-badge/385296/8 "2025-11-06T14:16:17Z")
Is it a public forum?
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### Author:  [@tobiaseigen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tobiaseigen)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2025, 2:39pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/has-anything-changed-on-what-qualifies-for-the-nice-share-badge/385296/9 "2025-11-06T14:39:39Z")
OK let me slip this back to #Support if you think it’s also happening on other Discourse sites. I haven’t heard anyone else ask about this before and I have not experienced it myself anywhere but on meta, but this is the biggest public site that I participate in. I get [nice share badges](https://meta.discourse.org/badges/21/nice-share?username=tobiaseigen) fairly consistently so I am not seeing a particular uptick for myself.
It would be nice to have a report to see trends over time with the awarding of badges. I had a quick look and didn’t immediately find a [data explorer](https://meta.discourse.org/t/32566?silent=true) query for it.
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### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2025, 2:47pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/has-anything-changed-on-what-qualifies-for-the-nice-share-badge/385296/10 "2025-11-06T14:47:35Z")
> [@tobiaseigen](#):
>
> It would be nice to have a report to see trends over time with the awarding of badges.
On the other forum there are 10 nice share badges since 2025-09-07T22:00:00Z, and 3 in 2025 before that
8 in 2024
6 in 2023
5 in 2022
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### Author:  [@asa](https://meta.discourse.org/u/asa)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2025, 5:31pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/has-anything-changed-on-what-qualifies-for-the-nice-share-badge/385296/11 "2025-11-06T17:31:06Z")
I also did not receive the badge for this post, for example here on Meta, even though it has exactly 25 clicks
> [@What are your favorite Discourse sites in the wild?](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-are-your-favorite-discourse-sites-in-the-wild/383890/9?u=asa):
>
> Ich nutze gerne ein deutsches Forum welches sich über Bitcoin und anderen Coins unterhält. Das Design ist in meinen Augen sehr ansprechend. Ansonsten hier im Meta smiley
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### Author:  [@tobiaseigen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tobiaseigen)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2025, 5:35pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/has-anything-changed-on-what-qualifies-for-the-nice-share-badge/385296/12 "2025-11-06T17:35:45Z")
We’re not talking about links to other sites from a Discourse site. We’re talking about links from other sites to Discourse sites.
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### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2025, 5:39pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/has-anything-changed-on-what-qualifies-for-the-nice-share-badge/385296/13 "2025-11-06T17:39:56Z")
The first badge for clicks on a link to an external site requires 50 clicks
[https://meta.discourse.org/badges/28/popular-link](https://meta.discourse.org/badges/28/popular-link)
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### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [November 16, 2025, 10:07pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/has-anything-changed-on-what-qualifies-for-the-nice-share-badge/385296/14 "2025-11-16T22:07:16Z")
Another 6 badges in the last few days, 4 today alone.
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### Author:  [@tobiaseigen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tobiaseigen)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2025, 2:52pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/has-anything-changed-on-what-qualifies-for-the-nice-share-badge/385296/15 "2025-11-17T14:52:29Z")
Similar story here - I got 3 nice share badges 17 hours ago, and 2 more 2 days ago. Not sure what’s going on here - I’ll see if I can get someone to look into it.
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### Author:  [@Canapin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Canapin)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2025, 10:42pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/has-anything-changed-on-what-qualifies-for-the-nice-share-badge/385296/17 "2025-11-20T22:42:50Z")
Same here:
edit a few days later: it’s time I disable badge notifications 😅
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### Author:  [@tgxworld](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tgxworld)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2025, 7:58am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/has-anything-changed-on-what-qualifies-for-the-nice-share-badge/385296/20 "2025-11-21T07:58:10Z")
I had a look at our `IncomingLink` records and it seems like recent “visits” are all attributed to bots/crawlers. The bad news is that we have no rate limiting surrounding this area of code so a crawler can easily contribute 5 visits within a couple of seconds.
We are currently deliberating on a fix here and should have more to share soon.
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### Author:  [@tgxworld](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tgxworld)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2025, 6:39am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/has-anything-changed-on-what-qualifies-for-the-nice-share-badge/385296/21 "2025-11-27T06:39:03Z")
Landed this fix for now
[https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/36281](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/36281)
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### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2025, 8:24am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/has-anything-changed-on-what-qualifies-for-the-nice-share-badge/385296/22 "2025-11-28T08:24:08Z")
The fix has more than halved my badges; instead of 76, I now only have 31. Unfortunately, that’s still 30 more than expected. After all, the links are only here in the forum and should, therefore, not fulfill the ‘outside’ criterion.
> [@Canapin](#):
>
> it’s time I disable badge notifications
There is a topic about grouping them which would at least reduce this to 1 notification per day: [Collapse multiple badge notifications into one](https://meta.discourse.org/t/collapse-multiple-badge-notifications-into-one/182111)
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### Author:  [@tgxworld](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tgxworld)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2025, 8:45am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/has-anything-changed-on-what-qualifies-for-the-nice-share-badge/385296/23 "2025-11-28T08:45:46Z")
We do check that the host of the referer does not match the host of the forum and not count that as a “visit” if that is the case. Looking at a couple of “visits” for your badge, it looks like it is a mostly crawler traffic. A simple fix we can apply forward is to just avoid counting when the crawler layout is being used.
[Next page](https://meta.discourse.org/t/has-anything-changed-on-what-qualifies-for-the-nice-share-badge/385296.md?page=2)