Link click badges

[gar1t (Garrett)]

What is the rationale for the incrementing count next to links in a page? I’m not asking in a challenging way. This looks odd but interesting. Why keep track of this?

As it’s unfamiliar to me, I’m finding myself distracted by these numbers. Why are they there? What are they telling me? As I ponder these questions, I remind myself to read the content and ignore the numbers.

I think I might like to disable this behavior, if that’s possible. If it’s not I’m tempted to hide these badges with CSS. Before I get too worked up over it, I’d like to better understand what value folks get from these?

[awesomerobot (Kris)]

I don’t think the rationale goes much further than “mildly interesting.”

We highlight a user’s most popular links on their profile as a related point of interest and there are some admin reports that can show related details… like which users have posted the most clicked links. What you get out of those pieces of information is up to you!

They can be hidden with CSS.

.topic-body .badge-notification.clicks { 
  display: none; 
}

[codinghorror (Jeff Atwood)]

What is the purpose of posting a link that no one clicks?

[awesomerobot (Kris)]

also some people like earning badges