Nerd merit badges

Nerd Merit Badges

Over at Global Nerdy, Joey deVilla writes about some cool merit badges for geeks:

Just as Boy Scouts earn merit badges for accomplishments in some area of study, now we geeky types can earn Nerd Merit Badges for nerdy accomplishments. The first in the series is now available: it's "Open Source Contributor", pictured below.

(In case you don't recognize the image on the badge, it's the "Octocat", the mascot for the GitHub source code repository service.)

The badges sell for USD$3.99 and I assume that they're working on the honour system - that is, the assumption that you'll only order the badges you've earned. More badges are on the way...

Open Source Contributor Merit Badge

Nerd Merit Badges


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Posted by: Doctroid on January 25, 2009 at 6:20 PM

There already are...

... nerd merit badges for nerdy Boy Scouts. Way back in my Boy Scout days I was the first in my troop to earn the new Computers merit badge -- and to indicate how long ago that was, the badge had a punched card design on one side and a magnetic tape reel on the other.


Posted by: Andy L on January 25, 2009 at 9:09 PM

Not to mention :

Yea, Doctroid is right, there are lots of nerdy boy scout badges.
Rocketry, electronics, astronomy, stamp collecting, etc!


Of course, the sash in the photograph is clearly a GIRL Scout sash.


Posted by: tikaro.myopenid.com on January 26, 2009 at 4:02 AM

That is indeed a girl scout sash! It belongs to my friend Susan, and displays badges earned in the eighties. As far as I can tell, girl-scout-badge technology is slightly ahead of boy-scout-badge technology; girl scouts have "buffs" and other little things, like stars on chains that are attached to badges, that I just think are AWEsome.

We love both the boy- and girl-scout merit badges, and are trying to adhere slavishly to their form factor: 1.5" wide, fully-embroidered, with a merrowed (stitched, that is) edge. I wasn't a boy scout, but I spent a lot of time reading up on "Type J" badges on the BSA wiki.

I read the requirements for the BSA "Computers" badge: Damn! I seriously think that thing is harder to earn than an MCSE.

Next up, we're making the "Regular Expressions" badge. Your sugestions for the "One Regular Expression to Rule them All" are welcome -- follow us at @nerdmeritbadges on Twitter!

John Young
Randy Schmidt
Nerd Merit Badge badge-rs


Posted by: Brad Hart on January 26, 2009 at 7:28 AM

Here are a few more nerd badges

LOL Badge for getting a LOL posted on I Can has Cheezburger.

Snark badge for getting a LOL posted on Pundit Kitchen.

SEO Badge for getting a Google PR2 Blog.

Super SEO Badge for being so good that google bans your adsense account. (Never trust an SEO expert who hasn't been banned from Adsense at least once)

Digg badge for making the digg front page.

Super Digger badge for making the front page without being part of the 'digg good ol boys club'.

Twitter badge for reaching 1000 twits and 100 followers.

Super Twitter badge for reaching 10k twits 1k followers.

Moderator badge for being so obnoxious about a sites rules they let you moderate other obnoxious people.


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