Generalist Badge Implemented

After a whopping 18 month gestation, we've finally implemented the Generalist badge.

The Generalist badge works as follows:

Provided non-wiki answers of 15 total score in 20 of the top 40 tags.

The top 40 tag list is surprisingly diverse across the entire Trilogy. Just check out the top 40 tags (as of this writing) on Stack Overflow:

1. c#

1. java

1. .net

1. php

1. asp.net

1. javascript

1. c++

1. jquery

1. iphone

1. python

1. sql

1. mysql

1. html

1. sql-server

1. ruby-on-rails

1. c

1. asp.net-mvc

1. css

1. wpf

1. objective-c

1. windows

1. xml

1. ruby

1. database

1. best-practices

1. vb.net

1. android

1. visual-studio

1. ajax

1. regex

1. linux

1. winforms

1. django

1. iphone-sdk

1. visual-studio-2008

1. beginner

1. web-development

1. flex

1. subjective

1. flash

One thing the badge doesn't say, is that there must be at least 200 questions in all 40 of the top tags before this badge is awarded to anyone. That's why you won't see it on meta for a bit longer, or any new sites for about a year. I don't feel you can accurately measure a generalist until the top tag list settles down.

The intent of this badge is to reward those folks who are answering a variety of questions across multiple skill sets, not spending all their time in the same set of tags.

Now, it is true that the top 40 tags shift over time; for example Android went from #36 to #27 just in the last month. Rest assured, if you earn the Generalist badge, like any other badge in our system -- barring exceptional circumstances -- it won't be revoked.

(thanks to balpha and chaos for their assistance in determining how this badge should work.)