In order to recognize exemplary wiki contributors, the RPC Staff, Dev, and Contest Teams award badges to pages for certain accomplishments. Any lawfully-earned badge is nonretractable and remains even after the page no longer meets the criteria, and pages with badges are likely, though not guaranteed, to be archived should they face systemic deletion.
It doesn't matter how long an article was eligible for a badge. As long as it was eligible for a badge at some point, and this can be proven, the article gets the badge.
Types of badges
Ranking badges
The Top Ten badge (top10) considers any RPC, Tale, Document, or RPC-J with at least 25 votes. Within this category, the 10 highest user-rated articles at any point shall receive the badge. (This ranking can be checked here.)
The Top Article badge (toparticle) is awarded to any article to reach first place in the previously-described category. This overrides the Top Ten badge; an article can't have both.
The Top Joke badge (topjoke) only considers RPC-Js with at least 25 votes. (Comedy tales do not apply.) Within this category, the highest user-rated article at any point shall receive the badge. (This ranking can be checked here.)
Contest badges
The Contest Winner badge (contestwinner or eventwinner) and Contest Runner-Up Badge (runnerup) are awarded to articles that land first and second place in a contest respectively. Note that winning by default still counts for a badge. If a contest is hosted outside the main wiki (e.g. in the "contest:" namespace), the badge should be given to the "ported" article on the main wiki, not the external submission page.
The Art Contest Winner badge is awarded to pages that land first place in art contests. It lacks a corresponding tag, but can be granted to an article by adding "art=show" to the rating module.
The Challenge Winner badge (challengewinner) also falls under the jurisdiction of the Contest Team. It was previously awarded to winners of monthly challenges, but with their discontinuation, it has since been awarded to articles that succeed in a contest's optional challenge.
Unused badges
The Active Contributor badge can be applied to a rating module by adding "activity=show". It currently has no use and should not be applied to pages.
Remember that only members of the Staff, Dev, and Contest Teams may add badges to articles. If you notice a discrepancy with badge placement, please inform us.