This seems like a mistake - https://community.openstreetmap.org/badges/13/first-flag is available even to a non-logged-in user. From there itās not hard to work out who flagged what. In my case (I earned that ābadgeā just now) itās not a secret because I replied explaining why I flagged something as off-topic, but in the case of other flaggings that will likely not be the case.
Congrats for earning the badge ā¦ ā¦ to my knowledge flagging is only possible for logged in users. If I open the forum without logging in, there is no way to flag a post.
True, but I believe you misunderstood the issue being reported.
The issue which Andy points out is that publishing the recipients of that badge leaks the (otherwise private) information who flagged which post. Because if my post is flagged and some user receives a āfirst flagā badge at the very same time, I can easily conclude that they were the one to flag my post.
Thanks for clarification, I was mislead by āis available even to a non-logged-in userā and did not read the whole post careful enough ā¦ sorry for that @SomeoneElse.
Sure, and it does not make much sense as long as flagging is said to be anonymous, notwithstanding if the badges are visible to registered user only or also unregistered ones.
So this is a good point and moreover generally it could be argued about whether it is a good idea to allow everyone to check which users having earned a certain bagde (whichever badge that may be). It could be seen as some kind of backdoor to data which some users want to keep private by choosing to opt for āHide my public profileā.
Is there a reason we still have it enabled? Aside from the issues above, this motivates completionists to flag a post that might not otherwise need flagging. The page in the admin interface is https://community.openstreetmap.org/admin/badges/13, and itās one click to disable it.
Reviewing the other badges, there are a number based on private information like what the user has viewed, but none that seem likely to be tied to specific actions that might offend other users like flagging a post is.