Should "first flag" really be a queryable "badge"?

This seems like a mistake - https://community.openstreetmap.org/badges/13/first-flag is available even to a non-logged-in user. From there it’s not worked out who flagged what. In my case (I earned that ā€œbadgeā€ just now) it’s 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.

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Congrats for earning the badge … :wink: … 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 ā€œfirst flagā€ badge at the very same time, I can easily conclude that they were the one to flag my post.

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Worth reporting upstream to ensure they have a mechanism to avoid granting that badge at the same time.

Thanks for clarification, I was mislead by ā€œis available even to a non-logged-in userā€ and did not read the whole post careful enough … 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 ā€œHide my public profileā€.