User blog:Cinnabar The Evil Gem Chemist 55555555555555555550/Platinum Badge Earned!

Today is the day I've been waiting for for a year now!



So since I have reached the platinum badge, I might as well tell you a bit about my past day streaks.

Badges were first enabled on September 15 2013, and so the first streaks were available from then on. The ONLY person to keep their streak from there was Wildoneshelper, all the way to the platinum badge.

I managed to keep mine long enough to get the 100-day badge. I VERY nearly missed on December 5 2013 when I ony realised at 11:50pm that I hadn't made an edit yet.

I then lost it on January 13 2014. D'OH! After that, I didn't even try for months. I had a few diddy streaks, most of them barely getting past 10. I had a streak that got to about 50, then BAM, vacation time with no internet. Streak lost. I got back from that vacation on August 1 2014.

I decided to get serious this time, and try and keep this streak going all the way to the platinum 365-day badge. I knew I had a lot of ground to cover, and that things would most certainly happen during the year that would prevent me from reaching the streak.

October and November were some pretty difficult months for me in real life, but still I kept pottering along trying to make an edit a day at least. December saw me have to stay in a hotel for 2 days. I wasn't having myself lose the streak again, so I actually PAID for wi-fi just to make an edit. There were some other difficult periods, such as when I actually had the weekend away, and had to make one edit a day on some pretty terrible wi-fi. This was in March and I was already well into the 200s by this point, so I REALLY didn't want to lose it.

After the challenges June threw at me, all that was left was for me to keep chugging along until the end of July, the month of storms that could knock my power.

And today, I have FINALLY made it. I absolutely NEVER thought I'd get here.

If you are making plans to try for the platinum badge, by all means go ahead. But I will warn you, it really is hard. So much can happen that will mean you can't make a daily edit. You could be well into the 300s then one of these happens:

What could go wrong
But the biggest, and by far the most likely thing that can go wrong:
 * Powercut. You could lose power for a day and not be abe to edit.
 * You might break a rule and get blocked for more than a day, inhibiting your ability to edit.
 * You might lose internet connection for an entire day.
 * You might simply forget.
 * Timezones might screw you over due to the fact they run on UTC. You might make an edit at 18:01 your time which turns out to be 00:01 UTC time. BAM, you've missed the day, streak reset.
 * You might have exams or other academic-related reason why you might miss a day.
 * Special holiday occasions like Christmas and birthday might make you so busy you forget to edit.
 * If you've been a naughty boy or girl, your parents might take away your computer priveliges for the day.
 * Vacation to an area without internet, or internet so poor that you can't access Wikia.

There certainly is an element of luck involved. It just so happens that we had no vacations planned during this year, and that all our vacations are August instead, after I get the platinum badge.

But I suggest that if you do want to try for the badge, make it part of your morning routine. Get up, have a wash, teeth, get changed, have breakfast, and make a *useful* edit on CCSW. Also remember that comments do count as edits, so they will also add to the day streak.

Have fun, and good luck if you're trying for the badge.

Lefty7788 (talk) 12:19, July 31, 2015 (UTC)