Besides gaining reputation with your questions and answers, you receive badges for being especially helpful. Badges appear on your profile page, flair, and your posts.
Question Badges
Ask a well-received question on 5 separate days, and maintain a positive question record
51 awarded
Ask a well-received question on 30 separate days, and maintain a positive question record
7 awarded
Ask a well-received question on 100 separate days, and maintain a positive question record
2 awarded
Asked a question with zero score, no answers, no comments, and low views for a week
38 awarded
Answer Badges
Highest scoring answer that outscored an accepted answer with score of more than 10 by more than 2x
Answer more than 30 days after a question was asked as first answer scoring 2 or more
183 awarded
Participation Badges
Visit an election during any phase of an active election and have enough reputation to cast a vote
Followed the Area 51 proposal for this site before it entered the commitment phase
98 awarded
Voted 10 times, added 3 posts score > 0, and visited the site on 3 separate days during the private beta
46 awarded
Tag Badges
You must have a total score of 100 in at least 20 non-community wiki answers to achieve this badge.
4 awarded
You must have a total score of 400 in at least 80 non-community wiki answers to achieve this badge.
You must have a total score of 1000 in at least 200 non-community wiki answers to achieve this badge.