Following the tradition of previous years 1, 2, now that the wrap-up blog post about Winter Bash has been posted, can we have some more stats about hats? Including:
Plus anything else of note about Winter Bash 2016.
There are far too many stats to include them all in the closing blog post, so I figured I'd tie the rest in the bow and post them.
All Hats Awarded
Here is a breakdown of the total hats earned for each hat, and how many unique users earned it.
+----------------------------+---------+---------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Hat Name | Earned | Users | Description |
+----------------------------+---------+---------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Just Here for the Hat | 269,016 | 214,457 | own any hat while the entire site collectively has at least 20 distinct hats |
| I Have A Little Dreidel | 146,403 | 116,462 | ask, answer, or vote on any of the days of Chanukah starting December 24-January 1 |
| Epiphany | 68,013 | 58,157 | ask, answer, or vote on January 6th |
| Mmmm Bacon | 54,058 | 45,749 | ask, answer, or vote on December 30th |
| 925 | 54,023 | 50,954 | earn a silver badge |
| Where in the World? (Sun) | 39,064 | 33,336 | secret hat - ask, answer, or vote on December 21st |
| Where in the World? (Moon) | 35,787 | 30,216 | secret hat - ask, answer, or vote on December 21st |
| Bûche de Noël | 33,925 | 28,770 | ask, answer, or vote on December 25th |
| I Am Your Father | 15,617 | 11,087 | ask, answer, or vote on the meta site |
| Abominable | 10,126 | 8,842 | participate in successfully closing or deleting a question |
| 24 | 9,488 | 9,266 | earn a gold badge |
| Search You Must | 8,707 | 8,127 | user the site’s search functionality on 3 consecutive UTC days |
| Mild Mannered | 7,299 | 7,180 | secret hat - post an accepted answer that receives not other votes for 12 hours |
| Snaphat | 5,901 | 5,539 | answer within 30 minutes of the question being asked, scoring 3 and getting accepted |
| The NeverEnding Story | 5,263 | 5,263 | create or update at least two items in your Stack Overflow Developer Story |
| The Hatter | 3,761 | 3,715 | secret hat - ask a question when it is exactly 6:00pm in any time zone |
| 6 | 3,293 | 3,193 | secret hat - 6 posts are edited by the owner after you commented on it |
| What's Up, Doc? | 3,246 | 3,246 | earn reputation by contributing to Stack Overflow Documentation |
| 011 | 2,938 | 2,722 | collect 11 hats |
| Blue in the Face | 2,660 | 2,523 | secret hat - post 10 comments that each earn an upvote |
| Cutting the Cord | 2,456 | 1,932 | vote on seven question or answers using the Android or iOS app |
| Trendsetter | 1,966 | 1,864 | secret hat - wear 5 different hats, and by change the hat using the hat rack on a site, on five different days |
| Polymath | 1,934 | 516 | post at least one well-received answer on three different sites during Winter Bash (not including Stack Overflow) |
| No Longer Grinchy | 1,585 | 1,490 | participate in successfully reopening or undeleting a question |
| Amped Up | 1,580 | 1,431 | share a link to a question that gets 5 clicks |
| Like Clockwork | 1,313 | 1,211 | secret hat - vote between 3am and 9pm UTC (+/- 9 hours) on none consecutive days |
| Fiery | 1,258 | 1,213 | post five answers that each get a score of at least 3 |
| Don't Wanna Taco 'Bout it | 1,177 | 1,111 | secret hat - editing or suggesting an edit 5 times in a UTC day without commenting on the post |
| Hero of Questions | 1,155 | 1,140 | edit a closed question (that you did not participate in closing) that gets reopened after your edit |
| This Is Fine | 965 | 958 | secret hat - have an upvoted answer on a bounty’d question, without winning the bounty |
| First Responder | 605 | 508 | post a message in hat within +/- 12 hours of the UTC New Year’s begin that get starred |
| Elementary | 506 | 466 | secret hat - edit 5 questions that were posted more than a year ago |
| 8,243,721 | 354 | 338 | secret hat - delete 6 comments from under posts (not your own), that were edited by their owners after you commented on it |
| Egoist | 282 | 278 | ask a question and answer it yourself, with both posts getting a score of 3 |
| Third Time's A Charm | 281 | 279 | hit the reputation cap on three different days |
| Lifesaver | 261 | 259 | answer a question qualifying for the Tumbleweed badge that gets accepted |
| Running Ragged | 256 | 80 | earn 150 reputation points on three different sites (not including Stack Overflow) within 15 days |
| 180° | 188 | 186 | secret hat - vote to close a question, edit it from closed, then vote to reopen |
| TheyLive | 133 | 133 | secret hat - edited or reject and edited 5 items in the suggested edit review queue |
| Loungin' Around | 109 | 104 | post a question using the Android or iOS app that earns you the Nice Question badge |
| Philantropist | 105 | 99 | award a bounty, to someone else, on the last day of hats |
| Maverick | 17 | 17 | post an +5 answer to a -3 question, that went to +3 after the answer was posted |
+----------------------------+---------+---------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Total | 797,074 | 215,960 | |
+----------------------------+---------+---------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Just Here for the Hat...Stats
This hat was similar to last year's, 'Every! Body! Gets! A Hat!', where users earned the hat when they collectively earned 20 distinct hats. We had a total of 160 sites participate in Winter Bash, and 108 communities earned Just Here For the Hat. Here is the breakdown of sites who earned the hat, and how many users it took to get it (actually, the number of users is an approximation).
+----------------------------------------+--------------------+-------+-------------------+
| Site | Date/Time of Award | Users | Highest Hat Count |
| | | | by Single User |
+----------------------------------------+--------------------+-------+-------------------+
| Stack Overflow | Dec 19 at 7:42 | 6 | 12 |
| Mathematics | Dec 20 at 14:40 | 10 | 7 |
| English Language & Usage | Dec 20 at 15:25 | 5 | 12 |
| Programming Puzzles & Code Golf | Dec 20 at 15:25 | 4 | 12 |
| Ask Ubuntu | Dec 20 at 18:52 | 7 | 8 |
| Stack Overflow em Português | Dec 20 at 23:52 | 6 | 13 |
| Puzzling | Dec 21 at 0:12 | 6 | 13 |
| Science Fiction & Fantasy | Dec 21 at 0:22 | 4 | 14 |
| Travel | Dec 21 at 0:33 | 6 | 10 |
| Cross Validated | Dec 21 at 0:42 | 10 | 6 |
| English Language Learners | Dec 21 at 4:40 | 10 | 7 |
| Stack Overflow на русском | Dec 21 at 6:35 | 9 | 7 |
| Meta Stack Exchange | Dec 21 at 6:57 | 5 | 10 |
| Super User | Dec 21 at 9:10 | 6 | 12 |
| Database Administrators | Dec 21 at 9:45 | 7 | 9 |
| TeX - LaTeX | Dec 21 at 14:02 | 6 | 12 |
| Blender | Dec 21 at 14:48 | 4 | 15 |
| Arqade | Dec 21 at 15:42 | 7 | 10 |
| Unix & Linux | Dec 21 at 15:43 | 10 | 7 |
| Role-playing Games | Dec 21 at 15:43 | 6 | 13 |
| Physics | Dec 21 at 15:44 | 10 | 9 |
| Worldbuilding | Dec 21 at 15:49 | 7 | 9 |
| Code Review | Dec 21 at 16:23 | 7 | 12 |
| Information Security | Dec 21 at 17:25 | 7 | 12 |
| The Workplace | Dec 21 at 18:28 | 8 | 9 |
| Salesforce | Dec 21 at 21:56 | 7 | 12 |
| GIS | Dec 21 at 22:30 | 6 | 12 |
| Chemistry | Dec 21 at 23:31 | 6 | 10 |
| Motor Vehicle Maintenance & Repair | Dec 22 at 9:53 | 4 | 17 |
| Stack Overflow en español | Dec 22 at 10:23 | 4 | 17 |
| Magento | Dec 22 at 10:41 | 7 | 12 |
| Movies & TV | Dec 22 at 10:58 | 8 | 10 |
| Mi Yodeya | Dec 22 at 14:45 | 7 | 13 |
| Graphic Design | Dec 22 at 16:35 | 5 | 16 |
| Mathematica | Dec 22 at 17:56 | 9 | 9 |
| Academia | Dec 23 at 8:16 | 6 | 14 |
| Ask Different | Dec 23 at 16:15 | 6 | 13 |
| Software Engineering | Dec 23 at 18:55 | 9 | 7 |
| Drupal Answers | Dec 23 at 19:12 | 9 | 8 |
| Raspberry PI | Dec 24 at 10:10 | 5 | 16 |
| Server Fault | Dec 24 at 10:20 | 9 | 9 |
| Photography | Dec 24 at 10:20 | 8 | 13 |
| Electrical Engineering | Dec 24 at 10:20 | 7 | 8 |
| Cryptography | Dec 24 at 12:55 | 6 | 9 |
| SharePoint | Dec 24 at 13:23 | 10 | 8 |
| Personal Finance & Money | Dec 24 at 16:20 | 8 | 10 |
| Skeptics | Dec 24 at 19:48 | 6 | 12 |
| Webmasters | Dec 25 at 0:27 | 9 | 10 |
| WordPress Development | Dec 25 at 13:05 | 5 | 15 |
| Game Development | Dec 25 at 13:40 | 6 | 12 |
| Italian Language | Dec 26 at 20:13 | 5 | 15 |
| Computer Science | Dec 26 at 22:00 | 7 | 12 |
| Software Recommendations | Dec 26 at 23:38 | 11 | 6 |
| Aviation | Dec 27 at 0:49 | 7 | 12 |
| Russian Language | Dec 27 at 11:52 | 5 | 13 |
| Law | Dec 27 at 16:19 | 9 | 9 |
| The Great Outdoors | Dec 27 at 21:55 | 5 | 13 |
| Seasoned Advice | Dec 28 at 6:43 | 7 | 13 |
| German Language | Dec 28 at 9:40 | 4 | 16 |
| History | Dec 28 at 11:40 | 7 | 10 |
| Music: Practice & Theory | Dec 28 at 11:51 | 7 | 12 |
| Board & Card Games | Dec 28 at 16:31 | 9 | 9 |
| Parenting | Dec 28 at 18:58 | 7 | 11 |
| Network Engineering | Dec 29 at 4:48 | 3 | 18 |
| Home Improvement | Dec 29 at 5:55 | 9 | 9 |
| Arduino | Dec 29 at 8:21 | 7 | 12 |
| Signal Processing | Dec 29 at 10:32 | 9 | 9 |
| User Experience | Dec 29 at 10:40 | 5 | 13 |
| Hinduism | Dec 29 at 11:01 | 7 | 10 |
| Politics | Dec 29 at 11:21 | 5 | 12 |
| Ethereum | Dec 29 at 11:21 | 6 | 13 |
| Android Enthusiasts | Dec 29 at 19:30 | 7 | 10 |
| Christianity | Dec 30 at 0:20 | 7 | 14 |
| Anime & Manga | Dec 30 at 4:14 | 6 | 13 |
| Bicycles | Dec 30 at 5:43 | 6 | 12 |
| Space Exploration | Dec 60 at 6:32 | 8 | 10 |
| Biology | Dec 30 at 10:41 | 8 | 13 |
| Emacs | Dec 30 at 19:06 | 8 | 12 |
| French Language | Dec 30 at 19:36 | 7 | 10 |
| Islam | Dec 31 at 1:38 | 6 | 12 |
| Japanese Language | Dec 31 at 11:16 | 8 | 10 |
| Stack Overflow in Japanese | Dec 31 at 16:55 | 5 | 15 |
| Biblical Hermeneutics | Dec 31 at 18:13 | 6 | 13 |
| Earth Science | Jan 1 at 5:14 | 7 | 10 |
| Retrocomputing | Jan 1 at 9:36 | 6 | 13 |
| Quantitative Finance | Jan 1 at 19:03 | 8 | 9 |
| Vi and Vim | Jan 1 at 19:19 | 9 | 10 |
| Language Learning | Jan 2 at 0:07 | 2 | 18 |
| Genealogy & Family History | Jan 2 at 1:36 | 5 | 14 |
| Spanish Language | Jan 2 at 7:39 | 5 | 14 |
| Bitcoin | Jan 2 at 10:46 | 9 | 10 |
| Web Applications | Jan 3 at 7:52 | 8 | 9 |
| Buddhism | Jan 3 at 10:07 | 6 | 12 |
| Software Quality Assurance and Testing | Jan 3 at 16:03 | 7 | 12 |
| Sports | Jan 3 at 18:34 | 9 | 10 |
| Writers | Jan 3 at 19:14 | 5 | 15 |
| Chess | Jan 4 at 2:18 | 4 | 16 |
| Hardware Recommendations | Jan 5 at 10:12 | 8 | 9 |
| Astronomy | Jan 5 at 10:26 | 6 | 13 |
| Gardening & Landscaping | Jan 5 at 11:11 | 5 | 15 |
| Pets | Jan 5 at 12:27 | 9 | 9 |
| Mythology | Jan 5 at 18:22 | 4 | 13 |
| Lifehacks | Jan 6 at 10:21 | 7 | 10 |
| Philosophy | Jan 6 at 16:18 | 6 | 10 |
| Linguistics | Jan 7 at 6:36 | 4 | 13 |
| Open Source | Jan 7 at 16:47 | 5 | 14 |
| Music Fans | Jan 7 at 18:28 | 3 | 18 |
| Arts & Crafts | Jan 8 at 21:12 | 7 | 12 |
+----------------------------------------+--------------------+-------+-------------------+
Stack Overflow vs. The Rest of the Network
This was the first year that Stack Overflow users were automatically opted into hats, which is partly why there was such an increase in the number of hats awarded. Last year, 322,747 hats were given out to 72,182 users, but this year 797,074 hats were awarded to 215,960 users.
Out of curiosity, I took a closer look at the Stack Overflow numbers versus the rest of the network to see if there were any hats that were awarded significantly different.
+----------------------------+----------------------+---------------------+---------------+
| Hat Name | SO Users/Hats Earned | Network Hats Earned | Network Users |
+----------------------------+----------------------+---------------------+---------------+
| Just Here for the Hat | 177,603 | 91,413 | 59,312 |
| I Have A Little Dreidel | 93,374 | 53,029 | 34,404 |
| Epiphany | 46,053 | 21,960 | 15,876 |
| 925 | 37,754 | 16,269 | 14,588 |
| Mmmm Bacon | 35,211 | 18,847 | 13,538 |
| Where in the World? (Sun) | 26,824 | 12,240 | 8,812 |
| Where in the World? (Moon) | 24,321 | 11,466 | 7,999 |
| Bûche de Noël | 20,849 | 13,076 | 9,631 |
| 24 | 6,575 | 2,913 | 2,789 |
| I Am Your Father | 6,557 | 9,060 | 6,222 |
| Search You Must | 6,386 | 2,321 | 1,908 |
| Mild Mannered | 5,799 | 1,500 | 1,467 |
| Abominable | 5,681 | 4,445 | 3,572 |
| The NeverEnding Story | 5,263 | 0 | 0 |
| What's Up, Doc? | 3,246 | 0 | 0 |
| Snaphat | 2,834 | 3,067 | 2,824 |
| 6 | 2,109 | 1,184 | 1,135 |
| The Hatter | 2,082 | 1,679 | 1,651 |
| 011 | 1,499 | 1,439 | 1,284 |
| Blue in the Face | 1,425 | 1,235 | 1,149 |
| Trendsetter | 1,074 | 892 | 806 |
| Amped Up | 907 | 673 | 579 |
| Cutting the Cord | 904 | 1,552 | 1,132 |
| Don't Wanna Taco 'Bout it | 735 | 442 | 404 |
| Like Clockwork | 626 | 687 | 606 |
| No Longer Grinchy | 607 | 978 | 906 |
| This Is Fine | 578 | 387 | 383 |
| Hero of Questions | 501 | 654 | 643 |
| Fiery | 412 | 846 | 814 |
| Elementary | 250 | 256 | 234 |
| Lifesaver | 177 | 84 | 83 |
| 8,243,721 | 165 | 189 | 181 |
| First Responder | 151 | 454 | 372 |
| Third Time's A Charm | 111 | 170 | 169 |
| TheyLive | 108 | 25 | 25 |
| Egoist | 56 | 226 | 222 |
| 180° | 50 | 138 | 136 |
| Philantropist | 39 | 66 | 62 |
| Loungin' Around | 7 | 102 | 97 |
| Maverick | 7 | 10 | 10 |
| Polymath | 0 | 1,934 | 516 |
| Running Ragged | 0 | 256 | 80 |
+----------------------------+----------------------+---------------------+---------------+
| Total | 177,604 / 518,910 | 278,164 | 61,265 |
+----------------------------+----------------------+---------------------+---------------+
The top 8 hats awarded on Stack Overflow matched the overall network stats, but then 24, the gold badge hat, comes in as the most popular behind most of the date-based hats. Some takeaways:
Miscellaneous Things
There were a total of 8 users who earned all possible secret hats on a single site:
While we may have had a few issues aka bugs that unexpectedly popped up during Hat Season, I personally think it was a rousing success. Since hats were seen by all users on Stack Overflow, including anonymous users, initially we were concerned about performance impacts, but there were none.
As in previous years, I think the biggest that comes up during hat season is soul-selling for hats. We try extremely hard to create hats that encourage positive behavior and are for things users already do during their daily participation. Unfortunately, there are always cases where hats get the best of folks, and they go a bit crazy trying to earn them. I'm not sure what the solution is. Maybe no secrets hats? If all the triggers are known, then possibly it would minimize the amount of science to get a hat.
We also tried to space out when hats, specifically date based ones, were awarded. Winter Bash is typically about three weeks long, so if you earn all the hats in 1-2 days, it's a long 3 weeks of not having fun trying to earn new hats. Patience is virtue in many things, it's no different in hat season.
There are plenty of other stats that could be pulled about hats. If I think of something interesting, I'll post an update. Remember, if you have suggestions for next, chime in on this question. Thanks again for participating and having fun with us again this year. But for now...
