On reputation, badges and Buddhist principles

Question

I hear sometimes that a Buddhist person shouldn't speak about his/her accomplishments. For example, someone shouldn't call himself an arhat. But does it limit to the spiritual path alone, or does it extend to other secular things, like reputations and badges in buddhism.stackexchange?

Do you think that showing reputation and badges near to the user avatars goes against that principle?

Would it be possible to hide these "numeric details" in the flairs (those little user reputation summaries around the site)?

Answer 1

First of all, the format of the site is not really up to us; the site belongs to StackExchange and they determine the layout of the site for the most part (full-fledged sites have some control over style and formatting). Since this is the case, I don't see the breach on the part of a Buddhist concerned for their own humility.

Further, reputation is a good measure of both a user's commitment and the quality of their participation. Allowing others to see it provides potential reassurance as to their authority on the site's subject matter.

Finally, the concept of withholding one's accomplishments only extends to supermundane states; it is expected that Buddhists should be able to see beyond mundane accomplishments and not judge a person's worth based on, e.g., their ability to answer questions.