The Beta badge is supposed to be awarded when you:
Voted 10 times, added 3 posts score > 0, and visited the site on 3 separate days during the private beta.
But there are plenty of us who've voted a lot more than 10 times, contributed a lot more than 3 positively-scored posts, and visited the site on all 4 days of private beta so far. Yet nobody has been awarded this badge. Why not?
What are the 'unspoken' criteria for the Beta badge?
The Beta badge is not awarded before the site enters public beta. Let's look at the newest site to enter public beta Internet of Things. Private beta started on December 12th, and public beta started on January 3rd - which was when all 19 people to get the Beta badge were awarded it.
So, we all have a couple more weeks to go before we can get it - assuming, of course, Literature Stack Exchange makes it to public beta, which we can't take for granted. I can tell you from experience that getting the badge makes you feel like you've done your part, and there's less motivation to keep contributing - not what you want to happen during the private beta. Thus, the badge isn't awarded until we've all gotten through the critical period.
