We see them, we wan't them, but how exactly do we GET them? turns out they need to be earned. I've spent a bit of time looking for some guide on this, but haven't found anything that clearly explains how to Get these achievement things. I'm sure it's self explanatory to some, but I'll explain my findings here (let me know If I've misunderstood anything and I'll correct it here).

These are my findings on the 21st of September in the year 2014

Step 1: Featured Achievements

The featured achievements are for those whose instructable becomes "featured" on the instructables website. The only ones I know who can "feature" your instructable are those who Work for instructables. If you really want to get more featured instructables, consider making them your target audience (marketing 101). Look through past featured instructables to find who they were featured by and create a quality, original instructable that this person might be interested in.

If you're not too worried about it then just make good quality instructables that you enjoy, and when one of these editors think "What a great instructable" you'll have it! (maybe create an instructable you see a need for cough cough).

Here are the different levels of this achievement you can aim for:

Bronze- get a minimum one instructable featured - 1+

Silver- get a minimum ten instructables featured - 10+

Gold- get a minimum one hundred instructables featured - 100+

I'm not sure how easy It is to actually get one featured, but I imagine if you figure out how to make great instructables you'll have nothing to worry about.

*Update: Thanks to the editors for making this my first featured instructable. I've added some pics, they contacted me via instructables inbox, and as buck2217 pointed out in the comments, for being featured a reward was given in the form of 3 months pro membership. To make a Featured instructable means you have created something the editors would like to represent their website as a first impression to visitors.

Step 2: Viewing Achievements

At first I thought these were for profile views, though I realized instructables doesn't show profile views (this isn't facebook guys). I discovered that the little view icon on a profile page is the equivalent of all the views of all of the instructables made. In the example shown, you can see that adding the views of all three instructables gives you the total overall views. eg. 894 + 2,797 + 485 = 4,176 total views. In this example, instructables has rounded 2,797 to 2.8K in the preview icon, but clicking on the instructable will show you the actual number of views (and in some cases will count another view for looking at it).

So now that we know what these views are, we just need to get them. Here's the three levels available right now:

Bronze- get a minimum ten thousand views - 10K+

Silver- get a minimum one million views - 1M+

Gold- get a minimum ten million views - 10M+

The best way to get views is to make good quality instructables that others want to see, the more you make the more people will have to view.

Step 3: Comment Achievements

Probably the easiest achievements to earn, because they are all dependent on you! You don't even need to make an instructable to get these ones. What is considered a comment? At the end of every instructable there is a comment section. This is where you as an individual may post something for others to see, preferably relating to the instructable above. Every one of these counts as a comment. In addition, you have the ability to leave a reply on someone elses comment. I'm told that these also count as comments. *Orange boards do NOT add to your comment count.

Commenting is really easy. Last night someone commented on my newly published instructable, I got really excited, until I noticed they have been commenting on most new instructables that had been published. It's really that easy, just post a comment on every instructable you look at and you'll rack them up in no time flat.

Comments (in my opinion) should be a contribution to the topic or instructable at hand. Examples of a good comment: great use of materials; that seems redundant, could you explain why....; I would have never thought of that. Examples of a bad comment: That was stupid; Check out my website at spam.spamlicousmalware.con; I like kittens (the instructable has nothing to do with kittens); I just farted.

The Instructables website also has a "nice comment policy" which I have never read, but assume relates to the name of said policy.

Below, the different levels of this achievement:

Bronze - make a minimum of one hundred comments - 100+

Silver - make a minimum of five hundred comments - 500+

Gold- make a minimum of one thousand comments - 1k+

Step 4: Conclusion

In conclusion, It seems that the best way to earn these achievements is to make instructables of good quality and communicate with other makers through commenting.

I hope this helps a lot of you better understand these achievements, It took a surprising amount of time to figure them out for myself.

Cheers! and don't forget to post a comment below so you can earn your next achievement!