Are Badges done?

I'll be honest, I never really ventured into the Badge Shop beyond initially looking at it when it was first opened, but I was curious about it and noticed this message today:

Welcome to the Badge Shop. We have this so we can have some fun with donating money to the wiki operating fund. You buy some of our imaginary currency, 'tropies' (symbol: <SYMBOL EXCISED FROM HERE BECAUSE IT'S MESSING WITH THE MARKUP OF THIS POST>). The real money you buy them with goes into the operating fund. We put 1Þ in your account for each USD dollar donated. You can use those tropies to buy badges for yourself, or send them as gifts to other tropers.

The tropie 'currency' is no longer for sale. The badge sales never got to a level where it paid for itself, much less helped pay for the wiki, so we're bringing the tropey to an end. We'll come up with some other way for people to acquire the badges.

When did this happen? I don't remember there ever being an announcement for it (and a forum search turns up nothing on the matter). I did try clicking the button to purchase "tropeys", but all it did was start loading a page that never even came up. I feel like there should be some sort of message there (like, "Sorry, purchase of Tropeys is unavailable at this time/for the foreseeable future/whatever") at least if that button is going to remain.

Plus, while I realize previously purchased badges remain (obviously, considering how much they stretch people's posts when they make a short post), will there ever be a way for tropers to obtain badges again? Seems a shame to have an entire section of the site that is literally unusable now, especially for people who never bothered to get a badge when they were the new hotness or for newer members who see the badges everyone else has and want one of their own.

edited 2nd May '14 10:12:54 PM by Odd1

On one hand, I feel special for owning several of the now Limited Edition Badges. On the other hand, I too am curious as to if/when we will be able to obtain more. It's a shame that they weren't paying for themselves, but surely there is some manner in which we can still obtain them.

No word on this?

You quoted the message yourself, Odd: "We'll come up with some other way for people to acquire the badges."

And y'all will be notified when we do.