User blog comment:Agent M/Shout Box V.2/@comment-1915803-20120723032141/@comment-2047157-20120724031651

@ Kirkland:

No, I was not refering to you, rather, I was attempting to mention different use and noted badge-grabber *cough*Carsknower*cough* without trying to sound accusatory.

"I don't see why we should remove the badges. They're not really harmful even though they could make people overly competitive. Some people may see it as motivation.""

So in a way, badges are the appendix of a wiki: Not particularly neccesary, negligible to minor benefits at most, and occasionally "explodes" (a badge-grabber gets too hardcore) resulting in a time consuming cleanup of the reast of the wikis innards. I'm sure someone is going to argue that unlike the real thing, badges do not risk the life of the wiki, and removing a system of "achievements" is too much to deal with an uncommon pest. Which leads me to ask again...

Why do we have the badges in the first place, did we admins discuss with the community whether they may have wanted them, or did we just take the Populist route and assume "Hey, the comments were a good idea, then the badges must be as well."? As far as rewarding users for their contributions, shouldn't the realization that simply being willing to contribute to help better the encyclopedia about their favorite show be enough? If we absolutely, positively must have an achievement system to satisfy our egos. We should at most flesh out the old achievement award system, at least then we can confirm that they genuinely deserve their award. However, I refuse to tolerate an automated system on this wiki and that will always be so.

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And it only took eight hours to reply, wonderful...