Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-10975360-20131008160050/@comment-4621372-20131008190918

Yes, Badges do create spam, but no one really uses it to rank users.

Same for edit count actually. Many of the most prolific editors aren't exactly... respected. Those who mainly post (implausibly and with bad spelling/grammar) on map game pages are, how shall I say, not really high in the hierarchy, despite their edit counts.