Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-5056929-20130104120051/@comment-1785597-20130111084323

Spike144 wrote: The people who want to keep the badge system say that badges can attract more users to the wiki, but other question is what people the badges attract.

People should come to the wiki and make contributions there, because they want to help the wiki and make it a better place for people who want to find some information there. Wikis are mainly an encyclopedia about a specific topic, not a game where people earn some points to get a higher position in the table or leaderboard.

When the wiki has some sort of table of users, it is mostly a list of people who are able to help to other users that are new on the wiki. Sadly our Special:Leaderboard is not that kind of table. It doesn't look good for the wiki, when the first position in the table is ocupied by person, whose editing skills (after several months on the wiki) are equal to users who have been contributing just for several weeks. I really don't want to attract more people to the wiki who think that they should get some special rights here just because they occupy a high position in some table. Very well said, great points there, kudos to you!

@Alfex:

I am just really...surprised to see that you (a former hardcore badge hunter) out of all people, stated that long post, which makes a hell of a good point. Very well said Mr. Alfex.