These seem to be the premises of the discussion atm:
- Earning a badge reinforces the behaviour it requires.
- Seeing someone else has a badge raises awareness that that is a desirable behaviour.
The problem is point 2. If we turn the badges into a single number, what does that mean? All it grants you is the ability to compare how obedient two users are. I would put forth this is the least useful thing you, as a user of a small forum, would want to know… a Discourse forum is not Stackoverflow. Surely a badge system should be user-centric, allowing a user to display why they are awesome? A user should be proud of their badge, it shouldn’t be something arbitrary. So, I think a system like Steam’s would be best for users (you get to choose one badge for your profile). For this reason I think we should avoid “educational” badges like “like a post” as they don’t offer any emotional value. Instead “you’ve spent 72hrs on the forum!” or “it’s been 5 years since you joined!” or “your shared links have brought the most traffic to the forum!”
Having said that, I do think calculating a number could be very useful for the staff of a large forum. Given the number would essentially differentiate a dedicated user from a casual one, it could perhaps be useful for moderating arguments?
I’m sure I’m going to be in the minority here, and I’m sure the difference is because of the size of forum I run vs Meta or Greenheart Games… on a larger forum individualism is perhaps not so important.