User blog comment:Intelligentgirl13/What's the reason of the new trend of badges Wikia has started?/@comment-2176623-20101013182718

I think these achievements are to encourage contributors. Rather than come-and-go, its trying to get them to stay. And its sparks a rivalry, hopefully causing contributors to try and make really good edits, but, you always get users making pointless edits just for the badges....