Thread:J Fan/@comment-4768652-20120302134835/@comment-4898132-20120302135730

To answer you question: as far as I know, I don't think these are intentionally made to be a "contest"...but as a sort of "boost" to get those interested in making edits.

But the way I see it, IMO, the badges are just a silly way of bringing competition into editing process. But as people seem to be interested in doing it, me and the other admin decided to activate them.