User blog comment:MontagnaMagica/Achievements?/@comment-2225748-20110610051758

If you can use badges the right way, they're an excellent feature. They help reward dedicated users along with encourage them to make goals, and such. However I would recommend making a policy against "Badge Boosting". "Badge Boosting" is just one of those things you can't stop completely, but it's pretty clear at times when people are making superfluous edits in the same categories just to earn more badges; and, personally, I think that that is enough reason for at least a warning.

But yes - they do help a lot :).