It seems that, although there are many opponents to the badge-oriented mechanism to involve users, considering it non-sense (see the comments on the TechCrunch’s blog entry), badges are an effective mechanism to get users participating. The point seems to be adding value to the “simple” fact of badge gathering.
You can read the whole article at http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/20/brightkite-badges/
Tags: badges, community, incentives, motivation, participation

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