Well, did they test popularity of sites without fake internet points vs popularity of sites with, controlling for relevant factors? I skimmed through the post, and there wasn’t much actual data on what people do and why, just assertions.
That would account for reputation, not badges. (No one says “Hey, I got two answer from people with the same rep, but one has twice as many badges, so I’ll go with that one.”)
On the actual question, I’ve seen meta-posts on Stack Exchange complaining that they qualified for a badge and didn’t get it, so the stuff does matter somewhat.
Well, did they test popularity of sites without fake internet points vs popularity of sites with, controlling for relevant factors? I skimmed through the post, and there wasn’t much actual data on what people do and why, just assertions.
I thought the point of the points was to weed out the people whose “help” you don’t want.
That would account for reputation, not badges. (No one says “Hey, I got two answer from people with the same rep, but one has twice as many badges, so I’ll go with that one.”)
On the actual question, I’ve seen meta-posts on Stack Exchange complaining that they qualified for a badge and didn’t get it, so the stuff does matter somewhat.