I'm sure some people do care about their follower/badge count. I did before I hit around 40 but more as a sign that I was integrating in the community. It's nice to get a badge on a bit of content that you think people should check out, means that more people might see it. I don't care about total badge count but it's a lift when something you thought carefully about gets a badge. My favorite thing I ever posted on Hubski didn't get a badge but the reception of it was warm enough that I was just as pleased. https://hubski.com/m/pub?id=93262 I don't know that I would have been any happier to have a badge on it, hadn't written anything creative non-fiction wise in over a year when I pushed that out while more than a little drunk one night, and it I suppose making it was as rewarding as anything anyone else would have had to say about it.