Any chance we can have a lot less badges. It’s irritating to get notifications that you’ve been awarded a badge for posting your first emoji, first reply, first post, etc.
It’s overkill and distracting.
Not really, in my opinion.
We can do what you suggest, but the problem is… which ones? The badges that annoy you, might not for others. And other may be annoyed by ones you would leave in.
Alternatively, we could disable badges entirely, but I think the system has merit overall. I know the badges system doesn’t suite everyone, but my experience as an admin has been that it provides more benefit for those who like it, than annoyance for those who do not. It’s a net win, and has uses for more than just gamifying things (we’ve experimented with using them to mark skills or training courses, for example).
I get the annoyance - really I do, given I have accounts on a lot of Discourse sites. But, these easy-to-get badges will stop notifying you pretty quickly, because you already have them. They don’t email you (or trigger desktop notifications) and there is a Dismiss button on the notification list to make them go away there.
All that said, this is my opinion vs yours. So, I’ll leave the topic open - if we get more upvotes on this, fair enough 
How about getting rid of all the ‘first…’ ones. First emoji. First like.. I have to disagree with you. I’ve been a member of many forums too on different t platforms and while I agree that it’s good to label someone as admin, editor, basic, expert, etc. Compromise?
I’ve got to admit, some of them are stretching it a bit. First emoji seems a little on the silly side, however I’d argue first post is actually a useful data point when looking at user engagement.
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