Hello out there,
in my opinion there are useful badges, as well as there are worthless ones.
Take the badges concernig the size of a GeoCache for example. What sense does it make to achieve a Diamond-Status when collecting only small GeoCaches? I have achieved Bronze-Status only by finding four large-sized caches. And to be honest, two of them were actually rather regular sized.
Then I achieved Ruby-Status with 'The Author'. But that was per accident, because I like to express myself when finding a GeoCache worth to be commented in a positive way. When finding a dull GeoCache, I just don't find the words. Nevertheless there are GeoCachers publishing a Found-Log as follows: 'Today we went on a geocaching-trip. Cacher A, Cacher B, Cacher C were with me. We first found GeoCache A, then went to GeoCache B and finally found GeoCache C. And so on..., blah, blah, blah...' This is not worth to be rewarded at all, but many words make you obtain a high score in 'The Author' badge.
The fact that I am most proud of is, that I achieved Platinum-Status in 'The Favorite Cacher'. That shows other GeoCachers really appreciate my work. And there is little one can do to get higher rated, except for publishing more high-quality GeoCaches. Otherwise one only can wait, points to come in. This is one of my favourite badges for sure.
My second favourite is the 'The Travelling Cacher'. Here I am about 30 years too late, as I travelled about 25 countries in the 90's. Now I have Gold-Status for having visited GeoCaches in five different countries. But coming from Belgium I haven't cached neither in the Netherlands, nor in Luxemburg, which both isn't more than 80km away from my place. So I'm looking forward to achieve the next level quite soon.
My third favourite is, of course 'The Calendar Cacher' . Here continuity in GeoCaching is expressed in the best way. As I have no status here at all, this is the thing do in the following years.
Kind regards, Gubemax.