Facebook coming through with some pretty gross new UI changes, now adding little badge icons next to some people’s names indicating that they are a “Conversation Starter”, “Visual Storyteller”, and possibly others.

Really raises some questions for me. Mainly, what are their goals for this “feature”?

• To boost engagement of people who want to earn a particular little badge? (“Oh, I’ve got to post more photos!”)
• To boost engagement of people who see the badges? (“Ooh, I wanna join in these conversations they’re starting!”)
• To make people without badges feel uninteresting?