Not spam.  The badges came about with the recent updates and simply further identify each member.  If you look around, you'll see that there are badges for windows users, linux users, apple users, and mobile users.  You also earn a badge for every five years you are a member, for contributing 1000+ posts on the forum, and for being a contributing photographer.  There may be others as well, but those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.  Have a great weekend!


Dwayne