[Meme] Your Value as a Coder is Not Defined by Microsoft Corporation (It's Only Illusions and 'Gamification' a la Social Control Media)
GitHub is waning. Does that mean you, a used [sic] of GitHub, become a worse programmer? Currencies and yardsticks of Microsoft lack significance and relevance outside this microcosm. One day GitHub will be offline, just like CodePlex and Google Code (not updated in 7 years).
GitHub "followers": how many Microsoft stooges toggled/flicked a binary flag on my Microsoft account or Microsoft-controlled project, signalling to a private database of Microsoft that we are connected
GitHub badges (or "Achievements"): Some gamification designed to make me "addicted" and less willing to leave (for fear of losing some worthless, meaningless PNG/GIF files)
Nobody on his or her deathbed will look back and regret not gaining more Microsoft "followers" and badges. It boils down to time-wasting like LinkedIn.