I always found it odd that although I could compose [meta-tag:questions] and [meta-tag:answers] with [meta-tag:tags] in [meta-tag:markdown], I can't do the same for a [Great Question](http://meta.stackoverflow.com/badges/22/great-question), [Great Answer](http://meta.stackoverflow.com/badges/25/great-answer), or [any other badge](http://meta.stackoverflow.com/badges). I assume that this is because, outside of Meta Stack Overflow, there is no real need to reference badges? Be that as it may, would there be any interest in adding badges to Markdown?

I am envisioning a syntax similar to the one used for tags. For example,

> [badge:great-question] Question score of 100 or more. This badge can
> be awarded multiple times.

would be displayed as

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/b9GUh.png" alt="" title="Hosted by imgur.com" />

Note that *I am not proposing that you need to enter the badge description to display the badge.* Typing `[badge:great-question]` would be sufficient to display the "Great Question" badge. I used the badge description text in the example above only because it was easier to take a screenshot that way.