While Atlassian probably thinks of this as a harmless "social aspect" of their product eco-system. Not all of use users are extroverts or have any interest in playing these games or getting into competition with our co-workers.
Personally .. I just find it insulting, these cutesy little social/community additions. Especially when I'm 'auto-signed up' for the experience.
Rising Stars are recognized for providing high-quality answers to other users. Rising Stars receive a certificate of achievement and are on the path to becoming Community Leaders.
Go to profile -> Manage Settings -> Notifications and turn off the emails about them
Ignore them
There was a thread recently about this on the original "badges are new" thread, which explained those two options, and there's a note about investigating other options in Khoros ( although I suspect the badges would still remain visible to other users as indicators of activity, important to social platforms)
