Renewing ranks but idea is missing

[TeroRe]

Hi guys,

I´m telco company´s CM and I have a problem with our ranks. I´d like to renew those but I don´t know how to. Ranks should be funny, innovative, something that member could be proud of, something what motivates members to play more and so on. I´d like to have some good story behind of those, good logic.

Any ideas? 🙂

These are the out of the box ranks and I found these are very boring:

• Honored Contributor
• Esteemed Contributor
• Respected Contributor
• Trusted Contributor
• Valued Contributor
• Super Contributor
• Regular Contributor
• Frequent Contributor
• Contributor
• Occasional Contributor
• New Contributor
• Senior Member
• Established Member
• Member
• New Member

P.s. I love Spotify´s ranks; ”Festifal fanatic”, ”Music lover”, ”Music fan”, ”Band member”, “Garage band”, “Radio star” etc. What would be the telco company´s thing (Like Spotify has music)?

P.s.s. It seems that GiffGaff don't use ranks at all. What´s the point? I keep thinking about if we quit using ranks also.

P.s.s.s. Should ranks always follow hierarchy: New member is on bottom and "best" member is on top? If yes why and if not why?

[BHall]

Hey @TeroRe, fellow telco CM here.  We revamped our ranks fairly recently. Our approach was to partner with our Brand team and specifically Copywriter, came up with 3 concepts to fit our desired number of ranks, and then went with our favorite.  We also partnered with Lithium professional services to make sure the ranking formulas made sense.

The new rank structure doesn't have much to do with a telecom"thing", it's based on our positioning as a lifestyle brand, offering customers experiences they may not get from competitors.

[TeroRe]

Thanks mate.

Could you please tell us what kind of ranking system do you have? I mean names, not formula 🙂 Or could you please send me a PM if you dont want to tell it public.

[BHall]

Sure! In addition to the ranks below, we have ranks for various internal positions/titles for employees, but they are assigned, not earned.

Legend

Wizard

Virtuoso

Mastermind

Sensei

Super Star

Genius

Guru

Rock Star

Hero

Champion

Fanatic

VIP

Heavy Hitter

Master

Enthusiast

Rising Star

Whiz Kid

Active

Starter

Rookie

Newbie

[TeroRe]

Thanks a lot. These give us a inspiration to think about ours.

If someone would like to tell yours ranks please feel free to tell 🙂

[TeroRe]

And one more thing, it seems that it is quote difficult to say ”who is in highest ladder”. For example, what’s the difference between ”Rock Star” and ”Super Star”? You dont find that is a problem to find out who has played more than other?

[DanK]

Like @BHall I recently completely overhauled our existing rank structure to implement something completely different. We had a mix of the default named ranks like yours and some we appended to the end. As community is about seeking/finding solutions we gave our rank structure a detective theme. Given there is no real way to determine how theme ranks relate with any accuracy we also numbered them from level 1-25.

To cater for new users AND superusers we actually have two rank types; normal and legendary. The first 20 ranks are a linear difficulty curve so each rank is slightly more difficult than the last. The final 5 ranks (21-25) are exponential so to get to rank 21 takes 2x the contribution of 20.

[TeroRe]

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wrote:

 As community is about seeking/finding solutions we gave our rank structure a detective theme. Given there is no real way to determine how theme ranks relate with any accuracy we also numbered them from level 1-25.

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Detective-theme sounds nice!

Just a make sure, you mean that your ranks are named for example like this:

- xxxx 7

- Private investigator 6

- Detective 5

- xxxx 4

- xxxx 3

- xxxx 2

- xxxx 1

So people can see the ranks name and number?

[DanK]

Correct, our first few ranks are;

Level 1: Cadet
Level 2: Rookie
Level 3: Gumshoe
Level 4: Private Eye
Level 5: Eagle Eye

[TeroRe]

Thanks @DanK, I really appreciate. This is definitely option for us also.

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Any thoughts and ideas are welcome, if you guys want to share something with me 🙂

[RobbL]

Hi @TeroRe. One of your questions in your original post was whether the rank names should follow a hierarchy. You will notice that the examples provided generally do that. Sometimes the distinction between two adjoining ranks is hard to determine, but, in general, you can tell the difference. And we have always recommended that as a best practice. We believe it serves as motivation to users as they see their own rank name change over time with increasing contributions, as well as communicates to other users something about the user who has posted a recommended solution to an issue. Additionally, we would recommend not having a top or ultimate rank, as we always want to encourage users to contribute more. Finally, if you roughly divide your rank structure into thirds, the bottom third should be for initial participation like log ins, and views, the center for more valued contributions such as posts, and the top for quality as measured by kudos and accepted solutions. The bottom third should allow for relatively quick movement so returning users experience change relatively quickly and easily.

Hope those suggestions help. I think the other shared examples are great.

[TeroRe]

Thanks for your thoughts @RobbL.

Every time I have new ideas about ranks I´m facing a problem how to recognise which level every member are. Some of them are always hard to recognise. And that problem maybe be solved with order numbers next to them.

If you look Spotify´s ranks, you can't say who is who.

[RobbL]

@TeroRe Of course, only from your own community, from Admin, Metrics, User Reports you can get a list of users by Rank.

[TeroRe]

Sorry Robbl, I meant members/visitors doesn't recognise the hierarchy.

[SamR]

You could simply point members to a post where you show your full rank hierarchy and explain roughly what sort of metrics drive progression. I think getting a structure in which you can intuitively figure out exactly who is where in the hierarchy usually means you have numbers or military ranks or something like that. not always best suited. 

We've thought about progress indicators too. This means you can have fewer ranks overall (therefore making it easier to come up with names that intuitively tell end users what order the ranks are in). 

So like, 

Newb *

Newb **

Newb ***

Newb ****

Newb *****

Getting there *

Getting there **

Getting there ***

And so on.  

Our names are based on TV/film production roles, from Runner up to Exec producer. With pretty much linear progression and a passive tier/active tier. 

[TeroRe]

Thanks SamR.

Hmm, I´m not sure about this:

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wrote:

You could simply point members to a post where you show your full rank hierarchy

Because members should play more and find out what ranks there still is. But I think it is good idea to point a post where I explain ranks what has been earned so far. They can find a structure there.

And one lesson I have learnt is that you should not tell your metrics behind of ranks because then members can play and earn ranks with a wrong way.

Edit: And I like those stars as a progress indicator also.

[SamR]

I'm not saying publish the ranking formula, just a list of the ranks and a hint or two on what powers progression. Although it is pretty obvious, take part in the community to progress!

You can always add in some hidden ranks above your full structure for the power users. 🙂 

We decided to post our full list because we found it made the conversation easier when dealing with someone who was confused but it all. This was worse in the past when we had rank names that could have been seen to carry expectations around knowledgeability of the user. "what makes that person better than me" that sort of thing. To which we respond, "it's a bit of fun - have a look here >>>"

I'm hoping some of the capability from Jive comes over soon. I like the specialisations section on the Apple community for example. 

[TeroRe]

SamR wrote:

I'm hoping some of the capability from Jive comes over soon. I like the specialisations section on the Apple community for example. 

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Tell more about this? Or from where I can read more?

[TeroRe]

I don´t start a new topic for this: Do you use complex ranks?

I mean for example, VIP-members rank is VIP. But if I add something to it, like Spotify-Gugu so certain user´s special rank would be like "VIP & Spotify-Guru".

Is it ok to use this kind of ranks, or it doesn't matter at all?

[hausmus]

Hi, I may be a little late in helping on this topic, but I've come up with leaderboard level names for a few communities and I always try to focus on the industry terminology, artifacts, and history to come up with names. Try to think of things that level up in your field, such as storage space, history of technology, etc. I supported a building efficiency community and we made our levels floors of a building, skipping floor 13 and ending at the penthouse. In my current community, we use data rate units for leaderboard level names. Some examples to come up with something creative. 🙂 

[RyanMcClelland]

@TeroRe, from what I've seen in browsing other communities, the super-user designation (like VIP or Rockstar) is often separate from the community rank and is displayed as a separate icon by the username. A VIP member can still rank up based on their activity even though they're in that elite group.

Another thing to think about - a rank is earned according to a specific formula, so how would a member attain the guru designation? Would that be awarded by the CM or would it be based on the user making X amount of posts about a certain subject? I would think of that as a special title, but not a replacement for their current rank.

[RyanMcClelland]

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@hausmuswrote:

Hi, I may be a little late in helping on this topic, but I've come up with leaderboard level names for a few communities and I always try to focus on the industry terminology, artifacts, and history to come up with names. Try to think of things that level up in your field, such as storage space, history of technology, etc. I supported a building efficiency community and we made our levels floors of a building, skipping floor 13 and ending at the penthouse. In my current community, we use data rate units for leaderboard level names. Some examples to come up with something creative. 🙂 

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Those are some good examples. I'm struggling with this right now as my company works to launch our customer community. We are in financial services, so it's tough to think of something topical yet fun.

[TeroRe]

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@hausmuswrote:

Hi, I may be a little late in helping on this topic, but I've come up with leaderboard level names for a few communities and I always try to focus on the industry terminology, artifacts, and history to come up with names. Try to think of things that level up in your field, such as storage space, history of technology, etc. I supported a building efficiency community and we made our levels floors of a building, skipping floor 13 and ending at the penthouse. In my current community, we use data rate units for leaderboard level names. Some examples to come up with something creative. 🙂 

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 Thanks hausmus, you are not late 🙂 Good ideas, we have to think about those. Could you please tell more about those ”data rate units”-ranks? 🙂

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@RyanMcClellandwrote:

@TeroRe, from what I've seen in browsing other communities, the super-user designation (like VIP or Rockstar) is often separate from the community rank and is displayed as a separate icon by the username. A VIP member can still rank up based on their activity even though they're in that elite group.

Thanks Ryan. Our superusers are recognised with VIP rank. But I have forgotten, it can be as a icon also and like you said then they can rank up like other users. Thanks for this!

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@RyanMcClellandwrote:
Another thing to think about - a rank is earned according to a specific formula, so how would a member attain the guru designation? Would that be awarded by the CM or would it be based on the user making X amount of posts about a certain subject? I would think of that as a special title, but not a replacement for their current rank.

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”Guru” or other special ranks, so far we have created a competitions where members can win a special ranks for them. I have thinking about if I grant special ranks, just because I know them and their skills.

Summary:

- We should display VIP as a icon, not a rank

- Then VIP’s can earn ranks like any other members

- Then I can give special ranks for them, if I like, and they are still VIP’s because of VIP icon

Now I need just a good idea about how to renew ranks 😄

[ClaudiusH]

Here's another example: The Alteryx community themed around data analytics picked an astronomical theme:
https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Welcome-to-the-Alteryx-Community/User-Ranks-FAQs/td-p/10

And another from the Google Advertister community that went the route outlined by @SamR with sub-ranks in reach rank level:
https://www.en.advertisercommunity.com/t5/Help-Resources/New-Community-Ranking-System/ba-p/906863

What both theses announcements in their "About the  Community" area have in common is that they show how you can share the complete rank structure (minus the formulae). Instead they explain broadly that your passive and - weighted more - active participation in the community will allow members to progress through the rank structure.

[TeroRe]

Excellent, thanks a lot @ClaudiusH I got lot´s of ideas for us. I really appreciate 👍

[TeroRe]

I noticed, there says:

...earn points by sharing posts on social media...

Is this out of the box -feature, I can't find anything related to this in our admin?

[hausmus]

@RyanMcClelland, so this may sound super cheesy, or not work, but what about place and/or decimal value levels. 

[RyanMcClelland]

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@hausmuswrote:

@RyanMcClelland, so this may sound super cheesy, or not work, but what about place and/or decimal value levels. 

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Not cheesy! I'm really liking the Google Advertisers example @ClaudiusH shared, with most of the ranks having levels within them. We might do something similar with ranks indicating level of activity, but marry that with some of our branded visuals. 

[ClaudiusH]

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@RyanMcClelland wrote:

Not cheesy! I'm really liking the Google Advertisers example @ClaudiusH shared, with most of the ranks having levels within them. We might do something similar with ranks indicating level of activity, but marry that with some of our branded visuals. 

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 The only challenge I see with sub-levels within ranks is how you reliably present them in the global rank. Think of a first time visitor to your community (which most likely is the majority of your visitors) and them seeing two messages next to each other. One message from a member with rank "Talkalot (Level 3)" and "Rumor Mill (Level 1)". The "Talkalot" rank is actually the lower one. So you need to look at carefully crafting rank icon imagery that ensures "Level 1/2/3" within the rank name doesn't overtake the global rank structure.

[RyanMcClelland]

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@ClaudiusHwrote:

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@RyanMcClellandwrote:

Not cheesy! I'm really liking the Google Advertisers example @ClaudiusH shared, with most of the ranks having levels within them. We might do something similar with ranks indicating level of activity, but marry that with some of our branded visuals. 

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 The only challenge I see with sub-levels within ranks is how you reliably present them in the global rank. Think of a first time visitor to your community (which most likely is the majority of your visitors) and them seeing two messages next to each other. One message from a member with rank "Talkalot (Level 3)" and "Rumor Mill (Level 1)". The "Talkalot" rank is actually the lower one. So you need to look at carefully crafting rank icon imagery that ensures "Level 1/2/3" within the rank name doesn't overtake the global rank structure.

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That's good advice, @ClaudiusH. I've browsed at a lot of communities as I brainstorm on this, and one thing I don't like about clever rank names is they tend not to give any indication of progression or hierarchy. As appealing as it would be to come up with something fun, I'd be okay with boring rank names as long as they are clear and don't cause confusion.