Absolutely agree w/ Lisa.
As Autodesk is a large well established community thinking through any modification of Rank Structure is critical, glad to see you reaching out for best practices.
As far as how to go about it? I'll list a few things we go over in much detail during our Gamification workshops w/ clients here and look for the community to chime in.
Make sure you are thinking through how Ranks > Category experts and Badges all work together, each provide something different and should be deployed accordingly. Basically what we're saying here is to avoid awarding users for the same achievements using different features: [ ranks , rank icons, badges & achievement indicators in signatures & avatars]
As lisa poointed out, focus your energies on how your community personas have evolved over time, as ranking systems rely on the competitive instinct of users to reach the next level, similar to advancing in a video game, the competitive nature will apply to many users [achievers, killers] but may not be key drivers for others [socializers and killers] making a rank nomenclature that spans all of these groups is key, and not an easy task. our recommendation, grab a piece of paper and draw out your rank structure in a visual format - try a mind-mapping exercise to align new or evolvoing rank naming to the ethos of your community of players.
Finally, creating an engaging rank ladder is key: in this step try to think through how to make it easy to move up for the socializer, then slightly more challenging for the explorers and achievers and finally superusers [killers]
putting your game designer hat on, identify a game that fits your design strategy and on a pience of paper try to mimic the gradually increasing difficulty levels of a game
consider a healthy balance between ability to rank up and the level of challenge
dont forget to make it fun and a challenge involving elements of surprise
Good luck,
- Xavier
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