Aurora: About member Ranks and ranking formulas
Most online communities use a series of ranks to recognize and reward community members. When they first join a community, members typically receive a “newbie” rank. As members spend time creating and engaging with content in the community, they can advance in rank. Rank titles are visible on community member’s profiles as well as the Account menu. The criteria required for achieving ranks, however, are not visible to non-admins. About Ranks About ranking formulas About Ranks A rank is essentially the set of criteria a member must meet and the rewards the member receives as a result. The criteria for a rank typically measure a member's activity in the community over time. For higher ranks, you may want to include criteria that measure the quality of community contributions in the form of number of solutions accepted or average ratings. The rewards for a rank tend to be increased recognition in the form of special icons or styling for the member’s username and access to privileges that are otherwise restricted. Ranks should be organized in order of how difficult they are to achieve. The most difficult ranks to achieve should be displayed at the top of the ranking structure on the Ranks page and have lower numbers (shown to the left of the rank) associated with them. The higher the rank level number is, the easier that rank is to achieve and the lower it is shown in the ranking structure. For instance, 0 is the lowest rank level number in your ranking structure, but it is the hardest rank to achieve. When creating your ranks, keep this hierarchy in mind—that is, don’t put ranks in a random order or organize them alphabetically. If you don’t organize them by difficulty of achievement, they will not be awarded appropriately across the community. Ranks are calculated when a member signs in to the community or shortly after (about 15 minutes) the member has met the criteria for the rank. Note: A member can hold only one rank at a time. The most common events that affect a member's rank are: Number of Tags applied to content Registration age Minutes online Number of sign-ins Number of page views Number of posts created Accepted Solutions granted Likes received Likes given Role required (e.g., the “Moderator” role is required for the “Moderator” rank) You can also create your own ranking formula, which can include a lot more. When you first launch your community, you have a set of default ranks already created. However, you may want to add more lower-level ranks to enable members to progress more quickly and get instant reinforcement. As your community matures, you may want to add higher-level ranks that are more difficult to achieve. About ranking formulas A ranking formula is a Boolean expression composed of values for a subset of the member metrics in the system plus a variety of operators (such as and, or, not, less than, more than). If the Boolean expression equals true (this means the member meets the criteria), the member receives the rank. The operator you choose makes a big difference in the results produced by a formula. For example, you might require members to have more than 200 page views and no fewer than 20 posts. Or, you might require members to have at least 20 posts or more than 200 page views. In the first example, the member must meet both criteria before attaining the rank. In the second example, the member can achieve the rank by meeting either criterion. When you define a rank using the predefined metrics, we add an implicit “AND,” which means that members must meet all of the criteria before receiving the rank (this is the most common way to combine multiple criteria). Related topics: Create a rank Create a ranking formula About default community ranksAurora: Create a ranking formula
For a rank to work as intended, you need to write a ranking formula outlining the criteria needed for a member to achieve that rank. Our default ranks already have criteria associated with them; you can use these for a quick Ranks setup or you can view them for more examples on how ranking formulas are written. The format for a formula is: (variable operator value) Boolean operator (variable operator value) A variable is one of the member metrics captured by the system. Examples of member metrics include number of accepted solutions, number of posts, number of post views, and number of minutes online. Note:To view a list of the Aurora member metrics you can use in your ranking formulas, refer toMember metrics for ranking formulas. A value is the measurement that you want the metric to have. A value can be numeric or alphabetic. For example, if the metric is minutes online, the value will be a specific number of minutes. If the metric is user ID, the value will be a username. The operator indicates the relationship between the metric and the value. The relationship can be numerical or text-based. These are the operators you can use: Operator Description == Equal (numeric or text) != Not Equal (numeric or text) >= Greater Than or Equal <= Less Than or Equal + Text Concatenation + Numerical Plus - Numerical Minus * Numerical Multiply / Numerical Divide The Boolean operator defines a relationship between two or more variable expressions. Each variable that you set as a criterion is a separate expression. You can use these Boolean operators: Operator Description ! Boolean Not && Boolean And || Boolean Or You must enclose each variable expression (variable + operator + value) in parentheses. You can also combine variables to calculate values that the system may not otherwise provide. For example, to calculate the number of posts a member has made, you would start with the posts metric and subtract the deleted_posts metric. In a formula, it would look like this: (posts - deleted_posts>=35) Posts - deleted_posts is the variable, >= is the operator, and 35 is the value. Here is a more complex example containing many metrics—it defines the age of the account, the number of content contributions (e.g., posts, articles, and comments), and the community engagement level (e.g., number of accepted solutions and likes) required for achieving the rank: (registrationAge >= 259200) && ((((net_threads) + (net_replies*2) + (net_blog_articles*10) + (net_blog_comments) + (net_idea_threads*5) + (net_idea_comments) + (net_contributed_posts*5) + (net_published_tkb_articles*10) + (net_tkb_comments)) >=7000)||(overall_posts >10500)) && (((net_accepted_solutions*10) + (net_kudos_weight_given) + (net_kudos_weight_received*2) + (tagging_tag_count)) >=2800) Custom fields that have been added to your community can also be included in ranking formulas. For example, a ranking formula composed entirely of custom fields may look like this: ((userInfo("c_fields_int.total_courses_count"))+(userInfo("c_fields_int.total_pathways_count"))+(userInfo("c_fields_int.academy_signin_count")*10)>=200) && userInfo("c_fields_string.favorite_disney_character")=="Mickey" Written in a standard mathematical expression, this translates to: (Total Khoros Academy Courses Completed) + (Total Khoros Academy Learning Pathways Completed) + (Academy Sign-ins Count * 10) >= 200 AND Favorite Disney Character = Mickey This means that a member receives the rank only when the combined total of their completed Khoros Academy courses, learning pathways, and sign-ins multiplied by 10 is greater than or equal to 200… and their favorite Disney character listed on their member profile is Mickey. To compose a ranking formula: Go to Admin > Settings > Users > Ranks. In the row of the rank whose formula you want to edit, open the Options menu and then Edit (or select Add Rank to add a new rank with a formula). In the Criteria field, enter the formula you want to use. Select Save Changes. The rank now uses the criteria from the formula you added. Related topics: About member Ranks and ranking formulas Create a rank Member metrics for ranking formulasAurora: Member metrics for ranking formulas
You can include any per-member metrics in your ranking formulas. However, you cannot use per-post metrics or metrics that relate to general areas of the community, like groups. You can include any of the following member metrics as variables in your ranking formulas. Note: This is not a complete list but rather a list of the more common member metrics that you may consider using in your formulas. Accepted solutions accepted_solutions The member’s total number of accepted solutions. This number includes any accepted solutions that might have been revoked. See also net_accepted_solutions. net_accepted_solutions The member’s total number of solutions that were accepted during a period minus those that were revoked during the same period. net_other_solved_accepted_solutions The member’s total accepted solutions to someone else’s question minus those that were revoked during the same period. net_self_solved_accepted_solutions The member’s total accepted solutions to the member’s own questions minus those that were revoked. author_accepted_solutions The total number of solutions accepted by the author. author_revoked_solutions The total number of solutions that were revoked by the question's author. mod_accepted_solutions The total number of posts written by any member that were marked by a moderator as solutions. You can view this metric for specific moderators or for all moderators. mod_revoked_solutions The number of times a moderator has revoked an accepted solution. net_solved_threads The number of solved discussions started by a member minus the number of solved discussions started by the same member or that were revoked. This is the net change in the number of solved discussions started by this member. net_solved_threads_to_net_threads ratio The number of net solved discussions divided by the number of net discussions. Note: This ratio is not cumulative; it covers activity only during the period selected. The longer the period, the more useful this metric is likely to be. solution_revoked_threads The number of times solutions written by any member were later revoked. solutions_marked The number of times the member has marked a post as a solution. solutions_unmarked The number of times the member has revoked a post marked as a solution. solved_threads The number of times discussions written by any member have been marked as solved. other_solved_accepted_solutions The member’s total number of solutions to someone else’s questions that were accepted by anyone in the community. other_solved_revoked_solutions The member’s total number of solutions to someone else’s question that were revoked. revoked_solutions The member’s total number of accepted solutions that were revoked. self_solved_accepted_solutions The member’s total number of solutions to the member’s own questions that were accepted by anyone in the community. self_solved_revoked_solutions The member’s total number of solutions to the member’s own questions that were revoked. Blog activity blog_page_views The number of times a member has viewed blog-related pages. blog_article_views The number of times a member has viewed blog articles. blog_articles The number of articles a member has posted to blogs. blog_comments The number of comments that a member has posted to blogs. General community activity logins The number of times the member has signed in to the community. minutes_online The total number of minutes the member has been logged in to the community. video_upload_complete_count The number of videos a member has successfully uploaded to the community. image_upload_count The total number of images a member has uploaded to the community regardless of their size. Content metrics posts The total number of discussion posts—both new discussions and replies—the member has posted. This includes any posts that have been deleted. You may want to calculate the net number of posts by subtracting deleted posts. See also deleted_posts. overall_posts The overall number of posts across all types of content (forums, blogs, etc.) Metric results for custom date ranges reflect the time zone defined in your profile. Administrators who have set a different time zone in their profile see different metrics results for these custom date ranges. replies The number of replies to content the member has posted. This includes any replies that have been deleted. You may want to calculate the net number of replies by subtracting deleted replies. threads The total number of new discussions the member has started. This includes any discussions that have been deleted. You may want to calculate the net number of discussions by subtracting deleted ones. totalposts_per_thread The total number of posts a member posted divided by the number of discussions the member started during the same time interval. deleted_posts The number of the member’s posts that have been deleted. deleted_threads The number of discussions the member has started that were also deleted. net_contributed_posts The number of contributed or linked posts minus the number of contributed or linked posts removed. Tagging activity tagging_avg_tags_per_message The average number of tags the member has applied across all posts. tagging_tag_count The total number of tags the member has applied. KB activity published_tkb_articles The number of KB articles a member has published. tkb_articles The number of KB articles a member has started. tkb_comments The number of comments a member has posted to a KB. nominated_messages The number of posts that a member has made that have been nominated to be included in a KB. Viewing metrics board_views The number of times a member viewed the overview page for a forum. message_views The number of posts the member has viewed. page_views The number of community pages the member has viewed. Likes kudos_events_received The number of times this author's posts have received Likes. kudos_events_received_revoked The number of times this author's Likes have been revoked. net_kudos_events_received The number of times this author's posts have received Likes minus the number of times this author's Likes have been revoked. kudos_weight_received The sum of the Likes weight for this author's posts that have received Likes. kudos_weight_revoked The sum of the Likes weight for this author's posts that have had Likes revoked. kudos_events_given The number of times this member gave Likes. kudos_events_given_revoked The number of times Likes given by this member were revoked. net_kudos_events_given The number of times this member gave Likes minus the times Likes given by this member were revoked. kudos_weight_given The sum of the Likes weight for Likes this member gave. net_kudos_weight_given The sum of Likes given minus the sum of Likes that were revoked. Likes here are measured by the net Likes weight for this member. net_kudos_weight_received The sum of Likes this author received minus the sum of Likes that were revoked. Likes here are measured by the net Likes weight for this member. In addition to the member metrics, you can add these special variables in your ranking formulas. contributionScore Overall knowledge base contribution score. registrationAge The number of minutes since the member registered in the community. userId The numeric ID associated with a member account. userInfo Include a custom field that is present on your user entity. Related topics: About member Ranks and ranking formulas Create a rank Create a ranking formulaAbout default Aurora community ranks
Aurora communities include a set of pre-defined, default ranks. Review these out-of-the-box ranks and their associated ranking formulas and decide which ones you want to include in your community rank structure. The default ranks we’ve provided have the following names and ranking formulas: Rank Formula Khoros hasRole("Khoros") Community Manager hasRole("Administrator") Moderator hasRole("Moderator") Honored Contributor (registrationAge >= 300000) && ((net_threads) + (net_replies*2) + (net_blog_articles*10) + (net_blog_comments*1) + (net_idea_threads*5) + (net_idea_comments) + (net_published_tkb_articles*10) + (net_tkb_comments) + (net_accepted_solutions*15) + (net_kudos_weight_given*2) + (net_kudos_weight_received*4) >= 222500) Esteemed Contributor (registrationAge >= 250000) && ((net_threads) + (net_replies*2) + (net_blog_articles*10) + (net_blog_comments*1) + (net_idea_threads*5) + (net_idea_comments) + (net_published_tkb_articles*10) + (net_tkb_comments) + (net_accepted_solutions*15) + (net_kudos_weight_given*2) + (kudos_weight_received*4) >= 100000) Respected Contributor (registrationAge >= 200000) && ((net_threads) + (net_replies*2) + (net_blog_articles*10) + (net_blog_comments*1) + (net_idea_threads*5) + (net_idea_comments) + (net_published_tkb_articles*10) + (net_tkb_comments) + (net_accepted_solutions*15) + (net_kudos_weight_given*2) + (kudos_weight_received*4) >= 50000) Trusted Contributor (registrationAge >= 175000) && ((net_threads) + (net_replies*2) + (net_blog_articles*10) + (net_blog_comments*1) + (net_idea_threads*5) + (net_idea_comments) + (net_published_tkb_articles*10) + (net_tkb_comments) + (net_accepted_solutions*15) + (net_kudos_weight_given*2) + (kudos_weight_received*4) >= 30000) Valued Contributor (registrationAge >= 150000) && ((net_threads) + (net_replies*2) + (net_blog_articles*10) + (net_blog_comments*1) + (net_idea_threads*5) + (net_idea_comments) + (net_published_tkb_articles*10) + (net_tkb_comments) + (net_accepted_solutions*15) + (net_kudos_weight_given*2) + (kudos_weight_received*4) >= 20000) Super Contributor (registrationAge >= 120000) && ((net_threads) + (net_replies*2) + (net_blog_articles*10) + (net_blog_comments*1) + (net_idea_threads*5) + (net_idea_comments) + (net_published_tkb_articles*10) + (net_tkb_comments) + (net_accepted_solutions*15) + (net_kudos_weight_given*2) + (kudos_weight_received*4) >= 5000) Regular Contributor (registrationAge >= 86400) && ((net_threads) + (net_replies*2) + (net_blog_articles*10) + (net_blog_comments*1) + (net_idea_threads*5) + (net_idea_comments) + (net_published_tkb_articles*10) + (net_tkb_comments) + (net_accepted_solutions*15) + (net_kudos_weight_given*2) + (kudos_weight_received*4) >= 2000) Frequent Contributor (registrationAge >= 43200) && ((net_threads) + (net_replies*2) + (net_blog_articles*10) + (net_blog_comments*1) + (net_idea_threads*5) + (net_idea_comments) + (net_published_tkb_articles*10) + (net_tkb_comments) + (net_accepted_solutions*15) + (net_kudos_weight_given*2) + (kudos_weight_received*4) >= 750) Contributor (registrationAge >= 10080) && ((net_threads) + (net_replies*2) + (net_blog_articles*10) + (net_blog_comments*1) + (net_idea_threads*5) + (net_idea_comments) + (net_published_tkb_articles*10) + (net_tkb_comments) + (net_accepted_solutions*15) + (net_kudos_weight_given*2) + (kudos_weight_received*4) >= 200) Occasional Contributor (registrationAge >= 5670) && ((net_threads) + (net_replies*2) + (net_blog_articles*10) + (net_blog_comments*1) + (net_idea_threads*5) + (net_idea_comments) + (net_published_tkb_articles*10) + (net_tkb_comments) + (net_accepted_solutions*15) + (net_kudos_weight_given*2) + (kudos_weight_received*4) >= 50) New Contributor (registrationAge >= 2880) && ((net_threads) + (net_replies*2) + (net_blog_articles*10) + (net_blog_comments*1) + (net_idea_threads*5) + (net_idea_comments) + (net_published_tkb_articles*10) + (net_tkb_comments) + (net_accepted_solutions*15) + (net_kudos_weight_given*2) + (kudos_weight_received*4) >=1) Senior Member (registrationAge >= 43200) && (overall_posts==0) && ((message_views*.25)+(net_kudos_weight_given*2) >= 10000) Established Member (registrationAge >= 43200) && (overall_posts==0) && ((message_views*.25)+(net_kudos_weight_given*2) >= 5000) Regular Visitor (registrationAge >= 43200) && (overall_posts==0) && ((message_views*.25)+(net_kudos_weight_given*2) >= 2500) For each of the provided ranks you intend to use, you should change the name to reflect the personality of your community. For example, if your brand is focused on music, you might want to reflect that theme in your ranks ("Beginner,""Rock Star,""Conductor"). Or, you might want to use more general rank names like"New Member,""Top Contributor,""Expert," or"Esteemed Contributor" that reflect a member’s status, contributions, and influence level in your community. Rename, edit, or delete any of these ranks to meet your specific needs before launching your site. Additionally, you can create new ranks before or after you launch your site. Related topics: About member Ranks and ranking formulas Create a rank Create a ranking formulaAurora: Create a rank
While Aurora communities provide some out-of-the-box ranks, you can also create your own to fit the needs of your community. To create a rank: Go to Admin > Settings > Users > Ranks. In the Rank Levels area, click Add Rank. On the Add Rank window, complete the following steps: Add a Name for the rank. (Optional) Enter a Description. Enter the desired Criteria for the rank (see Create a ranking formula). Note: Enter1==1in this field to create a newbie-style rank with no required criteria. (Optional) Enter any Roles granted to members who achieve this rank. Note: Administrator and Moderator roles cannot be granted via achieving a rank, so you cannot select these roles. (Optional) Enter any Roles removed from members who achieve this rank. Note: Administrator and Moderator roles cannot be removed via achieving a rank, so you cannot select these roles. In the Visual Style area, select a Label type: Text Only Outline Filled Select a color from the Label color drop-down menu. (Optional) In the Icon area, upload an icon from your machine to include beside the rank label.Only PNG and SVG images are supported. Note: Uploaded images are converted to 16 pixels in height and up to 100 pixels in width wherever they appear in the community (square images will be 16 px by 16 px). Your image will be scaled to fit the supported dimensions, so we don’t recommend using a really tall image as it will be difficult to see when it’s scaled to 16 pixels high. As described in the next step, you can see a preview of your rank image before saving. View the Preview of your design to verify that it looks the way you want it to. Click Add Rank. Back on the Ranks page, in the Rank Levels area, drag and drop the newly created rank to the desired position in the ranking structure. Ranks should be organized in order of how difficult they are to achieve. The most difficult ranks to achieve should be displayed at the top of the ranking structure on the Ranks page and have lower numbers (shown to the left of the rank) associated with them. The higher the rank level number is, the easier that rank is to achieve and the lower it is displayed in the ranking structure. For instance, 0 is the lowest rank level number in your ranking structure, but it is the hardest rank to achieve. When creating your ranks, keep this hierarchy in mind—that is, don’t put ranks in a random order or organize them alphabetically. If you don’t organize them by difficulty of achievement, they will not be awarded appropriately across the community. The rank is now available for use in the community. Members are evaluated against the ranking system each time they sign in to the community or shortly after they have met the criteria. At that point, they are awarded the rank. Related topics: About member Ranks and ranking formulas Create a ranking formula About default community ranksAurora: Manage Ranks permissions
As an admin, you can also manage the permission for who can create and edit ranks. Ranks permissions are granted by default to the Administrator role. If you need to grant the ability to manage ranks to other roles, keep in mind that the permission associated with this ability allows full permissions to update the community: Edit community settings. This permission can be granted only at the community level. As noted in its description, the Edit community settings permission allows members to access core community settings, including management of categories, boards, and member roles, so grant this permission with caution. To manage this permission: Navigate to Admin > Settings > Users > Roles and Permissions. In the row of the role for which you want to manage this permission, click the Options menu and then Edit. In the Permissions area, below Community, locate Edit community settings. Select Grant or Deny as required. Related topics: About member Ranks and ranking formulas Create a rank About roles and permissions Permission descriptionsAurora: Create a mirrored (duplicate) ranking structure
Some communities might want employees or partners to have a special icon associated with a rank unique to one group but still have them go through the same basic ranking structure as other community members. In these scenarios, you can create multiple rank ladders, each associated with a different role, so that regular community members "climb" one rank ladder, and the employee or partner community members climb another similar ladder. If you want a particular audience (a group of Community members) to have a specific rank icon that is different from the standard rank icon but still follows the regular ranking structure, you need to create a duplicate ranking structure that mirrors the standard ranking structure. (This duplicate ranking structure is often called a mirrored ranking structure or dual ranking structure.) To create a dual ranking structure: Go to Settings > Users > Roles & Permissions and create a special role (for example, “Ambassadors”) for this audience. Go to Settings > Users > Ranks. Create a duplicate of each level of your ranking structure. (Do not duplicate ranks that are already tied to roles.) Do this by clicking Add Rank and then copying over each setting. For each duplicate level, complete the following steps: Roles granted: Enter the role name. You must enter the exact role text with the same spacing and capitalization. (For example, if the role name is “Ambassadors,” entering “ambassadors” does not work.) Ranking formula: At the very end of the rank formula, enter the following: && hasRole("role name") Icon: Browse for and select the icon you want to use for this rank. Follow the steps above for every level in your ranking structure but not for ranks that are already tied to roles. When you’re done, you’ll have a dual ranking structure, similar to this: Related topics: About member Ranks and ranking formulas Create a rank Create a ranking formulaAurora: Choosing the best content metrics to include in your ranking formulas
In your ranking formulas, you may want to measure how many times a member started a discussion, how many times a member responded to an existing discussion, or a combination of both of these. Like a lot of things related to online community management, there is no ultimate "right answer" when it comes to which content metrics to include in your ranking formulas. It is up to you how much emphasis you place on each of these three distinct member actions. It is interesting to note that some of your superusers will primarily start new discussions (which you can track using the “threads” member metric), some will primarily respond to existing discussions (which you can track with the “replies” member metric), and some will do a combination of both (which you can track using the “overall_posts” member metric). When it comes to developing a rank structure, most people choose to use the total content count (“posts”) as one of the main criteria for determining a member’s rank. It is important to remember, however, that the amount of content published by a member should not be the only criterion you use. It is okay to focus on content count for the lower ranks in your community, but for the higher ranks, you may want to include things like Likes and Accepted Solutions to help differentiate your top contributors and identify high-quality content. As your community grows, you will want to add ranks to your ranking structure to make sure that members are not topping out and to make sure you are rewarding all of the positive ways that members are contributing to the growth and health of your community. One of the best ways to do that is to make use of ranking formulas. You enter them on the same Ranks page where you create or modify ranks. Related topics: Create a ranking formula Member metrics for ranking formulasAurora: Delete a rank
In some cases, you may need to delete a rank if it no longer suits your community’s needs. When you delete a rank, that rank is revoked from all members who had been awarded it. However, any members who were granted roles by achieving that rank retain those roles unless a new rank they achieve is designed specifically to remove those roles. To delete a rank: Go to Admin > Settings > Users > Ranks. In the row of the rank you want to delete, click the Options menu and then Delete. On the confirmation window, click Delete again. The rank is removed from your structure.
