In this support article, we cover the following topics:
- What are community ranks?
- Where can I see someone's rank?
- List of Activity Ranks
What are community ranks?
Ranks are a great way for you to see a community member's role and activity and to celebrate your own accomplishments. They show if someone has been very active and helpful in the community, such as a Super User. Some ranks, especially the ones related to managing the community, come with special permissions. Ranks also recognize the contributions and impact of a community member. As you increase your contribution activity, for example creating new topics or providing solutions, your rank can increase. Every time you earn a new rank, you will receive an email notification. Once you have gained a new rank, an icon and rank name will be displayed right next to your username. Fun fact: Microsoft uses community ranks to keep an eye out for some of its most active and passionate community members. — So, make sure to shine with valuable content, and you may be recognized for your contributions!
Where can I see someone's rank?
You can find a member’s rank in a variety of ways:
1. You can see someone's rank to the left of their name when you are looking at one of their posts.
2. You can click under a member’s name when you are looking at their profile. To navigate to the user profile, click on a username. This takes you to the profile page.
When you look at the original author and the most recent author in a thread, you can also see the rank icon right next to the user name.
List of Activity Ranks
When you're new to the community, you start out as a New Member, then you become a Regular Visitor, and then a Frequent Visitor. Afterwards, you are moving on to a categorized system.
Ranks are categorized into groups: Kudo Ranks, Post Ranks, Solution Ranks and Combo ranks. This provides the greatest opportunity for you to traverse the ranks according to your activity! The top Kudo, Post, and Solution ranks have more unique names, as do all Combo ranks.
Ranks are categorized based on Kudos (teal icons), Posts (purple icons) and Solutions (green icons). There are also Combo ranks that focus on a combination of kudos, solutions, and posts. These icons are orange. You'll always earn the highest rank for any of the focus areas, regardless of in which category you have already earned a rank, and you can move between categories. For example, you could start out with a Kudo "Advocate" rank, then move to a Solutions "Resolver" or Posts "Helper" rank, then back to a Kudo rank. This means that the colored bar amount can decrease, if you earned a rank in a different category, even though you are still progressing upwards. The bars indicate progression within a rank category, not the rank structure as a whole, hence the potential decrease in bars when climbing within the larger rank structure. This is what the bar progression looks like in order (follow the arrow, starting at the star):
As you can see, the bars change colors, going with the category changes, and the bars can go down when moving upwards, if you move up to another category. Again: You are still progressing upwards!
As the name suggests, requirements for Combo ranks are even more complex than the other ranks and involve activity in all categories. The exact formulas and criteria remain our little secret to keep things exciting.
