Points and badges

Points and roles | Roles and badges | FAQ

We think a reputation system—a measure of social capital or expertise—helps us and it helps you. We tried to figure out the most useful way to apply some system of recognition for our admins, writers, and editors, and for our most diligent and thoughtful users. It helps us get a better measure of how people are using our site and an idea of what topics interest heavy hitters and new users differently. It also encourages participation, and lets everyone easily recognize people who regularly contribute to the conversation. And--you know us--we like to be transparent.

We've been using a roles-based set-up. Authors, moderators, and admins have a badge beneath their picture that indicates their role. Users can also--if they wish--earn badges using a standard system of points.

New users start out as--what else?--a Newbie. After your first 10 points, you move up to the standard Community Member role. As a Community Member, your profile becomes active and you can add a photo and a short bio. As you get more points, you move up into higher roles with cooler badges--Open Enthusiast when you hit 30 points, and Rock Star when you hit 100. After the first year, we decided to add additional badges--Open Sensei at 1,000 and Open Sourcerer at 5,000--providing aspirational goals for everyone.

To get points—you participate. You get more points if others like the things you say, or if you contribute polls or articles that get published. You can earn up to 10 points a day, just rating things you read, voting, or by commenting or rating others’ comments.

But here's where it gets interesting—you can lose points, too. We want our badges to represent current contributors, not just people who have been around a while or built up a mass of points with a flurry of activity. So if you go more then 2 weeks without visiting the site and logging in, you lose a point per week until you come visit again.

We wanted it to be easy--and fun. And all you have to do is what you’ve been doing--participate. Points are tallied automatically when you log in and rate, vote, or comment. You can keep track of them through your account. We can even let you know in email when you jump to a new role--or if you’ve been absent a while and lost some of your cred.

Points and roles

Here's our current points scale:

We're not handing out prizes when you hit a million points, or anything like that. But we did want a way to let you easily show how active your account is, and tell how much social reputation other posters have accumulated. And who doesn’t want to be a Rock Star?

Roles and badges

Here’s a list of all our current roles and badges. Some you can earn through points, some indicate admins or writers, and soon you’ll be seeing a few that recognize community members who have truly gone the extra mile--or said something completely brilliant.

Points-based roles with badges

Add-on badges

These are our writers--some from inside Red Hat, others from across various industries, and quite a few community members who have become regular, trusted writers and editors. The team of Admins and Moderators will grant Author status, when appropriate. Contact an author if you have a private question or inquiry about their work. If it’s a comment about their article, post a comment.

These are your Admins. They keep Drupal up and running, and fix any problems with the site or with user accounts. Most Admins are Red Hat employees. You can contact an Admin if you’re having a problem with your account. The quickest way to get in touch with an Admin is through our contact form.

Your channel moderators are all-powerful beings with deep knowledge in their area of expertise. They’re also equipped with the powers of smiting spam, policing comments, and docking points for miscreants and ill-doers in their areas. You can contact a Moderator if you have a question about their channel. The best way to get in touch with a Moderator is through our contact form.

Our comment gardeners keep an eye out for spammers, inappropriate comments, and other detrius of the online world. We want to thank them for their help.

A few members of our community have been here from the start. They helped build this place, and worked hard to invite everyone in. So we made them their own badge. Just because.

Awards badges

These are the folks that keep the content and comments coming. With their help, opensource.com is a vibrant and active place to be, and this badge is a way for us to show our thanks for their hard work. Want to become a top contributor? Submit articles, start discussions, and participate in our polls and contests. You know you want to.

Each year at the beginning of January, the moderators get together and choose a community member who has contributed greatly--through writing or work behind-the-scenes--and they’ll be able to sport a special Moderator’s Choice award badge with honor.

Each year at the beginning of January, we’ll put up a post with our top contributors from the year. We’ll give you a time period to vote. The winner gets the admiration of his or her peers--and a killer People’s Choice badge to boot.

New for 2013, the moderators hand out high fives to a few community members who start the discussions. You know them. They are frequently commenting on our latest content and get the conversation started. In addition to racking up some points, they'll now be honored with this sweet award.

New for 2013, the moderators wanted to say thanks to those community members creating the buzz on social media. They're often re-tweeting, liking on Facebook, +1-ing (that's a verb, right?), and submitting articles to Reddit. For doing this, we give a select few our social sharer award.

FAQ

Q: When did you start the points and badges system?

A: We launched the beta of the points and badges system on January 24, 2011. We removed the beta on January 25, 2012.

Q: Will my profile picture and bio go away if I drop below 10 points?

No. Once you’re a Community Member, you’ll keep that role until you move up into another role, or remove your profile and start over.

Q: How many badges can I have at once?

A: You can have one points-based badge (a role, for example, like Open Enthusiast). In addition, you can have as many add-on badges as you've earned. You'll be able to order them or rank them in your user profile. We do limit how many can show in some places on the site, such as in the comment threads, so rank the ones you like the most higher up.

Q: Do I have to earn points to use opensource.com?

A: Nope. Even if you never advance up from Newbie, you’ll still have full access to all the articles and comments on the site. The points system makes it easier for you to share and collaborate with others; if you just want to read along and comment occasionally, you don’t need any points to do so.

Q: Where did my points go?

A: We're not sure, but we can help you find out. Send us a note with your username and what you think is missing. Our admins can look into it.

Q: How many points can I earn per day?

A: We do not limit the numbers of points you can earn in a day. However, if you try to game the system, we'll know about it. Play nice.

Have a question we didn’t answer? Let us know.