Community Member Ranks

AaronW

If you've spent any amount of time on the Community, you've likely noticed a lot of members (maybe you!) have phrases next to their user names like "Established Member" or "Occasional Contributor." But what does that mean?

The Anaplan Community employs a ranking structure to recognize members for their activity on the site. In short, the more you explore the Community and interact with others, the higher your rank is. When utilized effectively, Community ranks are essentially a way of indicating to other members how knowledgeable or helpful another member has been or might be. 

As we recently announced, in the coming weeks, we'll be updating the ranking system to make the ranks more meaningful as well as providing new clarity around how to advance your rank, if you want to do so.

In the meantime, this page explains the existing Community rank structure. 

Rank tiers

There are currently two main tiers to the Anaplan Community's member rankings: Passive and Active.

• Passive: Members with a Passive rank are explorers. They browse articles, read best practices, and may even join Groups or attend events, but are content to observe and absorb. 
• Active: Members with an Active rank are engagers. They ask questions, offer solutions, share ideas, and contribute knowledge in various ways. 

In most online Communities, about 10% of members fall into the Active tier and the other 90% are Passive. That's okay! Communities are all about give and take, and everyone participates at their own pace.  However, we want to ensure that: 

• Passive members aren't passive simply because they don't know what to do or where to go. All members should know how and where to interact, along with the benefits of interacting if they choose to do so.
• Active members are equipped to be as active as they truly want to be. Here again, we want it to be clear to all members that their input is welcome everywhere. We believe everyone should have a voice and should feel empowered to share it. 

The Community succeeds and provides value to all members when individuals at all levels and types of participation contribute to the whole.

Rank structure

The Anaplan Community currently segments members into fifteen different primary ranks. These are listed below, in order of least to most advanced: 

Passive

• New Member
• Member
• Established Member
• Senior Member

Active

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

Rank criteria

So how do you end up in one rank versus another? As members spend time on the Community, whether reading and watching or interacting and engaging, that activity is tabulated behind the scenes with formulas that create a score for each person, automatically assigning a rank based on that score. The longer someone has been a member and the more time they spend browsing Community resources, the higher their Passive rank will be. Similarly, the more contributions someone makes—Forum posts and replies, blogs and articles published, comments posted, kudos given and received, etc.—they higher their Active rank will be. 

What's next?

It's important to note that a member's rank doesn't indicate that they are "better" or "worse" than another member; it's simply a reflection of each person's individual choices regarding their unique Community journeys.

The changes on the way will address the overall rank structure, the rank names, and the way each rank is calculated. Our goal is to create more transparency around how Community ranks work and improve the value they bring to all Community members so that everyone can chart their own course to success. 

We believe the updated ranks will be more meaningful, and our hope is that everyone will find their rank something to be excited about and proud of. For those that want to progress further, we want that experience to be fun and rewarding as well, and we want to provide clear guidance on how to go about it. 

We hope you'll stay tuned for more, and let us know what you think! What would you like to see from an updated rank structure? Please share your thoughts, ideas, and feedback directly with the Community team in the Community Advancement Group, and watch for regular Q&A events where you can learn more.