Demystifying Member Points and Posts

Last revised: October 22, 2015

Communities has a Member Points System (MPS) that controls how member points are earned, which contributes to overall site ranking and rank badges. We currently display this information on each member's About Me page. An explanation of what posts and points are follows.

The Member Points System (MPS) is a simple rating system that gives members configurable badges for community participation (e.g. ratings, posts, replies, downloads, friends, wiki comments and edits, new pages, etc.) as well as some quality factors (verified answers, ratings, and bookmarked post). It should be noted that

Both posts and members receive points for various activities. These include:

Quality Factors:

  • Verified Answer Factor: The amount a member receives for having a reply verified as the answer.
  • Rating Factor: The amount each rating is worth for the rated post.
  • Favorite Post Factor: The amount each post receives for being selected as a favorite.

Participation:

  • Rater Factor: The factor used to determine the value of each rating for the rater (points = Rating * Rater Factor).
  • Post Factor: The amount each post is worth.
  • Reply Factor: The amount each reply is worth for the original post.
  • Replier Factor: The amount each unique replier is worth for the original post. Additional replies to the same post from the same replier are not included in calculation.
  • Download Factor: The amount each download is worth for the original post.
  • Downloader Factor: The amount each unique downloader is worth for the original post. Additional downloads of the same post from the same downloader are not included in calculation.
  • User (Friend) Factor: The amount each user receives for being selected as a favorite/friend.
  • Wiki Comments: The amount of points a user receives for adding a comment to a wiki article.
  • Wiki Edits: The amount of points a user receives for editing a page in the wiki.
  • New Page: The amount of points a user receives for publishing a new page to the wiki.

The formula for calculating points for a post in the Post Factor is to multiply each factor value set by Bentley by the number of times an activity occurs. For the purpose of the MPS, a post is defined as a forum post, a blog entry, an uploaded file, a gallery image, or any reply/comment to one of these. Points for new wiki pages are calculated by another factor. It should be noted that points are primarily a quantity and do not indicate quality. In other words, a member could have a relatively large number of points, but not contribute much (if anything) quality-wise.

By default, the Communities displays member rank whenever a user allows the cursor to hover over a user name.

Communities ranks currently are:

Community Rank Point Range
Welcome 0 - 1000
Bronze 1001 - 7500
Silver 7501 - 25000
Gold 25001 - 50000
Platinum 50001 - 500000

The author of a post also receives points. When determining the number of points for a particular member, the author is credited with the total for each post authored in addition to any points received for rating content and being marked as a favorite.

Posts that are awaiting moderation, conversations, and posts in forums marked as disabling points are not included in point calculation. Furthermore, any activities that act on an individual's own posts are not credited with points. For example, a post will not receive points for a reply if the author replies to themselves, rates their own post, downloads a file they uploaded, or marks their own post as a favorite.

Here is some additional information about how points are calculated:

  • Threads are not included in points calculation, only posts.
  • Point values are credited to individual posts with direct replies.

Something called decay is also a factor taken into account, which can reduce points over time. Older and more established content can have lowered scores, which in turn lowers its placement in search results, lowers the content quality score of the community and application where it is located, and can lower the author "quality score" that the author has attained.

Points are configurable and will likely change as Communities continues to evolve. Although the factors involved might be subjective to some, the points and posts do provide some insight as to how each Communities member's overall contributions compare to others on the site.