You may have noticed that every community member has a two images associated with their names. A picture of themselves and a little icon. Historically we've been using Icons that look like stars - similar to the icons for book rankings on Amazon.com. These icons are "status level" icons; they indicate how active a community member is. The more posts you make and the more people you help the higher your status and the more stars you get.
Yesterday I replaced the star icons with martial arts belts. I've taken martial arts on and off for most of my life and each style and studio has its own system of belts (or no belts at all). Usually everyone starts out with no-belt or with a white belt. The same is true for new members of the Curl community. As you post questions and help other people to answer their questions your status will improve and you'll advance in belts.
Points are awarded for participation according to the following rules:
Posting or responding to a forum thread: 1 pt
Correctly answered Forum thread questions: 5pts
Helpful responses to forum thread questions: 3pts
When you post a new question to the forum, "Ask-the-Expert", people will respond. If someone posts a response that answers your question you can mark the question answered and award that person 5 pts by clicking "Correct Answer" on their post. If someone provides you with helpful information but not necessarly the answer to your question you can mark award them 3 pts by clicking on the "Helpful Answer" button on their post. Only the person who started a thread on a forum can determine who was helpful or who provided an answer. You can mark several people as helpful.
The belt system works on points stating with white belt and advancing to black belt. Here is the correlation between points earned and belts won.
White Belt (Level 1), <= 20 pts
Yellow Belt (Level 2), 21 - 40 pts
Gold Belt (Level 3), 41 - 60 pts
Green Belt (Level 4), 61 - 80 pts
Blue Belt (Level 5), 81 - 100 pts
Purple Belt (Level 6), 101 - 150 pts
Red Belt (Level 7), 151 - 200 pts
Black Belt (Level 8) >= 201 pts
MVP (Most Valued Professionals) is a status awarded to only a few community members each year for making significant contributions to the Curl community both in our forums and outside (e.g. public speaking, writing, user group leardership, etc.). MVPs are awarded by vote from existing MVPs. The MVPs have a special belt which is black with red ques or marks at the end. This is the highest status any community member can achieve.
It's my hope that this system will prove to be fun, helpful, and inspiring to Curl community members. It's designed to recognize those folks who contribute to our community based on participation. You don't have to be an expert Curl developer to be awarded a black belt - you have to be a big contributer to our community in the form of questions and answers. If you stay really involved in our community you'll move up through the belts and gain expertise naturally.
All the best,
Richard
