Set up points, levels, medals, and the leaderboard

Gamification rewards members for taking part. Members earn points (reputation, karma, XP) for actions such as posting and commenting, move up through levels, unlock badges, and compete on a leaderboard. Members see badges as Membership Medals. You set all of this up on one page.

Who can do this: Community owners and admins. · Where: Web, in the admin console. Members see their points, levels, and medals on the web and in the iOS and Android apps. · Plan: Gamification depends on your platform plan. Badges and the leaderboard are separate plan features.

Turn on gamification

1. Go to Admin → Settings → Gamification.
2. On the System tab, turn on Enable gamification. When it's off, points, levels, badges, and the leaderboard are hidden from members.
3. Optionally turn on Show rank on profile and Show leaderboard.
4. Under Points identity, set the Points name that members see (for example "Karma") and a Reward icon.
5. Click Save changes at the bottom of the page.

The summary at the top shows Gamification live or Gamification off. Click View checks to see setup issues, such as No active earning rules.

Choose which actions earn points

On the Rules tab, Points Earning Rules lists every action that can earn points, grouped by category: Content, Appreciation, Growth, Learning, and Participation. Examples include Created a post, Posted a comment, Received a like, Answer accepted, Invitation accepted, and Daily login.

For each action, set:

• On: whether the action earns points.
• Points: how many points it earns, from 0 to 1000.
• Daily Limit: how many times a day a member can earn it, from 0 to 100. Leave it empty for Unlimited.

Daily limits reset at 00:00 in your community's time zone, which you set under Admin → Settings → General → Language & Region. Actions that need a feature your plan doesn't include, such as Q&A, courses, or events, are grayed out with a lock. Click Save changes when you're done.

To give points for something else, use an automation rule with the Award points action. See Automate tasks with rules.

Set up member levels

1. On the Rewards tab, turn on Enable levels and click Save changes.
2. Under Level Management, click New Level.
3. Enter a Name and the Minimum Points needed to reach it. Each level needs its own minimum. Optionally add an Icon, a Color, and a Description.
4. Click Create Level. Levels save right away.

Members move up a level when their points reach its minimum, and they get a "Level up!" notification. To change a level, edit it. You can delete levels, but at least one level must remain.

Create badges (Membership Medals)

1. On the Rewards tab, turn on Enable badges. Turn on Automatic badges to award badges as soon as members meet the requirements. Click Save changes.
2. Under Badge Management, click New Badge.
3. Enter a Name, and optionally a Tier, Icon, Color, and Display Order.
4. Set the requirements a member must meet:
   • Activity Requirements: Minimum Points, Minimum Posts, Minimum Comments, Minimum Login Days
   • Social Requirements: Minimum Likes Received
   • Paid Requirements: Minimum Subscription Months, Minimum Spent (cents)
5. Click Create Badge. Badges save right away.

There's no button to hand a badge to one member. To award badges yourself, use an automation rule with the Award badge action. Deleting a badge deactivates it: it stops being awarded, and members' existing badge records are kept.

Configure the community leaderboard

The leaderboard ranks members by the points they earned in a period. On the Leaderboard tab, under Leaderboard configuration:

• Default period: Weekly, Monthly, or All time. The Leaderboard page opens on this period. Members can switch between Today, This Week, This Month, and All Time.
• Leaderboard size: how many ranked members to show, from 1 to 50.
• Presets such as Competitive, Recognition, and Legacy set both at once.

Click Save changes. When Show leaderboard on the System tab is off, or Enable gamification is off, the Leaderboard entry disappears from the navigation, the leaderboard widgets disappear, and anyone who opens the Leaderboard page sees "The leaderboard is turned off". Members who turn off Member Directory in their privacy settings don't appear on the leaderboard.

The Leaderboard tab also has the Points ledger, a log of every points change that you can filter by member ID, action, and source type.

Unlock courses by community level

A free, Public course can open automatically when a member reaches a level you choose, with Unlock by community level in the course's settings. This needs levels to be set up here first. See Control who can access a course.

What members see

Members find their points, points history, the rules for earning points, and their Membership Medals in the Member Center. Their level appears as a label next to their name, and, while Show leaderboard is on, the Leaderboard appears in the community's navigation. See Earn points, levels, and medals.

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