Your community users can earn points for many of the actions they perform, such as creating and replying to a discussion thread, uploading files, and writing blog posts. These points are useful as an incentive to earn:

Recognition - You can assign the most engaged users a variety of "MVP" badges, helping to promote a sense of gamification among your users.

Points categories

There are three categories of points:

Engagement points are awarded based on a user's activities.
Contribution points are awarded when a user creates content.
Reputation points are awarded when a user's content is recommended or marked as the "best answer."

Contribution and Reputation points are subsets of Engagement points.

NOTE: Volunteer points are a fourth point type that are configured in the Admin > Volunteer > Settings page. These points are applicable only if you license our optional Volunteer Manager module; they're awarded for volunteer activities and don't factor into these standard engagement criteria.

Access the Engagement activities list

To access the list of engagement activities:

In the Admin Toolbar, click Admin.

Navigate to Engagement > User Engagement > Engagement Points.

The Engagement Points page lists all of the engagement activities, along with a description, the type, and the point value.

Use the per page menu at the bottom left to list more activities per page or
Use the page navigation at the bottom right to access the additional activities.

Manage point allocations

To assign or update the point allocation for an engagement activity:

Select it in the list and specify the value in the Points field of the Preview Panel.
Click Save at the bottom of the Preview Panel.

Be sure to use the page navigation to review all of the activities and to assign the values you want.

Full list of Engagement Types

The point category for each Engagement Type is listed in their associated sections below. A reminder of the categories:

Engagement points (E) (user activity)
Contribution points (C) (user creates content)
Reputation points (R) (user's content is recommended or marked as the best answer)

Blogs

Blog comments (E, C) - Awarded each time a user comments on a blog article.
Blogs viewed (E) - Awarded each time a user views a blog article.
Blogs written (E, C) - Awarded each time a user writes a blog article.
Recommended content (E, C, R) - The number of times content created by the user was recommended by others.

Communities

Community admin (E) - Awarded for each community for which a user is an admin.
Community created (E, C) - Awarded each time a user creates a community.
Community invitations sent (E) - Awarded each time a user sends an invitation to join a community.
Community invitations accepted (E) - Awarded each time a user accepts an invitation to join a community.
Community membership (E) - Awarded for each community in which a user is a member.

Discussions

Best answer (E, C, R) - Awarded each time content created by the user is marked as the Best Answer by others.
Discussion post moderations (E) - Awarded each time a user moderates a Discussion post (moderators only).
Discussion subscriptions (E) - Awarded each time a user subscribes to a Discussion list in real time.
Discussion post written (E, C) - Awarded each time a user writes a Discussion post.
Discussion post read (E) - Awarded each time a user reads a Discussion post.
Discussion - new thread created (E, C) - Awarded each time a user creates a new Discussion thread.
Discussion - reply to sender (E) - Awarded each time a user sends a message to a Discussion post's author from within a Discussion (i.e., not via email).
Recommended content (E, C, R) - The number of times content created by the user was recommended by others.

Questions & Answers

Ask a question (E, C) - Awarded each time a user asks a question.
Answer a question (E, C) - Awarded each time a user answers another user's question.
Provide best answer to a question (E, C) - Awarded each time a user's answer is marked by the original poster as the "best answer."
Question threads read (E) - Awarded each time a user opens a question thread.
Recommended content (E, C, R) - The number of times content created by the user was recommended by others.

Watch the video

Events

Calendar events added (E, C) - Awarded each time a user adds a calendar event.
Calendar events attended (E) - Awarded for every calendar event for which a user is marked as having attended.
Calendar events registered (E) - Awarded each time a user registers for a calendar event.
New session created (E) - Awarded each time a user creates a new session.
Session updated (E) - Awarded each time a user updates an event session.

Glossary

Glossary term comments (E, C) - Awarded each time a user comments on glossary terms.
Glossary terms edited (E, C) - Awarded each time a user edits a glossary term.
Glossary terms rated (E, C) - Awarded each time a user rates a glossary term.
Glossary terms viewed (E) - Awarded each time a user views a glossary term.

Ideas

Idea Posted (E, C) - Awarded each time a user posts an idea.
Idea Comments (E, C) - Awarded each time a user comments on an idea.
Idea Voted On (E) - Awarded each time a user votes on an idea.

Libraries

Library Entry viewed (E) - Awarded each time a user views a Library Entry.
Library Entry added (E, C) - Awarded each time a user posts/uploads a Library Entry.
Library Entry rated (E, C) - Awarded each time a user rates a Library Entry.
Library Entry moderated (E) - Awarded each time a user moderates a Library Entry (moderators only).
Library Entry comments (E, C) - Awarded each time a user comments on a Library Entry.
Recommended content (E, C, R) - The number of times content created by the user was recommended by others.
Related links (E, C) - Awarded each time a user adds a related link or Entry to a Library Entry.

Site actions

Website page created (E, C) - Awarded each time a user creates a website page.
Website page updated (E, C) - Awarded each time a user updates a website page.
Website page viewed (E) - Awarded each time a user views a website page.

Users

Profile picture updated (E) - Awarded each time a user updates their profile picture.
Bio updated (E) - Awarded each time a user updates their Bio details on their profile.
Contact information updated (E) - Awarded each time a user updates their Contact information (e.g., prefix, suffix, pronouns, designation).
Demographics updated (E) - Awarded each time a user updates their Demographic profile information.
Education details updated (E) - Awarded each time a user updates their Education details on their profile.
Job history updated (E) - Awarded each time a user updates their Job History details on their profile.
Contacts (friends) (E) - Awarded for each contact or friend the user currently has.
Contact invitations sent (E) - Awarded each time a user sends an invitation to become a contact to another user.
Contact invitations accepted (E) - Awarded each time a user accepts an invitation to become a contact with another user.
Contact message read (E)- Awarded each time a user receives and reads a person-to-person message.
Contact message sent (E) - Awarded each time a user sends a person-to-person message via the Directory.
Join network (E) - Awarded each time a user joins a network.
RSS subscriptions (E) - Awarded for each RSS subscription the user maintains.
Status update (E) - Awarded each time a user updates their status.

Engagement Criteria and Points