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Please mark Accept as Solution if your question is answered. Kudos gladly accepted. ⇘
We will explore this capability of having experts by forum. First we wanted to get the community-wide system in place and running a bit, as it is long overdue. Of course those who have been here know who they are, but this system also helps new members to understand who the veteran members are.
I'll ping Eric about the color suggestions, maybe we'll run a poll to get a wider amount of input/feedback.
A flaw in your system is starting to creep through: look up the user JamaL9722060 for example, just promoted to green "mentor", for someone who uses this forum in lieu of paying for training or looking up items in HELP (nothing wrong with that of course, but now he's a mentor to others? Ouch!).
Re-think time.
This concept of recognition of reputation and prestige creates an interesting new dimension to the forums. This does, however, create a much more competitive environment for some users, and I imagine it also creates strong resentments against those users who don't use Kudos or hit the "Accept a Solution" button. Personally, earning repute is not my motivation for participating in these forums (I guess I still have enough of an ego to want to make this known), and I would say the minor imperfections and other particulars shouldn't matter, but the situation is a little different since "real" rewards are offered as stated in the new feature post:
"2. As you participate and rise through the levels, additional forum permissions will be made available"
"3. At higher levels, we will offer more opportunities for engagement with Autodesk"
This makes it important that everything functions correctly and fairly:
Maybe new users should have an "announcement" displayed for a time that encourages and reminds them to use Kudos and Accept as a Solution?
Since this affects other users so much, maybe users shouldn't be able to "Hide Kudo Buttons and Counts"?
A user's sheer Number of Posts should have only a little impact on this. If I replied "Thanks" to every answer I received, that's double my number of posts right there!
As quoted by the explanatory post:
"To reach the higher levels, however, requires input from other members of the community (like Kudos and Accepted Solutions)."
Does this apply to the Mentor levels of advancement? The above referenced user's current data indicates "no".
...Just my opinion.
I'm glad to see users talking about the ranking system, and if you have any suggestions at all - please throw them my way. Seriously, don't be shy! Just send me a message on here, or e-mail me at Jillian.Bejtlich at Autodesk.com.
I did want to comment though and just say that quantity never has and never will equal quality when it comes to this ranking system. I'm crunching through numbers right now (making sure all you orange labeled folks really ended up where you should have a few weeks in), and I assure you it's all very much based on how much and how well you help your peers. I'm constantly going to be looking for ways to add in additional metrics that will help me keep out prolific unhelpful people.
As CADastrophe pointed out, getting this ranking system to work perfectly depends on users to really utilize the accepted solution and kudos buttons, and that's not always easy or consistent. So this is kind of two part plea for help here.
First off, be sure to encourage use when you're out in the forums. A lot of you have something in your signature about accepted solutions, and some of you follow-up and asked if your suggestion helped. Whatever works for you and fits with your style... if you're willing and interested. As for kudos, if you give them out - others will follow. I will be doing some type of announcement that reminds users about accepted solution and kudo functionality, so hopefully this increases use.
That brings me to the second part, I can communicate with users in a lot ways when it comes to new functionality and helpful information, but how: e-mails, messages, announcements, stickies, videos, etc. What would you prefer?
Thanks all for everything you've done for these forums, and please don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any ideas!
Agreed. I mentioned in multiple phone and email conversations that the ranking system isn't make or break for me. I mean, I've spent over 7 years here without it and nearly 100% of my contributions here have been to support peers rather than seek support. Dean pointed out that a lot of activity from the other side of the equasion can yield similar ranking results. There's no doubt that Dean is a helpful contributor vs. a leech of free information. We have a lot of time spent here and have only had solutions and kudos available for a short time. I know I have hundreds of solutions that are not marked either, but it doesn't change the fact that I am here to assist vs being called a Pro or Guru or Sage. Helping via PM also doesn't count, but again it doesn't matter. Those of us that have been here for years already know where the knowledge and resources for answers are. We also know what crap we will put up with from other peers. I guess we'll just see where it all goes. I don't worry about it much. I do like a lot of the new and better changes though.
If my post was helpful, please give The Labels exist for new nad infrequent Forum users, correct? That's the intent anyway I suppose: what is it's intended use? Like others here I pay not attention to my personal rankings here and I only have the tag to accept a reply in my signature so that it can truly help folks that prefer to search for answers instead of posting.
I have noticed an increase is pointless replies since the color-options have appeared in some of the forums sadly, but I guess some people need that boost 
In answer to your question, the email feature in this forum site is a good way to get hold of me, I eventually notice the digit next to the envelope when I'm not orange-blind 
Acutally, you bring up a good point with the pointless replies. There are a lot more of those for sure and I see it more in my email subscriptions. Also, there are times were solutions are not marked for your solution, but the original member will post a thanks and mark his thanks as the solution. I don't think the recognition system will ever be perfect. I've always found the best recognition comes when another member posts a link to one another's solutions or makes a referral to reach out to a particular member. Or when an Autodesk member sends a PM and says, "Take a look at this for me." That goes a lot further than you'd think.
