Purpose of forum ranking?

[Barbara]

I was recently bumped up to being a "Valued" contributor, even getting email telling me this had happened. I was underwhelmed because it only reflects how often I post here. I might as well have been named a "Babbler."

Any ideas on what purpose the ranks serve?

Colorwash's Home

[ChromaMaven]

Beyond identifying active users, it might be a way to convey the trustworthiness of a forum member?

[PenguinPower]

I think it's just part of the forum software... some forums use the ranks to confer privileges and cut down on spam - so you'll have to be a contributor for a little while before you are allowed to do things like upload photos or start threads.. Here I don't think they've really used the ranking system for anything, but it's probably more trouble to turn it off than it's worth bothering the programmer over.. 

[Barbara]

You're probably right. It's on by default and isn't worth the trouble to turn it off.

Colorwash's Home

[WHS_Designs]

other than it making one feel good, probably not a whole lot (at least, from a tangible aspect).

but if you have contributed important suggestions and have solutions attached to your user profile, this could improve your credibility, status (as a possible influencer), and general visibility by boosting the number of followers to your store and sales. especially if these conversations can be indexed by external search engines.

just my two cents.

[chefcateringbiz]

I like "Babbler". Also I would suggest "Screaming Banshi" and "Mumbling Member"

[Barbara]

When we pass a certain age, we might be ranked as a "Fussbudget." There it is. I've reached the glory of being a "Babbling Fussbudget."

Colorwash's Home

[Windy]

Congratulations! I ranked up to Valued Contributor III a long time ago. Which I think means I spend a lot more time being a Forum Rat than designing and marketing my products.

LOL.

As for the suggestion given by @WHS_Designs I am QUITE sure my superlative ranking has done absolutely nothing to  improve my general visibility by boosting the number of followers to my store and sales.

[WHS_Designs]

🤣🤣🤣

I may have been grasping for straws there, but, you never know ... I did see the number of followers to my stores increase after I posted more often to the community forums, and I do see more likes of my designs as well. not hugely for either, but still, the numbers did increase.

altruism may be its own reward ... then again, it may not ... 

[Windy]

Do you post to Show Me, though? I don't do very much of that.  The Show Me is now viewable to public, so if you post a lot there this might be why you saw uptick.

[WHS_Designs]

not as much as I used to. that is a possibility (however, and as a side note: I've noticed that the posts to the Show Me don't count towards the total number of posts in the member profile. not that that should matter ... I value quality over quantity of contributions).

[Windy]

for a little while I was posting to Show Me now and then, and always adding searchable verbiage to my posts, but I don't think I ever saw any traffic from doing so. I figured it would be better than just posting a link to a product. But I am not sure it's worth the time. Generally speaking, I find that Zazzle products are not searchable at Google at all.

[WHS_Designs]

we used to be able to tag our Show Me posts (a feature which I used quite vigorously to start off with, and then even I reduced my use of the tags over time). eventually the ability to add tags was removed.
 
I use mostly Pinterest to increase visibility of my (and other creators') Zazzle designs.

[PacifierCity]

My observations are that at first, everyone that joined the forum ranked up at the same time.  But once I became a Valued Contributor, others have passed my ranking to Valued Contributor II and III.  I have been curious about it, but figure I'll rank up at some point in time.  Looks like the next levels are by posting amounts... 500+ for VCII and I have no idea for VCIII, but some of you have reached it.  I'll be curious to see what comes next...  As far as any real value to the label... idk... I guess it depends on your own perspective and if you have any knowledge of what the rankings mean...lol.

So this is one post closer to 500 and my next level up... I have many more to go....

PC

.....................................

[Barbara]

Yes, 500 seems the magic number for a VCII ranking. To my (fussbudget) mind, kudos received should count for more than a Babbler's number of posts, but I bet they don't.

Colorwash's Home

[Scott · Accepted solution]

Yeah, they're just stock/default rankings that reflect your membership in the community. They take into account all sorts of interaction (Kudos given, Kudos received, accepted solutions, membership length, post count, etc). Too much of one thing (for instance, 50,000 posts) doesn't really help all that much.

[Barbara]

Thanks, Scott. Mystery solved.

Colorwash's Home

[DancingPelican]

Looks like I have a ways to go!