Badges in Communities recognize members for joining, contributing, and staying active. Community administrators can configure badges that are awarded automatically when members meet specific milestones or engagement thresholds. Members can view earned badges, track their progress, and choose an earned badge to display next to their names. This guide explains badge types, automatic award settings, member visibility, filtering, and badge customization.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- What Are Badges in Communities?
- Key Benefits of Badges in Communities
- Prerequisites and Limitations
- How to Set Up Badges in Communities
- Badge Types and Award Conditions
- How Members View and Display Badges
- How to Filter Members by Badge
- How to Create and Customize Badge Templates
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Need Help?
- Related Articles
What Are Badges in Communities?
Badges in Communities are recognition tools that automatically reward members when they meet configured milestones or engagement thresholds. Community administrators control which badge triggers are active, set qualifying conditions, and select the badges awarded for each achievement.
Members can review earned badges, track progress toward additional achievements, and choose an earned badge to display next to their names.
Badges fall into two main categories:
- One-Time Badges: Recognize specific Community milestones, such as joining a Community or becoming a Community administrator.
- Engagement Badges: Recognize ongoing activity, including posting, commenting, reacting, and receiving likes.
Each badge connects a qualifying activity or milestone with a visual achievement that members can display within the Community.
Key Benefits of Badges in Communities
Badges make Community participation more engaging by recognizing member contributions and milestones. They also give administrators tools for encouraging activity and reviewing member achievements.
- Automatic Recognition: Award badges when members meet configured milestones or engagement thresholds.
- Visible Achievements: Allow members to display a selected earned badge next to their name throughout the Community.
- Continued Engagement: Encourage ongoing participation through badges based on posts, comments, reactions, and likes.
- Progress Visibility: Help members review earned badges and track progress toward additional achievements.
- Flexible Configuration: Enable individual badge triggers, adjust qualifying thresholds, and choose the badge associated with each trigger.
- Member Insights: Filter Community members by badge to identify members who have earned specific achievements.
Prerequisites and Limitations
Badge awards are configured within individual Community groups. Badge designs are managed separately, so you need access to the relevant Community settings and badge configuration tools.
- Community Access: You must be able to open the Community group where you want to configure badges.
- Badge Management Access: You need the appropriate permissions to manage Community settings and configure badge triggers.
- Displayed Badge: Members can select one earned badge to display beside their name at a time.
- Engagement Badge Refresh: Engagement badges refresh quarterly. Members must meet the relevant conditions during each quarter to keep those achievements.
- Badge Design: Badge templates are created and managed separately from the Community badge trigger settings.
Note: Available badge settings and controls depend on your Community access and the supported Communities interface.
How to Set Up Badges in Communities
Community administrators can enable automatic badge awards for one-time milestones and ongoing member activity. Each trigger connects a qualifying condition with the badge awarded when that condition is met.
- Select Memberships from the main navigation menu.
- Select Communities, then click Groups.
- Open the Community group where you want to configure badges.
- Inside the group, select Settings.
- Select Badges from the available settings.
- Locate the one-time or engagement badge trigger you want to configure.
- Enable the trigger using its available toggle.
- If the trigger includes a qualifying threshold, enter the required number of activities, days, or members.
- Select the badge that members should receive when they meet the condition.
- Click Save changes to save the configuration.
Enabled triggers automatically award the selected badge when a member meets the qualifying condition. Members who already meet a condition can also receive the badge when the corresponding trigger is enabled.
Important: Badge triggers can be enabled or disabled independently. A disabled trigger does not award its associated badge.
Badge Types and Award Conditions
Community badges recognize different types of participation. One-time badges mark specific milestones, while engagement badges reward measurable activity over time.
One-Time Badges
One-time badges recognize a member when a specific Community event or milestone occurs.
| Badge | Award Condition |
|---|---|
| Group Admin | Recognizes a member who becomes a Community administrator. |
| Newbie | Recognizes a member when they join the Community. |
| Founding Member | Recognizes members who qualify among the earliest members to join the Community, based on the configured threshold. |
Engagement Badges
Engagement badges recognize ongoing contributions to the Community. Administrators can configure the relevant activity thresholds before enabling each trigger.
| Badge | Award Condition |
|---|---|
| Always On | Post, comment, or react for the configured number of consecutive days. |
| Top Contributor | Post the configured number of comments. |
| Power User | Publish the configured number of posts. |
| Crowd Favourite | Receive the configured number of likes on posts published by the member. |
Engagement badges refresh quarterly. Members must continue meeting the relevant conditions during each quarter to maintain these badges.
Each trigger can use its own activity threshold and selected badge. This allows administrators to recognize different forms of participation without requiring every badge trigger to be active.
How Members View and Display Badges
Member profiles provide a central place to review earned badges and progress toward future achievements. Members can also choose which earned badge appears next to their name.
- Open the Community where you have earned badges.
- Open your member profile.
- Select the Badges tab.
- Review the badges you have earned and your progress toward upcoming achievements.
- Select an earned badge to display next to your name.
The selected badge can appear beside your name in areas such as the Community feed, Members list, and comments.
Members can change their displayed badge by returning to the Badges tab and selecting another earned badge. Selecting the currently displayed badge again removes it from display.
Badge Notifications and Progress Reminders
Members can receive notifications when they earn badges. Progress reminders can also help members recognize when they are approaching another achievement.
An almost there reminder can appear when a member reaches 80% of the progress required for a badge.
How to Filter Members by Badge
Badge filters help Community administrators identify members who have earned specific achievements. This makes it easier to review participation and locate badge holders.
- Select Memberships from the main navigation menu.
- Select Communities, then click Groups.
- Open the Community group you want to review.
- Select the Members tab.
- Open the Badge filter.
- Select the badge you want to use to filter the member list.
- Review the matching members and their available badge information.
The member list updates to show members matching the selected badge filter.
How to Create and Customize Badge Templates
The Credentials area provides tools for designing badge templates. After creating and saving a badge design, administrators can select an available badge when configuring a Community badge trigger.
Create a Badge Template
Start in Credentials to create a badge from an existing template or begin with a blank design.
- Select Memberships from the main navigation menu.
- Select Credentials.
- Click + Create in the upper-right corner.
- Select Create Badge.
- Choose an available badge template or select the option to start from scratch.
- If you select a template, click Create to open the badge builder.
- Customize the badge using the available Text and Elements tools.
Preview and Save Your Badge
Previewing the completed badge helps you confirm its appearance before saving it for use.
- Click Preview to review the badge design.
- Click Save to store the badge template.
Assign a Badge to a Community Trigger
After saving a badge design, return to the Community badge settings to associate the appropriate badge with a milestone or engagement trigger.
- Select Memberships → Communities → Groups.
- Open the Community group where you want to use the badge.
- Select Settings → Badges.
- Find the trigger you want to configure.
- Choose the appropriate badge from the available badge selection.
- Enable the trigger and configure any required threshold.
- Click Save changes.
The selected badge is associated with the configured trigger and can be awarded when members meet its qualifying condition.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Will members receive a badge if they already qualify when I enable the trigger?
Yes. Members who already meet the qualifying condition can receive the badge when the corresponding trigger is enabled.
Q: Can administrators enable or disable individual badge triggers?
Yes. Badge triggers can be configured independently, allowing administrators to enable only the achievements they want to use.
Q: Can members choose which badge appears next to their name?
Yes. Members can select one of their earned badges to display beside their name. They can change or remove the displayed badge using the available selection control.
Q: Do engagement badges refresh?
Yes. Engagement badges refresh quarterly. Members must meet the relevant conditions during each quarter to maintain these badges.
Q: When do members receive a progress reminder?
Members can receive an almost there notification when they reach 80% of the progress required for a badge.
Need Help?
If a badge is missing, a trigger is not awarding badges, or you cannot locate an achievement, review the relevant Community settings and member information.
- Badge Is Not Awarded: Confirm that the appropriate trigger is enabled and that the member meets the configured condition.
- Incorrect Badge Appears: Review the badge selected for the trigger in Settings → Badges.
- Engagement Badge Is Missing: Check whether the member meets the applicable engagement condition for the current quarter.
- Badge Does Not Display Beside a Name: Open the member profile's Badges tab and select an earned badge for display.
- Cannot Find a Member by Badge: Open the Community Members tab and review the selected Badge filter.
- Cannot Create a Badge Design: Confirm that you can access Memberships → Credentials and the badge creation tools.
- Cannot Manage Badge Triggers: Confirm that you have the appropriate access to manage the Community settings.
If the issue continues, contact support. Include the Community name, badge or trigger involved, configured conditions, and any relevant screenshots.