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Community Contributions: Preset Contributions and Custom Contributions

Details on preset contributions and custom contributions like what they log, and contribution limits and how to start tracking

Updated over a week ago

Contributors, their contributions, points, and rewards are all configured and tracked in your community dashboard. Gradual tracks some contributions automatically, and you can track and log activities that are custom to your members using this feature.

Follow the steps in this article to turn on the visibility and feature elements of the contributions feature, specifically adding and designing your badges.

The contributions feature in your dashboard has been updated as of December 2024. Depending on the configuration of your community's contribution module, you may see some notable changes to the dashboard.

Contributions

Members' contributions to the community can include preset actions like organizing a webinar, authoring a blog, or attending an event. You can also create custom contributions that apply to your community like being an ambassador, providing a referral, volunteering at an event, etc., and add those custom activities to members' profiles, point values, and accounts.

Setting these contribution rules and actions is all handled in the dashboard, in the Contributors menu → Contributions. Customize which contributions your community will log and reward your community members from that menu item.

Preset contributions

There are several contributions that the platform can automatically log and track for your members. These contributions surround event activity, content engagement, and more.

Here is a list of available preset contributions and how the system logs the action:

Events

These are logged when an event is published, and after it has ended.

Unlisted events will log contributions, but unpublished events will not.

Note: If these contributors are added after the event has ended, contributions and points will not be added to their account.

Contribution

Description

Displays in Profile

Assigns points

Event Organizer

Organized an event within the community

When the event is published

When the published event has reached its end time

Event Speaker

When the event is published

When the published event has reached its end time

Meeting-Event / Webinar Host

Assigned a host for a meeting or webinar event

When the event is published

When the published event has reached its end time

In-event Meeting Host

Host of a meeting session within a livestream/webinar event

When the event is published

When the published event has reached its end time

In-event Roundtable Host

Host of a roundtable within a livestream/webinar event

When the event is published

When the published event has reached its end time

Event Participation

Attended an event (> 1 minute logged in, or checked in)

NOTES:
- Attendees of unpublished events or attendees added via the dashboard will not receive points

When the user registers

Event Registration

Registered for an event

NOTES:

- Members manually added in dashboard or via API will still receive contribution log and points
- Withdrawn if registration is cancelled or the event is deleted before starting

Content

These are logged when a content piece is published.

Contribution

Description

Displays in Profile

Assigns points

Author

When the content is published, and when the author is added (post publish)

When the content is published, and when the author is added (post publish)

Video Speaker

When the video is published, and when the speaker is added (post publish)

When the video is published, and when the speaker is added (post publish)

Read Content

Read an article or other content (visit the content page)

LIMIT:
Rewarded up to 5 times per 24 hours

When the user visits the content page

Watch a Video

Viewed video content (visits video page and clicks 'play')


LIMIT:

Rewarded up to 5 times per 24 hours

When the user visits the content page

Forum

These are logged when a community has the Forum feature enabled.

Contribution

Description

Displays in Profile

Assigns points

Publish a Post

Posted in the community forum

LIMIT:

Rewarded up to 1 time per 24 hours

When the post passes the moderation and is posted

Comment / Reply

Commented and interacted with posts in the community forum

LIMITS:

- Rewarded up to 5 times per 24 hours
- Rewarded only 1 time per post (no matter how many comments are left by same user on the post)

When the comment or reply passes the moderation and is posted

Accepted Answer

The comment is marked as the Accepted Answer

LIMITS:

- Each member can receive up to 5 Accepted Answers within 24 hours.

- Each member can mark up to 3 Accepted Answers within 24 hours.

- This contribution will be withdrawn if the Accepted Answer is unmarked.

Community Activities

Contribution

Description

Displays in Profile

Assigns points

Daily Active

Member visits the community each day

The following day (but will list the date when the user was active)

The following day (but will list the date when the user was active)

Completes Onboarding

When the member answers all required questions in the profile

Joined a Club

Joined an interest group or club within the community

When the member joins the club

These contributions are automatically logged by the system, but can also be manually added to a contributor's account in the dashboard. The system also defaults a point value to each of these, but you can make changes to that from the Contributions tab.

Learn more about how to assign contributions here.

Any contribution-related actions taken in the event or content dashboard after it is published, such as adding a new speaker, removing a speaker, or linking a new user to a speaker will not automatically update badge counts. These changes must be made manually.

Custom contributions

You can add up to 100 custom contributions to your community account to celebrate the accomplishments, input, and actions your members take for the betterment of the network. Each of these contributions can have a badge assigned to the contribution, a point value, and notes on what the contribution acknowledges.

Add custom contributions

  1. Navigate to the Contributor menu and to Contributions

  2. Select the +Custom Contribution button

  3. You must name the contribution and if the points module is enabled, allocate how many points the contributor will receive

  4. If there is a badge created for this contribution, you will assign it in this pop-up as well

Because custom contributions are not automatically logging actions, you will have to assign contributions to members by following the steps in this resource.

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