Configuring Status Levels

Enable status levels to encourage people to get involved in the community. People can accrue status by earning points as they create and respond to content in Jive. Assigning status levels this way is sometimes known as "badging." Over time, people develop a reputation for reliability and authority in their favorite areas. The more people participate, the more information that is available for the community as a whole. Where a person's name is displayed, the user interface displays a status icon or badge such as corresponding to the number of points the person has accrued.

Fastpath: Admin Console: People > Settings > Status Level Settings

You can use the following suggestions to make the most of status levels:

Set the number of points per scenario based on the kinds of activity you want to reward. For example, if you want to provide a context in which questions are usually answered, award more points for correct and helpful question responses.
Define status levels or badges that people will be enthusiastic about -- make it fun. For example, you could think of it as a kind of game. Is the highest level a "Ninja"? A "Genius"? "Indiana Jones" or "Nobel Laureate"? Devise a list of levels that goes well with the culture of people using the community and edit the existing status levels.
Offer rewards or recognition for people who reach or maintain certain status levels.

Note: When content is deleted, status points are also deleted.

Adjusting Status Scenarios and Points

You can set how many points are awarded for a given scenario or action the user takes in the application. If you give the action User's status was liked 1 point, then a user's status points will increase by one point whenever someone likes their status.

You can also define the status levels themselves, setting the point range that the status level represents. By default, for example, the application includes the following status levels: master (501-1000 points); junior (101-500 points); newbie (0-100 points). You can configure the levels, along with how many points correspond to an action.

Disable a scenario when you want that scenario not to be included in status level calculation.

Adding and Editing Status Levels

You can edit the existing status levels or create new ones. In addition, the application includes more than 50 status level images for you to use. You can also replace existing images with new ones or add your own images and associate them with status levels that you create.

Fastpath: Admin Console: People > Settings > Status Level Settings

To edit an existing status level, locate the level in the list and click its Edit button. Its current property values will appear in the Add/Edit status level box. Change the values as you like, then click Save.
To add a new status level, make sure the Add/Edit status level fields are all blank (clicking the Cancel button clears the fields). Now enter the values you want and then click Save.

Table 1. Status Level Properties
Setting	Description
Name	The name that should appear for the status level.
Description	Additional text to describe the status level. By default, this doesn't appear in the user interface.
Add or replace existing level icons	You can add your own status level images by clicking Add or replace existing status level icons, and then selecting your image and uploading it. Images uploaded this way will be stored in <jive.instance.home>/www/resources/images/status. After you've uploaded an image this way, you will be able to see it as an available image option when you associate an image to a status level using the Image Path/Large Image Path image picker.
Image Path and Large Image Path	The application includes more than 50 status level images. You can choose from among the included icon images by selecting Image Path/Large Image Path and then clicking Pick Image. To add your own images, add your custom image files to <jive.instance.home>/www/resources/images/status. If the <jive.instance.home>/resources directory doesn't exist, you can create a symlink to /usr/local/jive/var/www/resources/images/status using the following commands: cd <jive.instance.home> ln -s /usr/local/jive/var/www/resources resources You can use GIF or other types of image files, but you should use the same naming scheme as the existing images: statusicon-<number-in-sequence>.gif. You might want to start your numbering at some higher level to avoid problems if application upgrades include more images. For example, to add five new images (where included images currently end at number 52), you could add images called statusicon-100.gif, statusicon-101.gif, statusicon-102.gif, statusicon-103.gif, and statusicon-104.gif. You can upload your own custom image files to the Jive file server using the Add or replace existing level icons feature. This is useful if you don't have scp or other direct access to the application file server.
Point Range or Group	You can associate this status level with either a point range or a user group. Entering a point range will tie this status level to users' activity in the community. Alternatively, if you select Unbounded, no point range will be associated with this status level. If you want certain users in your community to always have a particular status level regardless of their activity, select Group. This will associate this status level with a user group that you select. For example, you could define a user group made up of a few community managers or gurus, then associate a special status level to them in order to have a recognizable name and icon visible to other people.