Meaning of user subtitles? - Mentor Legend Explorer Community Expert Beginner New Here Engaged

[aTomician]

Everywhere around Adobe Community I see users get a label of some sorts.  Some are obvious what they are for, some aren't:

• Mentor - ?
• Legend - ? 
• Beginner (whats the difference between this and Community Beginner, or New Here?)
• Explorer - ?
• Community Expert
• Community Beginner - See Beginner
• New Here - See Beginner
• Engaged - ?
• Adobe Employee - obvious

Just curious as to the meaning of each of these?  Is there a pecking order?  What does each one represent?  Does it have a practical meaning to users of the site?  Are some better then others? etc...  Just be cool to know what the point of them is.

EDIT: wanted to update the list order here from the comments.

1. New Here 
2. Community Beginner
3. Beginner
4. Explorer
5. Enthusiast - (obtained when you reach 270 posts or 175 replies, not sure which)
6. Engaged
7. Mentor 
8. Legend 

Specials:

• Adobe Community Expert (ACE) - awarded manually
• Adobe Employee - only for staff members

[kglad]

yes, there's pecking order based (in the beginning) on the number of forum posts ~

• New Here 

• Community Beginner =  Beginner

• Explorer - ?
• Engaged
• Mentor - ?
• Legend - ? 
• the  two below require more:
• Community Expert
• Adobe Employee - obvious

and there are more/different ranks because some have been added and some removed/changed (including mine just recently).  and i know of no recent list or explanation. 

here's a very dated explanation:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/using-the-community-discussions/user-manual-for-the-adobe-forum-commu...

[LinSims]

Community Experts are volunteers who help moderate the forums and answer questions or provide information on where to get answers.

The rest are, mostly, reflective of how active you've been and how many posts you've made. No one's certain what differentiates levels from each other. It's based on how active you  are (number of posts and replies).

It's known that Beginners, at least, cannot edit their posts. At some point you're able to, but as far as I know, no one knows what that is. 

[Nancy OShea]

Adobe Employees are paid staff.

Community Experts are unpaid volunteers & product users invited by Adobe based on our contributions and product experience. 

Otherwise, badges are pretty much meaningless.  Anyone can participate here.  The more you participate, the more points you earn.  Over time, your badge label gets fancier to reflect your participation level.  

I hope that helps.

[aTomician]

Thanks all, that's helpful 😁

[kglad]

you're welcome.

p.s. yesterday i learned the aztecs called the armadillo "ayotochtli" or "armored-rabbit"

[aTomician]

Hm!  Maybe I should change to ArmorBunny!  Has a nice ring to it 😁

[kglad]

+1 on a new screen name, though i'd go to +2 for ayotochtli.

[aTomician]

Hmmm - I've just ranked up to Enthusiast which I didn't have on my list...  I don't have any new badges though so they can't be linked.  Now I'll have to update my list!

[kglad]

if you keep track of your rank, you'll have the only current list of rankings.  until adobe adds/removes some.

[aTomician]

OK... what is classed as a post - starting a new thread?  I see posts and replies are both recorded...

[aTomician]

Yes, replying to the your comment above just pushed my "Posts" number up by +1 so Posts on a user profile must record new threads and replies.

[kglad]

every individual message is a post.  the first one that started the topic is the "original post " = op (and op is often used to mean "original poster" too.

the op and all its replies constitute a thread.

[_scott__]

"Legend" may mean an inactive or former Community Expert.

I was a "Community Expert" for a number of years. Then my activity stopped for several years... and the title changed to "Legend". 

[_scott__]

but. now my screen name has changed randomly after posting that.... odd... and couldn't change it back to the original becuase it was "in use" had to use a new screen name (although it's very similar).

[kglad]

the profile editing is wonkie.  i added a url and my screenname was changed to some weird wonderboy_xyz name.  i was able to change it back to my original kglad, though.

[_scott__]

That makes sense.. I changed the icon... then after posting the above I noticed the name was "somethingBEE_1234".. threw me off... and had to search to figure out how to change it back. Seems ANY profile editng may cause a "random screen name" to be generated (and used). 

Kind of annoying I couldn't change it back to the original, but few will notice an extra _

Interestingly enough, my activity here stopped back in ~2012/2013 due to the initial implementation of this "community" software.. man was it bad then...

[kglad]

yes, problems with the adobe forums abound.  sometimes i get no emails from followed forums.  sometime i get emails about forum posts from years ago, as if they were new posts.  and sometimes i get 2 to 3 posts for each message.  (eg, i got two for your last post. but that might becahse of post editing)

[_scott__]

It is also feasible that "Legend" or "Mentor" are related to badges. I have a a lot of badges related to answer and solutions.

[Jacob Bugge]

Scott, others,

As far as I know:

The term Legend was first used in the honorary title Forum Legend, in the FORUM LEGENDS page of the Wall of Fame in 2015, as "this year's top forum contributors". The rest of the Wall of Fame was (supposed to be) consisting of a monthly list of forumwide top contributors.

Supposedly, all this was a replacement for the unfortunate Top Contributors list, consistently appearing to the right on each forum page, which had been removed.

However, there was never another appointment of Forum Legends so the page remained unchanged for years until the Wall of Fame was removed, and there were quarterly rather than monthly lists of forumwide top contributors, who received gift cards.

Only after 2015 the Legend was included in the list of titles as the top one, with the same lifetime 5,000 point requirement as the MVP title which was later merged with the ACP title and finally replaced by the Community Expert title.

Most likely, the Legend requirement has changed (maybe more than once) since then.

So Legends are the top contributors with no other title, based on merits, and some Legends are retired MVPs/ACPs/Community Experts/Employees (at least one retired Employee is now a Legend).