Community Levels: How Are User Levels Determined?

[Sreeram Nair]

Hi everyone,

I’ve noticed something interesting about the ranking system in the ServiceNow Community and wanted to get some clarity on how user levels are actually determined.

When comparing two community profiles, I saw that a user with a very high number of posts, solutions, and helpfuls has a lower level, while another user with far fewer visible contributions has reached a much higher level.
Example:

This made me wonder:

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What factors determine overall community levels?

It seems that the level does not depend only on the visible stats such as:

• Number of posts

• Number of solutions

• Helpfuls received

• Helpfuls given

• Badges displayed

So, I’m curious to understand:

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1. What activities contribute most to leveling up?

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2. Why do some users with fewer visible contributions reach higher levels?

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3. Is there any official documentation or guidance on how levels are calculated?

[Simon Hendery]

Yes, that's definitely suspicious.

I recall 2-3 years ago there was some kind of data migration that impacted a lot of users. Maybe this is related to the ongoing fallout?

To be blunt, it would be nice if people like @Dan Bruhn engaged a bit more with the Community because they're the only ones that can answer this type of question. 

[Sreeram Nair]

Ya, I already saw a ton of questions regarding Community Points and Levels But, sadly not much interaction with the comments from @Dan Bruhn

[Simon Hendery]

There's a tiny, tiny minority of ServiceNow staff who are excellent expert contributors to the Community. The rest are nowhere to be seen.

Then again, let's be honest. The whole purpose of the Community is to deflect work away from ServiceNow staff. Why pay people to answer technical questions about your products when you can set up a forum and volunteers will do that job for free?! 😆 😆