What are Community ranks?

The Google Cloud Community uses a ranking system that consists of earned ranks and assigned ranks. The earned ranking ladder encourages and recognizes quality contributions to the community, whereas assigned ranks sit outside the earned ranking ladder and are given based on a specific role in the community, such as a Community Manager.

Community members can reach higher earned ranks by contributing to the Community. For example, by creating new topics, receiving kudos ("likes"), or authoring accepted solutions.

Community ranks are one way of showing that you are especially passionate and knowledgeable about Google’s products and not just active in the Community, but also helpful.

Having a high rank can help establish you as a leader, give you more visibility with Googlers, and even open up exclusive opportunities. 

Where can I see someone's rank?

A member's Community rank is shown throughout the Community - on your profile page, as you interact in the forums, and on leaderboards.

List of Community ranks

As mentioned above, the Google Cloud Community's ranking system consists of earned and assigned ranks. 

Earned Community ranks

All Community members start with the "New Member" rank. As you participate in the Community and engage in different activities, you will climb the Community ranks.

It's important to note that ranks are unlocked by completing a combination of activities and accomplishments, including giving and receiving likes, authoring posts and solutions, and engaging in the comments. 

Below, you can see a list of all ranks from lowest to highest and the benefits you can unlock at each rank tier. You’ll also see to the right of each rank name that there’s a progress bar - a “rank icon” - which will grow each time you unlock a new rank. The rank icon will change colors and start again when you achieve a new rank tier (e.g. when you rank up from Bronze 5 to Silver 1, or Gold 5 to Platinum 1, as examples).

How can I rank up?

We don’t share the exact formulas and activity criteria for each rank. This makes things more exciting and ensures that high ranks are well-deserved and not easily earned by gaming the system.

With that said, we can provide general guidance and tips that will help you climb the ranks and reach new heights in the cloud. And remember, ranks are unlocked by completing a combination of community activities, including giving and receiving likes, authoring posts and solutions, and engaging in the comments. 

• Focus on providing quality, helpful responses to Community member questions
• Remember to give kudos (likes) for helpful responses or posts, and remember to mark a response as an Answer if it answered your question
• When asking a new question, provide a detailed title and description, including the context and any helpful code snippets or screenshots that will help others understand how to best respond to your question
• Consistency is key! Utilize subscriptions and notifications to be automatically updated when new posts are created about the topics you care about

Assigned Community ranks

Community members with an assigned Community rank sit outside the earned Community ranks structure. Notable assigned ranks that you will see throughout the Community include: 

Staff: Employee of Google (Googler)

Community Manager: Part of the extended Google Cloud Community team, focused on providing a welcoming, helpful, and safe space for members to meet their goals with Google Cloud. Community Managers actively monitor the forums, help ensure Community Guidelines are followed, and help facilitate community conversations, content, and events. 

What are avatar icons?

While all Community members have a rank (either earned or assigned), you'll see that some members also have an avatar icon to signify a unique status, role, or achievement in the broader Google Cloud ecosystem.

Community members who are Googlers (assigned rank, "Staff") have an avatar icon, as shown in the image below. This is so all Community members can more quickly and easily recognize who is or who is not a Google employee. 

What are Community badges?

Badges recognize you for your contributions and accomplishments in the Community (e.g. posting, commenting, authoring solutions) without being tied to a rank.

Badges are unlocked by completing a certain amount of activities, whereas ranks are tied to completing a combination of activities and accomplishments. 

To view the badges you've earned, click on your avatar on the top right corner and select "My profile".

On your profile page, you can see a high-level overview of badges you've earned, including the most recent.

You can also see other Community members’ badges from their profile pages. 

List of badges

As you participate in the Community and reach activity milestones, you'll unlock earned badges, including authored solutions, posts, comments (replies), ideas, likes received, and likes given.

Here’s an overview of the badges available in the Google Cloud Community today.