What is that little cloud icon for? What does it mean?
I've heard this question a handful of times since we launched and finally grabbed some time to describe it for you all. TL;DR, that icon signifies a members' level of engagement on DevCentral. and we decided to play with the cloud motif because it was fun.
Rankings in Greater Detail
Ranks (and clouds for that matter) are derived from a semi-fluid arrangement of factors such as time, contributions, reactions, and interactions with the content of the site (or environment).
As of this writing, outside of employees and MVPs, the highest rank for active members is Nacreous achieved only by @Samir and @cjunior. In the end, this means that if you see someone with a rank icon with a lightning bolt or star in it, that user has established credibility with the rest of our community! These ranks do NOT imply accuracy of a given piece of advice. Nor do they illuminate skill or knowledge generally; those things are earned from innumerable places well beyond our virtual walls, but we hope this rank designation is one simple way we might help you, at a glance, understand just who you a member is with respect to their energies at DevCentral.
DevCentral Cloud Rankings
As you can see in this chart, we have room for growth. By way of comparison, I checked on @JRahm, and he *would be* at that level right above Nacreous. For the sake of intrigue, I have left off the names we provided for the next four ranks. It'll be fun to see those ranks get exposed. 😄
I should note that during the recent migration we were unable to translate any of the kudos/upvotes users may have earned or given between 2005 & 2019. This is a softspot that primarily affects really long-term members (like JRahm) but once kudos and solutions begin piling up in our new system I would expect to see increased movement up the ranks.
Next time, I'll review our incoming badging system.
Cheers!
