- What is the VMware Community reward points program?
- How do I earn reward points and check my reward points total?
- How do I ask a question?
- How do I earn points for answering questions?
- How many points is each question worth?
- What are the different status levels in the rewards program?
- Can VMware employees participate in the Community?
- I have more questions!
What is the VMware Community reward points program?
To encourage the community to use forums as a source of information and to help build valuable content, we employ a points program which rewards participation, and emphasizes quality participation.
In addition, we have created "status" icons, which will identify forum members' reward points level. This program is intended to spark more participation and interaction in a friendly but competitive way.
How do I earn reward points and check my reward points total?
Reward points can be earned for several different types of forum activities, such as posting a document, answering a question or making a blog post. The system will automatically deposit reward points into your reward points pool based on your forum participation. The more you participate, the more reward points you will earn. To check your reward points total, go to any thread where you have made a post and click on your username.
How do I ask a question?
When you posts a new topic, the Web form will present a check box asking if this is a question. Check this box in order to create a question in the forum. The question will be denoted by a question mark icon.
How do I earn points for answering questions?
Forum members can post as many replies to a question as they wish. The original poster can then come back to the forum thread and award points for the most helpful answers to their question.
A “helpful” answer is worth 6 reward points and a “correct” answer is worth 10 reward points. Each question can only have one “correct” answer and up to two “helpful” ones.
Each time the original poster rates a reply they receive 1 point automatically deposited into their reward points pool. The original poster can therefore earn up to 3 more reward points for rating replies (1 “correct” and 2 “helpful” answers).
The original poster is not eligible to receive answer points for their own thread. Responses that give “correct” answers are denoted by a star symbol. “Helpful” answers are denoted by green text specifying "1 person found this helpful."
** Those who answer questions should not then ask for their answer to be marked "Helpful" or "Correct" in an effort to gain more points. This points award should be objectively given by the person who posed the question, or an outside user who found the information beneficial.
How many points is each question worth?
Any poster who asks a question can give up to 22 points for responses to their question. Here are some common examples, from the least amount of reward points handed out to the most:
- Ex: Author gives no points (worth 0 points)
- Ex: Author gives 1 post a Helpful Answer (worth 6 points)
- Ex: Author gives 2 posts a Helpful Answer (worth 12 points total)
- Ex: Author gives 1 Correct Answer (worth 10 points)
- Ex: Author gives 1 Correct Answer and 1 Helpful Answer (worth 16 points)
- Ex: Author gives 1 Correct Answer and 2 Helpful Answers (worth 22 points each)
- You may go to the topic and mark a helpful reply as “helpful.” This awards the writer of the reply with 6 points and denotes this reply with a lightbulb symbol. You may do this with up to TWO replies.
- When you reply to a post to thank them for help, there is a button labeled “Has your question been answered.” Clicking this awards “correct” answer" reward points to the author of the post to which you are replying.
- The moderator may also tag the question as “assumed answered.” Neither the moderator nor the repliers will get reward points for this action. We strongly encourage posters who ask questions to return to the forums and hand out reward points to the most helpful users.
After marking a message as “correct,” your question will be automatically marked as answered.
What are the different status levels in the rewards program?
VMware will recognize users who are most active and helpful within the forum community. These users are highlighted on the main page of the VMware community as well as within each posting by status icons.
New users will be assigned a “lurker” status until they have earned their first 6 points. After that, the following tiers of forum status exist:
Novice 
(rook): 6-50 pts
Enthusiast 
(flag): 51-250 pts
Hot Shot 
(target): 251-750 pts
Expert 
(knight): 751-2000 pts
Master 
(crown): 2001-5000 pts
Virtuoso 
(magic wand): 5000+ pts
Champion 
(trophy): 10000+ pts
Guru 
(brain): 20000+ pts
Can VMware employees participate in the Community?
VMware employees are encouraged to participate in VMware community, and have to abide by the same community rules as all other members. They will have an additional icon (VMware logo) next to their name to identify them as a VMware employee.
VMware employees can receive reward points just like other users.
I have more questions!
Visit the VMware Community FAQ for more Q and A or post a discussion in Technical Community Resources and Help