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What is that new LVL (Level) thingy in my EE avatar?

Joe WinogradDeveloper
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EE introduced a new rating method known as Level, which displays in your avatar as LVL. The new Level is a numeric ranking that is based on your Points. This article discusses the rationale behind the new method and provides the mathematical formula showing the relationship between Level and Points.

I've replied to several members this week (in both private messages and group discussions) who asked the question in the title of this article. I suspect more of the same may be coming, so rather than posting the same answer each time, I decided to write this article, and will simply send along its link to members when the question is posed.


What they're talking about is this:


LVL-in-avatar.gif

LVL is short for Level, and is essentially another way of rating members at Experts Exchange. The current scheme, with which we're all familiar, is based on the concept of a Rank. The Ranks are determined by the number of Points and are defined as follows:

 

Master           50,000
Guru            150,000
Wizard          300,000
Sage            500,000
Genius        1,000,000
Ace           2,500,000
Prodigy       5,000,000
Savant       10,000,000
Elite        25,000,000
Technocrat   50,000,000
Legend      100,000,000

The purpose of the new Levels is twofold. First, although there is an excellent article that clearly documents them, it is not obvious to members, unless you search out the definitions, what Rank is "better" — Guru, Wizard, Sage, Genius, etc. In other words, the rankings are arbitrary — there's no reason to think that a Sage is more highly rated than a Wizard. It could certainly have been defined the other way around. The Level system makes it clear — a higher number is better!


Second, the next Level is closer (easier to achieve) in the numeric scheme than the next Rank is in the Master-to-Legend scheme. So the next accomplishment is more within reach — good inspiration to get there! All of that said, the Ranks (also known as Certifications) are not going away.


Points and Level are related by a simple formula, as follows:


Points.gifThus, of course:

Level.gifWhen the result is not an integer, Level is truncated, not rounded. Using that formula, here are the Levels for all the Ranks:

 

Master         5
Guru           8
Wizard        12
Sage          15
Genius        22
Ace           35
Prodigy       50
Savant        70
Elite        111
Technocrat   158
Legend       223

Combining the Level chart with the Rank chart results in a chart where it is easy to see at what Levels the Ranks/Certifications occur:

 

Master           50,000  Level 5
Guru            150,000  between Level 8 & 9
Wizard          300,000  between Level 12 & 13
Sage            500,000  between Level 15 & 16
Genius        1,000,000  between Level 22 & 23
Ace           2,500,000  between Level 35 & 36
Prodigy       5,000,000  Level 50
Savant       10,000,000  between Level 70 & 71
Elite        25,000,000  between Level 111 & 112
Technocrat   50,000,000  between Level 158 & 159
Legend      100,000,000  between Level 223 & 224

Here's one more chart that shows how many Points are required to achieve Levels 1 through 100:

 

1       2,000   26  1,352,000   51   5,202,000   76   11,552,000
2       8,000   27  1,458,000   52   5,408,000   77   11,858,000
3      18,000   28  1,568,000   53   5,618,000   78   12,168,000
4      32,000   29  1,682,000   54   5,832,000   79   12,482,000
5      50,000   30  1,800,000   55   6,050,000   80   12,800,000
6      72,000   31  1,922,000   56   6,272,000   81   13,122,000
7      98,000   32  2,048,000   57   6,498,000   82   13,448,000
8     128,000   33  2,178,000   58   6,728,000   83   13,778,000
9     162,000   34  2,312,000   59   6,962,000   84   14,112,000
10    200,000   35  2,450,000   60   7,200,000   85   14,450,000
11    242,000   36  2,592,000   61   7,442,000   86   14,792,000
12    288,000   37  2,738,000   62   7,688,000   87   15,138,000
13    338,000   38  2,888,000   63   7,938,000   88   15,488,000
14    392,000   39  3,042,000   64   8,192,000   89   15,842,000
15    450,000   40  3,200,000   65   8,450,000   90   16,200,000
16    512,000   41  3,362,000   66   8,712,000   91   16,562,000
17    578,000   42  3,528,000   67   8,978,000   92   16,928,000
18    648,000   43  3,698,000   68   9,248,000   93   17,298,000
19    722,000   44  3,872,000   69   9,522,000   94   17,672,000
20    800,000   45  4,050,000   70   9,800,000   95   18,050,000
21    882,000   46  4,232,000   71  10,082,000   96   18,432,000
22    968,000   47  4,418,000   72  10,368,000   97   18,818,000
23  1,058,000   48  4,608,000   73  10,658,000   98   19,208,000
24  1,152,000   49  4,802,000   74  10,952,000   99   19,602,000
25  1,250,000   50  5,000,000   75  11,250,000   100  20,000,000

The Level that displays in the avatar is your Overall Level. If you hover over it, a fly-out box shows your Level in three of the question's Topics (hovering on a mobile device is a known issue that EE is working on):


Level-when-hovering.gifWhile a question may have up to ten Topics, hovering displays at most three — the three shown are the member's highest three Levels among the question's Topics.


An interesting visual effect with the LVL ribbon is shades of blue, that is, the higher the Level, the darker the blue. Here are three LVL ribbons next to each other clearly showing the effect:

LVL-shades-of-blue.gifAnother feature in the avatar is a small symbol that appears in the upper left. It looks like a circle at first glance, but upon closer inspection, you can see that it's actually a thought/comment symbol:


Live-bubble-on-avatar.pngA green one means the member is Available in EE's Live product; a yellow one means the member is Away; when the symbol is not present, the member is Unavailable. The LVL ribbon and the Live status may appear together:

LVL-and-Live-together.gif

I am not in an administrative capacity at Experts Exchange — I wrote this article based on what I've learned from various messages, threads, group discussions, and personal observation. My thanks to many of the folks at EE for providing relevant information, with a special thanks to Brenae Noack and Christopher Rourke.


Article Update 13-Sep-2016: As documented in the 12 September 2016 Release Notes, there is now a variant of the ribbon to highlight the moderators in comment threads. It is an orange ribbon, as shown in these screenshots of an Administrative Comment and a Private Editor Comment:

Administrative-Comment.gifPrivate-Editor-Comment.gif

Article Update 26-Sep-2016: EE released its definition page today for Levels:

Find out how your level works


If you find this article to be helpful, please click the thumbs-up icon below. This lets me know what is valuable for EE members and provides direction for future articles. Thanks very much! Regards, Joe

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Joe WinogradDeveloper
CERTIFIED EXPERT
50+ years in computers
EE FELLOW 2017 — first ever recipient of Fellow award
MVE 2015,2016,2018
CERTIFIED GOLD EXPERT
DISTINGUISHED EXPERT

Comments (17)

Joe WinogradDeveloper
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Commented:
Hi zzynx,
Good to know that you were able to find the article via Search. And thanks for the nice words! Regards, Joe
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Most Valuable Expert 2011
Awarded 2010

Commented:
Good job. Thanks for writing this all up.
Joe WinogradDeveloper
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Fellow
Most Valuable Expert 2018

Author

Commented:
And thanks to you, Ingeborg — I appreciate hearing that.
Blue Street TechLast Knight
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Distinguished Expert 2018

Commented:
+1 Thanks for the great explanation of it all Joe. Great presentation!
Joe WinogradDeveloper
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Commented:
You're welcome, Blue Street Tech, and thanks back at you for the kind words and article endorsement — both appreciated! Regards, Joe

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