A community either has a pulse or it does not, and this page is where you take it.
The figures
| Figure | What it counts |
|---|---|
| Members | Active accounts with the member role in your platform, without your team and without banned accounts. It does not depend on community access |
| Online now | Of those members, everyone who was active anywhere in your platform in the last 15 minutes |
| Active Members (30d) | Everyone who wrote at least one post or comment in the last 30 days |
| Posts | Posts that are approved and visible right now, discussion answers included |
| Comments | Comments that are visible right now |
| Points awarded | The sum of every member's current points |
Members counts your platform, not your community. A member without access to a single forum still counts, so read it as the size of the room next door, and look at the Members page of the community for who can actually take part.
Posts and Comments count what members can see. Hiding, deleting or rejecting something takes it out again, so both numbers can go down. The "this week" line under them is the last seven days, counted the same way, and it disappears in a week with nothing new.
Points awarded grows with reactions, comments and replies, and with points handed out by an automation. When a post, a comment or a reaction disappears, its points are taken back, so this figure can go down when you moderate.
The one number that matters
Not members. Active Members (30d) against Members.
A community of 800 with 40 active is a quiet room with a big door. A community of 90 with 40 active is busy. The second one is healthier, and only the ratio tells you that.
Only writing counts here. A member who reads every day and reacts to half of it never shows up in this figure, so treat it as a floor rather than the full picture. Online now is the opposite: it shows presence, not participation.
Watch the ratio monthly. The direction it moves in matters more than where it is.
Posts against comments
Engagement shows "Posts and comments per day" over the last 30 days or 90 days, counting only content that is visible, and the relationship between the two lines is the interesting part.
- More comments than posts is a healthy community. People are talking to each other.
- More posts than comments means people are broadcasting into a room that does not answer. Usually the posts are announcements, or the questions are too big to answer in a sentence.
If comments are thin, write smaller posts and ask smaller questions. A post ending in "what would you do?" outperforms a post ending in a summary.
The activity heatmap
Activity heatmap shows "When your community is most active": weekdays down the side, hours of the day across the top, over 30 days, 90 days or All time. It counts visible posts and comments and uses your business's time zone, so the hours match your clock rather than a server somewhere.
- Which days are alive? Post when your members are there, not when you are writing.
- Which hours are alive? The strongest cells are the times your members write and reply. Publish into them, so a post is read while it is new.
Members in other time zones show up at your local hour, not theirs. The grid has no timeline either, so it cannot tell you when something changed; the engagement chart can.
Level distribution
Level distribution shows "Members per level", with the share of each, and is the fastest read on whether your gamification is set sensibly.
Everybody at the first level means the first threshold is too high. Everybody at the top means the ladder is too short and your most active members have nowhere left to go.
Leaderboard
Leaderboard lists the "Top members by points". All time ranks by current points; 7 days and 30 days rank by the points earned in that window, which is where newer members get a chance to appear. Click a name to open that member's community profile.
Export CSV downloads the whole ranking for the window you picked, with name, email, level and the points for all three windows. Use it when you thank or reward your most active members outside the platform.
When the streak system is on, a streak leaderboard sits below the profile completion card.
Profile completion
Profile completion shows the share of "Members with a complete profile". A profile counts as complete when it has a profile picture and, if you have set up community profile fields, at least one of them filled in. Next to it, Top earner names the member with the most points.
A low figure is usually a first-week problem. Members who never added a picture are often members who never posted.
Reading it honestly
- Compare like periods. Read them from the engagement chart, not from the totals. Communities have weekly rhythms; comparing a week to a month tells you nothing.
- Expect a January. Every community has quiet stretches, especially around holidays.
- A new community is volatile. Ten members means one enthusiastic person swings every number on the page.
If the page shows Loading failed, press Try again. Nothing is lost; the figures are calculated fresh each time.
From numbers to action
Three common readings and what they usually mean.
- Members up, active flat: people arrive and nothing catches them. The problem is the first week, not the community. Check that new members get forum access at all.
- Posts up, comments flat: you are broadcasting. Ask more, announce less.
- Everything down at once: find the week it started in the engagement chart, then look at what happened that week.
The dashboard carries a shorter version of these numbers next to the rest of your business.