How points are earned
In BotLaunch, reputation in a Telegram group comes from two things.
The first is taking part. A member earns a point for a message, one point by default, with a cooldown of 60 seconds between awards. The cooldown is what stops a flood of one-word messages from paying off. Someone who sends ten messages in a minute earns the same as someone who sends one.
The second is being thanked. When a member replies to another person's message with one of your upvote keywords, the person who wrote the original message receives points, two by default, and the bot confirms it in the chat. The dashboard suggests +1, thanks and thank you as keywords. The keyword has to stand as its own word at the start, the end or the middle of the reply, or be the whole reply. Nobody can upvote themselves.
Upvotes only work after you save the keyword list in the dashboard, so open the module and save it even if you keep the suggestions.
Levels, badges and what perks really are
Points place each member on one of six levels. The default thresholds are 0, 50, 200, 500, 1,000 and 5,000 points, running from newcomer to legend. You can change every threshold, and you can give each level a badge, which is an emoji shown next to the member on the leaderboard and in their profile.
Each level also has a perks field, with text such as post links or post media. Read this carefully: the perks are labels. The bot shows them when a member checks their reputation. It does not change anyone's permissions in Telegram. If a level is meant to come with something real, an admin has to grant it by hand, so only write perks you are willing to hand out.
When a member moves up a level, the bot can announce it in the group. That is a switch in the settings. In a small group the announcement is a nice moment. In a large one it can become noise, and you may prefer it off.
The two commands members use
/rep shows a member their own level, badge, total points and the perks for that level. Sent as a reply to someone else's message, it shows that person's standing instead. If you would rather not display levels, there is a switch for that, and /rep then leaves the level out.
/leaderboard lists the members with the most points, with medals for the top three. The list holds ten names by default, and you can set it anywhere from 5 to 50. Members with zero points do not appear. The table counts all points earned since the module was turned on. It does not reset each week or month, so long-standing members will hold the top places. Tell newcomers that up front, or they will assume the board is broken.
Where the system can be gamed
Every points system gets tested by the people inside it. Three weak spots are worth knowing before you announce anything.
- Thank-you trading. Upvotes have no cooldown by default, so two friends can reply thanks to each other all afternoon. Keep the upvote value low next to the level thresholds, and watch the top of the leaderboard in the first week.
- Short keywords. A keyword like thanks will match honest replies you did not intend as votes. That is usually fine. A very common word as a keyword is not, so keep the list to three or four clear ones.
- Slow chatter. The 60 second cooldown blocks floods, not a member who posts one empty message every minute. If message points cause this, lower them or turn the message rule off and let upvotes carry the system.
Reputation or Gamification: pick one to lead
BotLaunch also has a Gamification module, and it is a separate counter. It gives 5 XP for every group message, with no cooldown, and raises a member's level as XP grows: level 2 arrives after 10 messages, level 5 after 160. It tracks a daily streak and hands out badges at 100 and 1,000 messages and at levels 5 and 10. /mypoints shows a member their XP, level, streak and badges, and /glevels shows the top ten by XP.
The differences matter. Gamification rewards volume and has no upvotes. Reputation dampens volume and rewards being useful to others. XP is also counted per bot, so if the same bot runs several of your groups, a member's XP adds up across them.
Both modules answer /leaderboard. When Reputation is on, the command shows the reputation table. When it is off, the same command shows the XP table. Running both at once gives members two scores to keep track of, so choose the one that fits the behaviour you want and leave the other off.
A setup order for this week
- Turn on Reputation for one group and leave the default point values.
- Save the upvote keywords.
- Rewrite the perks so each one is something you will really grant, or clear them.
- Decide on level announcements: on for a small group, off for a busy one.
- Announce it with one message that explains /rep, /leaderboard and how to thank someone.
- After seven days, look at the top ten. If the names are your most helpful members, leave it. If they are your loudest, cut the message points.
To put a question to the group in the meantime, the Polls module does it in one line: /poll, the question, then the options separated by a vertical bar. By default only admins can start one. All engagement modules are listed on the modules page.