The Leaderboard ranks your members by activity using XP, levels and message counts. A podium highlights the top three and you can re-sort the full list by any of the three. It is a friendly way to recognise your most engaged members and nudge everyone else to take part — available on every plan.
Want to set this up? Do it right in your Telm account.
Open in your dashboard1What the leaderboard is for
Open a group and choose Leaderboard in the Insights section of the group menu. It turns raw activity into a friendly ranking that rewards the people who keep the conversation alive.
It is a light way to encourage participation — members can see where they stand and aim to climb. Where the Members list is a neutral research table, the leaderboard is the celebratory view of the same activity, built to be shared and shown off.
2How members are ranked
Every active member earns points as they take part. Three related values drive the ranking:
- XP — experience points earned through activity over time.
- Level — a tier derived from accumulated XP; higher levels take more XP.
- Messages — the plain count of messages the member has sent.
3XP, levels and message counts
The three values measure related but different things, and understanding the difference explains why the same member can sit at different spots depending on how you sort.
Messages is the simplest: the raw number of posts. XP is an engagement score that accumulates with activity over time, so a long-standing regular can hold high XP even during a quiet week. Level is a tier derived from XP — each successive level takes more XP than the last, so climbing gets progressively harder and reaching a top level genuinely signals a committed member.
4Sorting the rankings
Use the sort toggle to rank the list by XP, by Messages or by Level. The podium and the full list both follow your choice, so you can answer different questions:
- Sort by XP for overall engagement.
- Sort by Messages for sheer volume.
- Sort by Level to see who has reached the top tiers.
5The top-three podium
The three leading members are shown on a podium above the full ranking, with first place in the centre. Everyone else follows in an ordered list below.
The same data feeds the Leaderboard tab inside Analytics, so you can jump between the two views. Whichever sort you pick reshuffles both the podium and the list together, so the podium always reflects the metric you are currently looking at.
6Turning the leaderboard into engagement
A leaderboard only drives behaviour if your community sees it. The rankings are the raw material; a small ritual around them is what actually lifts participation.
- Post a monthly top-three shout-out in the group, ideally at your busiest hour from the activity heatmap.
- Give top members a small perk — a role, a pinned mention, or first access to something — so the ranking has a payoff.
- Rotate the metric you celebrate (XP one month, messages the next) so different kinds of contributors get recognised.
- Pair recognition with a warm welcome flow so newcomers know the leaderboard exists from day one.
7Availability and who appears
The leaderboard is part of the basic analytics that every plan gets, including Free, so you can start recognising members from day one.
Only members with recorded activity are ranked. Someone who has joined but not yet posted will not appear until they take part — the same rule that governs the Members list. As members become active the leaderboard fills out on its own.