To work with gravity and the other Orbit Model concepts, we first need to learn about activities. Activities underpin every concept in the model.
An activity is anything that a member does that counts as community participation or awareness.
Activities come in all shapes and sizes, ranging from sending chat messages to making donations to cleaning the airlock after a space meetup. Every activity has a date when it happened and a type. Here's a list of common community activity types:
| Activity types | |
|---|---|
| Attend an event | Post a forum topic |
| Deliver a presentation | Organize a meetup |
| Ask a question | Answer a question |
| Open a pull request | Write a blog post |
| Make a donation | Send a thank you |
Activity types give us valuable insight into what members like to do. As community builders, we can use that insight to personalize the opportunities we offer to each member.
Each activity type has a weight. The weight represents the commitment level associated with doing the activity. This helps determine the member's love and orbit level.
As there are 4 orbit levels with 3 steps each, we recommend using a 1-12 scale for activity weights. Activity types with a weight of 1 represent very light, passive awareness. Activity type weights increase from there up to active contribution and leadership.
| Activity type | Commitment | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Organized a meetup | Active ownership | 11 |
| Opened a pull request on GitHub | Active contribution | 8 |
| Answered a forum question | Active contribution | 6 |
| Attended a conference | Active participation | 5 |
| Read the newsletter | Passive consumption | 1 |
Learn more about how activity weights map to orbit levels.
Each community using the Orbit Model should define their own activity types, weights, and orbit level milestones. The information on this site is a general recommendation designed to work reasonably well for a wide variety of communities. Your mileage may vary.
The Orbit Model community is happy to help you think through how to customize the model to suit your community's needs. Learn more on the community page.