Wondering what the hell those numbers mean at the top of profiles and group pages?

Activity Points are awarded automatically when you perform certain actions on IdeasTap, when you’re logged in. They may seem random at first, but trust us – they’re not.

They’re designed to do two things. Firstly, for the competitive among you they add a gaming element to the site. Who can rack up the most points? You can follow the leader board here.

But there’s a more practical element to them as well.

The system dishes out points to people who use the site effectively. IdeasTap is all about promoting yourself and developing your career, so we’ve tried to reflect that with Activity Points.

If you’re shortlisted for a Creative Brief, you’ll get points. If you win, you’ll get more. If you upload content to your portfolio, you get points. If you set up an event you get a few – and then more for every person you can persuade to attend. The same goes for groups.

Of course some actions will get you more points than others – logging in gets you a single point, for example, whereas you get the most points for winning a Creative Brief. You also get points when you comment on IdeasMag articles. We’re not going to give away how all the points are awarded here because, well, that would be too easy.

But the system will generally tell you when you’ve been given points, so the more you use the site the more you’ll understand how to accumulate them.

We're starting to introduce occasional briefs and opportunities where a minimum number of points are required to apply. For certain opportunities this helps us to select people who understand how IdeasTap works - if we feel that's relevant. We'll always state very clearly on the brief if Activity Points are a requirment.

One straightforward benefit is that people with the most points are pushed to the top of our search listings. If you go to our Search page and select People from the list of options on the left, you'll see everyone is ordered by Activity Points. If you then refine that search using disciplines, region, interests (etc), people with points will be pushed to the top. So, put simply, points help to get you noticed.

More points-based opportunities are coming - watch this space...