I believe one of the criteria is that you have to be a member for at least 6 months. You also need to have a certain number of posts and likes, but I'm not sure what the exact numbers are for those.
You may pass the mark without seeing it, though, Duchess, since you are a Supporter. The Supporter status supersedes Senior Member status as far as showing in your profile.
You become a senior member when you have at least 250 posts, 50 likes, and have been registered for 180 days. Senior members have more recognition and some additional features that regular members don't, and senior members don't get a banner like the Contributor usergroup does. In your case, I don't believe you've been registered for 180 days; additionally, I believe Wrey is right that Supporter Status will supersede your username color display, at least in the case of senior members.
Contributors are a step up from Senior Members. They come with the badges and different username colors. To be a Contributing Member you must have made at least 500 posts, have received 200 likes, and have been registered for 365 days. I should probably just right a FAQ about this, this question seems to come up from time to time. I'm also considering revising the criteria for Contributing Member to require other things, such as adding a few writing resources. Or maybe another higher usergroup level. hmmm...
Thirdwind is a contributor but he only has 193 likes? (hey, I just noticed I'm a contributor too lol but I only have 153 likes?) Is a contributing member different to a contributor? Btw, those little green gems - what's happened with them? Some people seem to have loads, but mine have all disappeared. I used to have a fair few and suddenly I only have 2. I want them back! I don't get why most of them are gone? What gives people green gems nowadays?
Contributing Member and Contributor are the same thing. Those of you who are Contributors and have less than 200 likes are the exception because you had Contributor status before the upgrade from vBulletin to Xenforo; after the upgrade the criteria changed. The reputation system is still something I need to work out. It'll likely change a lot in a few months, I just don't have the resources right now. Presently, you can earn reputation for logging in daily, making quality threads, receiving a like, it being your birthday, a thread getting stickied, etc., and you lose rep if your posts get deleted.
But I just "stay logged in" - does that count? In terms of the rep, I preferred the old system with the comments and all. However, please never introduce negative rep - hated that when I was on a forum that had neg rep in place. Anyway it's not the biggest issue in the world - hardly an issue at all. Like, don't push yourself too hard, things take time and I presume some amount of money (not got a clue how you're funding the site and all the upgrades etc). Make sure you get some rest.
For everyone's future reference, I've added a WritingForums.org Usergroup Explaination to the FAQ. It's not 100% accurate in that some username colors are off and that Reviewers, Community Leaders, and Community Volunteers aren't groups yet, but it has most of the relevant information about what forum usergroups exist and how one can be promoted into them. I'm not really sure if it counts if you stay logged in, to be honest. Actually, since it very well could not count I'm going to lower the significance of that function in earning rep to .01 of a rep point. I have no plans to introduce negative rep, though when I first implemented this new system it cost rep to give out likes, which might explain the reputation inequality for some. Honestly, I wouldn't give much thought to the green rep bars at this point - a complete overhall of it will likely be coming, which will either reset reputation or (more likely) will adjust it relatively so 20 green bars is equivalent to the new 5, and so on, basically a reduction of how easy it is to get reps, making the darker green reps much more rare. Other ways to earn rep points will also be introduced, such as reputation for adding writing resources. Thanks. Truthfully rep is very low on my to-do list, there is a bunch of other stuff even on WritingForums.org that I want to focus on first. Fixing the reputation system will cost a small monetary investment. Funding for this sort of stuff comes partly from forum advertisements and supporter membership and partly out of pocket.
i'd thought 'contributor' meant that one has contributed a stickied thread, or something else that's a permanent addition to the site... silly me! is the 'supporter' badge/whatever awarded only to those who are paid-up subscribers helping to pay for the site?
Nope! If I recall correctly there was another usergroup here a few years back - maybe with the name Senior Member, but really a precursor to today's usergroups - which was a sort of invite only group you could get into for volunteering, getting threads stickied, stuff like that. I don't really recall it well though, but maybe that's what you were thinking of? Of course I think people who write sticky-worth threads are real forum contributors, regardless if they have the contributor badge. Yes, with the exception of the Supporter Membership that was given away as a part of the 1,000,000 post promotion. It's possible there might be other WF Supporter Membership give aways in the future, such secondary prizes for a writing contest, but not as much as we did during the promotion. So everyone who's a Supporter either won membership or donated.
