We award the top contributor badge to readers who post high quality and engaging comments and replies. This is how these criteria are determined:

• High quality posts -- comments and replies that have received thumbs up.
• Engaging posts -- comments that receive replies, and replies that receive a response from the original commenter.

We update the status of top contributors every day based on the past 14 days of posting activity.

Once earned, the top contributor badge remains active on your account for at least 14 days. After that period, you can lose the top contributor badge if:

• You don't post any comments or replies.
• Your posts receive enough negative ratings from users.
• Your comments don't receive replies.