Digital Badges

Volunteers have always been at the heart of Translation Commons. Their dedication across translation, engineering, web design, project management, and many other areas has enabled the organization to deliver multilingual guidance on language digitization and innovative digital solutions that connect people and cultures around the world. To recognize this collective effort, we’ve created a structured digital badging system that celebrates the skills and experience each volunteer brings to our community. These badges honor individual growth and teamwork alike — acknowledging translators, reviewers, engineers, web designers, and many others who contribute their time, creativity, and expertise to advancing language technology and collaboration.

How the Badging System Works

Each badge represents a milestone in a volunteer’s journey — a visible recognition of skill, experience, and sustained impact. The system is designed to grow with our community, spanning multiple disciplines and roles: from the first successfully completed task to advanced leadership across complex, multi-team initiatives. Volunteers can earn badges for different types of work, with levels that progress as their contributions deepen and diversify. All badges are issued digitally and verified through Translation Commons, ensuring that they can be proudly shared on professional profiles, résumés, and social platforms. Together, these badges form a living record of achievement — highlighting the collaborative spirit, technical excellence, and creative energy that define our global volunteer community.

Milestone Recognition

Badges mark significant achievements in your volunteer journey, celebrating your skills and contributions.

Progressive Levels

Earn badges across different types of work, with levels that progress as your contributions deepen and diversify.

Verified & Shareable

All badges are digitally issued and verified, ready to share on professional profiles, résumés, and social platforms.

Translation Commons Badges

We are issuing the following badges to recognize contributions across different roles and disciplines within our community.

All Contributors

Recognition for volunteers across all roles and contributions.

Engaged Volunteer

For contributing to one project

Awarded to anyone who participates in a Translation Commons project, regardless of the number of words translated or reviewed. Celebrates the person’s decision to support the initiative and recognizes their impact.

Consistent Contributor

For contributing to 3 projects

Demonstrates a volunteer’s growing experience and dedication, having completed three projects.

Senior Contributor

For contributing to 5 projects

Honors a volunteer’s consistent contributions and expertise across five projects.

Accomplished Contributor

For contributing to 10 projects

Celebrates a volunteer’s outstanding commitment and leadership, with ten completed projects.

Translators

Honoring translation work measured in words translated.

Translator – Bronze

For translating 5,000 words

Translator – Silver

For translating 10,000 words

Translator – Gold

For translating 15,000 words

(which corresponds to the length of a novella like Dickens’ A Christmas Carol).

Translator – Platinum

For translating 30,000 words

(which corresponds to the length of a short book like Sant-Exupéry’s The Little Prince).

Translator – Diamond

For translating a minimum of 50,000 words

(which corresponds to the length of a complete novel like Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby).

Proofreaders

Celebrating meticulous proofreading and editing excellence.

Proofreader – Bronze

For proofreading and editing 7,500 words

Proofreader – Silver

For proofreading and editing 15,000 words

Proofreader – Gold

For proofreading and editing 22,500 words

(which corresponds to the length of a short novel like Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea).

Proofreader – Platinum

For proofreading and editing 45,000 words

(which corresponds to the length of a mid-length novel like Coelho’s The Alchemist).

Proofreader – Diamond

For proofreading and editing 75,000 words

(which corresponds to the length of a full-length novel like Camus’ The Stranger).

Reviewers

Recognizing quality assurance and linguistic review.

Reviewer – Bronze

For reviewing 7,500 words and ensuring linguistic quality

Reviewer – Silver

For reviewing 15,000 words and ensuring linguistic quality

Reviewer – Gold

For reviewing 22,500 words and ensuring linguistic quality

Reviewer – Platinum

For reviewing 45,000 words and ensuring linguistic quality

Reviewer – Diamond

For reviewing 75,000 words and ensuring linguistic quality

Project Managers and Localization Project Coordinators

Honoring leadership in coordinating and delivering localization projects.

Project Management – Bronze

For successfully coordinating and delivering one project

Awarded to volunteers who have successfully managed their first Translation Commons localization project, demonstrating initiative, organization, and teamwork in guiding a project from start to finish.

Project Management – Silver

For successfully coordinating and delivering 3 projects

Recognizes volunteers who have developed growing experience and confidence by managing multiple projects, balancing tasks, and supporting collaboration across teams.

Project Management – Gold

For successfully coordinating and delivering 5 projects

Honors project managers who have consistently delivered results, showing strong leadership, communication, and problem-solving skills across several projects.

Project Management – Platinum

For successfully coordinating and delivering 10 projects

Celebrates advanced project leaders whose sustained commitment and oversight have enabled the successful delivery of numerous localization projects.

Project Management – Diamond

For successfully coordinating and delivering 20 projects

Recognizes exceptional dedication to project management excellence and making a lasting impact on the Translation Commons mission and community.

Engineers

Honoring contributions to the Translation Commons Github, tool development and community engagement.

Engineer – Bronze

For meaningful contributions to Translation Commons repositories

Criteria: Fulfills at least three of five: Minimum 3 merged pull requests and/or 5+ commits across any TC GitHub repositories; contributed to issue resolution or documentation; completed 1+ simple WordPress tasks such as bug fixes, content updates, or minor completions; initial data exploration such as simple analytics; or engaging in early-stage engineering contributions.

Engineer – Silver

For substantial technical input or mid-term involvement

Criteria: Fulfills at least three of six: 7+ merged pull requests and consistent commits over multiple weeks; authored a feature or module used in production; continuous contribution for 3+ months; published at least one new WordPress page (layout, styling, or functionality); research and tested plugins/themes to ensure compatibility; or maintained automation scripts.

Engineer – Gold

For major code contributions and system improvements

Criteria: Delivered major refactor or feature deployment; regularly maintained/reviewed code in one or more repos; published 3+ WordPress pages with custom design; significant R&D outcomes (proof-of-concept, integration, architecture exploration); or delivered impactful data analysis/reporting supporting TC projects.

Engineer – Platinum

For leading engineering efforts and mentoring contributors

Criteria: Provided technical leadership, mentorship, reviews, and project roadmaps; architected or managed a critical system; 6+ months of active engagement driving initiatives; and/or led cross-functional projects combining engineering, data, and UX.

Engineer – Leadership

For empowering the TC engineering community through collaboration, outreach, and vision

Criteria: Led an open-source initiative, sprint, or cross-team collaboration; organized onboarding for new volunteers; represented TC in external engineering discussions/events; advocated for new tech adoption based on research and feasibility.

Engineer – Excellence

For transformative, widely adopted contributions across TC engineering efforts

Criteria: Work has been widely adopted in TC projects. Recognized for outstanding code quality, documentation, and best practices. Contributions spanning engineering, web development, R&D, and data analysis. Peer or maintainer nominations affirming impact. Consistently sets engineering standards for maintainability, scalability, and innovation.