Plain-language definitions of key terms used in the Lumina Insights dashboards.
Active user
A user who generated any activity on the platform during the selected time period. This includes logins, page views, content creation, and other interactions.
Contributing user
A user who created content (such as posts, comments, topics, or likes) during the selected time period. This distinguishes users who actively contribute from those who only log in or view content.
Inactive user
A user who has not generated any activity for a given duration. The "Inactive users by duration" chart groups these users by how long they have been inactive, helping identify short-term versus long-term disengagement.
Group membership
The relationship between a user and a group. A user is considered a member of a group as long as they have an active membership (i.e. they have not left or been removed).
Cohort
A group of users who share a common characteristic, typically the week they first logged in. In the cohort activity heatmap, users are grouped by their first-login week to track how engagement evolves over time.
MAU (Monthly Active Users) / WAU (Weekly Active Users)
The percentage of total signed-up users (cumulative to that month or week) who were active in each month or week. The primary measure of overall community engagement.
Reactivation rate
The percentage of previously inactive users (those who skipped one or more months) who returned to the platform after a gap, relative to all eligible lapsed users for that month.
Retention rate
The percentage of users active in one month who also returned the following month. A key indicator of whether users find ongoing value in the community.
Contribution rate
The percentage of group members who contributed content in a given week, relative to the total membership size of the selected groups.
Participation rate
The percentage of group members who were active during a given period, calculated as active members divided by total members. Used to identify the healthiest and least active groups.
Days until first contribution
The number of days between a user signing up and making their first content contribution. Reported as median and 90th percentile values.
Gini index
A measure of how evenly activity is distributed across the user base. A lower Gini index means engagement is broadly shared among many users. A higher Gini index means activity is concentrated in a small group of users. Values range from 0 (perfectly equal) to 1 (maximally unequal).
Activity frequency
The average number of days an active user was active during a given month. Users with no activity in a given month are excluded from the calculation.
Net new followers
The number of new followers a user gained minus the number of unfollows during the selected time range. Used to identify influential members in the community.