---
title: KCD Teams
description: >-
  KCD Teams are a fun way to engage with others within the KCD Community.
socialImageTitle: A more fun way to learn in the KCD Community.
socialImagePreTitle: Read about KCD Teams
bannerCloudinaryId: unsplash/photo-1625990637351-ee0e5e9ba5e5
bannerCredit: 'Photo by [aboodi vesakaran](https://unsplash.com/photos/tDb65c90-qY)'
---

<OptionalUser>
	{(maybeUser) =>
		maybeUser ? (
			<p>
				Hey <span className="text-team-current">{maybeUser.firstName}</span>!{' '}
				Remember when you signed up for an account and chose your team? Have you
				wondered what that was all about? Let's talk about it!
			</p>
		) : (
			<p>
				Hey Visitor! Did you know you can{' '}
				<a href="/login" className="underline">
					create an account
				</a>{' '}
				on this site? Well you can. This page talks about some reasons you may
				want to.
			</p>
		)
	}
</OptionalUser>

When you sign up for an account on [kentcdodds.com](https://kentcdodds.com), you
can choose between the Red, Yellow, or Blue team.

<Themed
	dark={
		<CloudinaryVideo
			cloudinaryId="kentcdodds.com/content/teams/team-chooser-dark"
			aspectRatio="250:113"
			crop="fit"
			width={1600}
		/>
	}
	light={
		<CloudinaryVideo
			cloudinaryId="kentcdodds.com/content/teams/team-chooser-light"
			aspectRatio="250:113"
			crop="fit"
			width={1600}
		/>
	}
/>

When you connect your KCD account to your Discord account, your username will be
set to the color of your team and you'll have access to an exclusive Discord
channel for your team.

As you read blog posts, your reads will be recorded and your team will get
points as described below.

You can even take it to the next level and grab a team t-shirt (sold at-cost)!

<div className="flex gap-4">
	<a href="https://cottonbureau.com/p/4AAW9M">
		<img
			src="https://res.cloudinary.com/kentcdodds-com/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto,dpr_2.0,ar_1:1,w_560/v1670441444/kentcdodds.com/content/teams/shirt-yellow"
			alt="Yellow T-Shirt with a Koala"
			style={{ aspectRatio: '1/1' }}
		/>
	</a>
	<a href="https://cottonbureau.com/p/BT8VUW">
		<img
			src="https://res.cloudinary.com/kentcdodds-com/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto,dpr_2.0,ar_1:1,w_560/v1670441444/kentcdodds.com/content/teams/shirt-blue"
			alt="Blue T-Shirt with a Koala"
			style={{ aspectRatio: '1/1' }}
		/>
	</a>
	<a href="https://cottonbureau.com/p/6ZE96D">
		<img
			src="https://res.cloudinary.com/kentcdodds-com/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto,dpr_2.0,ar_1:1,w_560/v1670441444/kentcdodds.com/content/teams/shirt-red"
			alt="Red T-Shirt with a Koala"
			style={{ aspectRatio: '1/1' }}
		/>
	</a>
</div>

## Why the Koala?

<img
	src="https://res.cloudinary.com/kentcdodds-com/image/upload/kentcdodds.com/illustrations/kody_profile_white"
	alt="Koala"
	style={{
		display: 'block',
		margin: '0 auto 30px auto',
		maxWidth: '250px',
		width: '100%',
		borderRadius: '0 0 50% 50%',
	}}
/>

The Koala's name is Kody. He's the mascot for the KCD Community. If you've gone
through Kent's Workshops and Courses you've probably gotten to know him quite
well. He appears as an "emoji" (🐨) in the instructions anytime you're supposed
to actually _do_ something.

I found when I was creating self-paced workshops it was difficult for people to
distinguish between explanations of "why" we're doing something and the bits
that tell learners "what" they're supposed to actually _do_. So I came up with
the emoji idea and it's worked out well. Interestingly the first time I did
this, I went with 🐯 Terry the Tiger, but for some reason I switched to Kody the
Koala 🐨 and it stuck.

## Read Rankings

When you read a blog post, that's marked in the database and your team gets
points (note, this requires that you're [logged in](/login) so the proper team
to associate the read with is known). Whichever team has the most points gets
the highest ranking and "owns" that blog post. You'll notice which team is
winning based on the graph at the top and bottom of the post as well as the
highlight color throughout the post. There's also an overall leader and that
team color controls the color of the blog page.

Because you can choose your own team, the teams can be different sizes, so we
don't just compute the teams by total number of blog post reads. Additionally,
you get credit for every time you read a blog post.

So here's how it works:

- A blog post is marked as "read" when you've scrolled through the whole thing
  and you've been on the page for long enough to have actually read it.
- For any given post, you get a recorded read every 7 days.
- The team ranking is computed by taking the total number of recent reads
  divided by the total number of active members.
- A team member is considered active if they've read a blog post in the last
  year.
- A read is considered "recent" if it was read within the last 6 months.

So there you go. That's what the ranking is all about.

## Filtering Posts

On the [blog page](/blog), you can filter posts by team. Simply click on the
team stat and it will update your query to show only posts with that team as the
leader. Click it again and it will show only posts where that team is not the
leader. And clicking it once more will remove that from your query. Give it a
shot.

## Changing Teams

You _can_ change your team... But it's going to require a bit of work on your
part: [learn more](https://github.com/kentcdodds/kentcdodds.com/issues/68).
