user708: Lego has begun to roll out its new model for Recognized Communities.
The gist is that there are now two tiers of recognition and three categories (Traditional LUGs, Fan Media, and Online Communities). There was previously no tiers and no distinct recognition for Online Communities.
I received the following email regarding our status:

As a key component of this model, all Recognized Communities will be
  placed into two tiers to fit both the growth of the Fan Community as
  well as the different levels of ambition and desire. This tiered
  approach will allow us to better engage and support the individual
  needs of each community, in other words put the most effort where it
  has the biggest impact on the community.
By evaluating Bricks SE based on the activity report and the past
  records, we believe your community is more locally oriented and focus
  on a fair amount of activities, contents, or traffic to stabilize the
  members participation and development. Therefore, we recommend you to
  be Tier ONE.
Please note that we will have regular evaluations based on the
  criteria of Presence, Activity, Value Creation, Compliance, Structure
  and Engagement of each Recognized Community.
In addition, to embrace the trend of digitalization and support the
  increasing activities based on online platforms, LCE is opening a new
  category in the LEGO Ambassador Network called Recognized LEGO Online
  Community (RLOC). Based on the nature that your group is mainly
  operating on Facebook/forum/Flickr/Naver and has the focus of digital
  interactive activities, we suggest transferring you from RLUG/RLFM to
  RLOC to remain your strength and stay on where your group’s interest
  is. Also, by doing that, the RLOC will have the access to the support
  which aims at facilitating the online activities mentioned above.
If you disagree to our Tier placement or your new community type,
  please reach out to us via CommunitySupport@LEGO.com and explain
  carefully where, how and why you find the placement not to be aligned
  with your needs and expectations. We will then bring your feedback to
  the first evaluation during the first quarter of 2018 and reevaluate
  your placement.

The tier placement makes sense to me. While we are a successful community, we have about an order of magnitude less activity and traffic than some of the larger sites such as Brickset and Eurobricks.
I did want to get some feedback on the distinction between Online Community and Fan Media. Which do you think is a better fit for us?
While we are certainly an online community, at the core we have a small group of highly active contributors producing content that is consumed by a much larger audience (e.g. page views outnumber posts 1000 to 1). In addition, we actively discourage using this site as a place for discussion. Other sites exists for this purpose, and our focus here is on producing high quality Q&A content. Should I advocate for us to be recognized as Fan Media, or does Online Community make sense for us?

user132: I'm very pleased with the tier we have been assigned. I think it's a fair assessment of the current state of the site. 
Bricks Stack Exchange is in an unusual fit as it is neither primarily journalistic (fan media) nor a traditional discussion forum.
I think Bricks SE is closer to the definition as a LEGO community as the content is driven very much by the community, even the less active users do contribute with voting, editing, commenting, etc...
We very rarely have articles written on this site (Events, LEGO Meetups) and they only make up a very small amount of our content. 

user56: I think it's right for where we are currently - we don't really have "Activities [that] extend far beyond their circle of members/subscribers potentially with a global impact" for example - and our members here who do exhibit at events tend to do so under their LUG rather than as Bricks I think.
Interesting that we get/had access to LUGBULK - although that would be more of a nightmare to organise than for a LUG I imagine ;) However we will lose the Fan Media days, which is a shame.

user6498: The distinctions stated in the document are not too big. However, bullet three in the LOC brick of tier one is what Bricks SE is about: "Forum traffic mirrors activities 
and is perceived as valuable by 
the Community".
We mostly don't spread press releases or other fan media related material. Therefore, the category chosen by LEGO is fitting, or the other way round, we fit into the category. 
I am also glad that we are considered a stable community. 

708: <p>Lego has begun to roll out its <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Hz2I4qOAefY_PUHMKlH7JWDWTahdIMHM/view?usp=sharing" rel="nofollow noreferrer">new model for Recognized Communities</a>.</p>

<p>The gist is that there are now two tiers of recognition and three categories (Traditional LUGs, Fan Media, and Online Communities). There was previously no tiers and no distinct recognition for Online Communities.</p>

<p>I received the following email regarding our status:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>As a key component of this model, all Recognized Communities will be
  placed into two tiers to fit both the growth of the Fan Community as
  well as the different levels of ambition and desire. This tiered
  approach will allow us to better engage and support the individual
  needs of each community, in other words put the most effort where it
  has the biggest impact on the community.</p>
  
  <p>By evaluating Bricks SE based on the activity report and the past
  records, we believe your community is more locally oriented and focus
  on a fair amount of activities, contents, or traffic to stabilize the
  members participation and development. Therefore, we recommend you to
  be Tier ONE.</p>
  
  <p>Please note that we will have regular evaluations based on the
  criteria of Presence, Activity, Value Creation, Compliance, Structure
  and Engagement of each Recognized Community.</p>
  
  <p>In addition, to embrace the trend of digitalization and support the
  increasing activities based on online platforms, LCE is opening a new
  category in the LEGO Ambassador Network called Recognized LEGO Online
  Community (RLOC). Based on the nature that your group is mainly
  operating on Facebook/forum/Flickr/Naver and has the focus of digital
  interactive activities, we suggest transferring you from RLUG/RLFM to
  RLOC to remain your strength and stay on where your group’s interest
  is. Also, by doing that, the RLOC will have the access to the support
  which aims at facilitating the online activities mentioned above.</p>
  
  <p>If you disagree to our Tier placement or your new community type,
  please reach out to us via CommunitySupport@LEGO.com and explain
  carefully where, how and why you find the placement not to be aligned
  with your needs and expectations. We will then bring your feedback to
  the first evaluation during the first quarter of 2018 and reevaluate
  your placement.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>The tier placement makes sense to me. While we are a successful community, we have about an order of magnitude less activity and traffic than some of the larger sites such as Brickset and Eurobricks.</p>

<p>I did want to get some feedback on the distinction between Online Community and Fan Media. Which do you think is a better fit for us?</p>

<p>While we are certainly an online community, at the core we have a small group of highly active contributors producing content that is consumed by a much larger audience (e.g. page views outnumber posts 1000 to 1). In addition, we actively discourage using this site as a place for discussion. Other sites exists for this purpose, and our focus here is on producing high quality Q&amp;A content. Should I advocate for us to be recognized as Fan Media, or does Online Community make sense for us?</p>
 132: <p>I'm very pleased with the tier we have been assigned. I think it's a fair assessment of the current state of the site. </p>

<p>Bricks Stack Exchange is in an unusual fit as it is neither primarily journalistic (fan media) nor a traditional discussion forum.</p>

<p>I think Bricks SE is closer to the definition as a LEGO community as the content is driven very much by the <em>community</em>, even the less active users do contribute with voting, editing, commenting, etc...</p>

<p>We very rarely have articles written on this site (Events, LEGO Meetups) and they only make up a very small amount of our content. </p>
 56: <p>I think it's right for where we are currently - we don't really have "Activities [that] extend far beyond their circle of members/subscribers potentially with a global impact" for example - and our members here who do exhibit at events tend to do so under their LUG rather than as Bricks I think.</p>

<p>Interesting that we get/had access to LUGBULK - although that would be more of a nightmare to organise than for a LUG I imagine ;) However we will lose the Fan Media days, which is a shame.</p>
 6498: <p>The distinctions stated in the document are not too big. However, bullet three in the LOC brick of tier one is what Bricks SE is about: "Forum traffic mirrors activities 
and is perceived as valuable by 
the Community".
We mostly don't spread press releases or other fan media related material. Therefore, the category chosen by LEGO is fitting, or the other way round, we fit into the category. 
I am also glad that we are considered a stable community. </p>
