Eligibility criteria should reward genuine protocol engagement, not gameable metrics. Volume-based thresholds are trivially farmed. Instead, prioritize diversity of interactions (number of distinct protocol functions used), consistency over time (active across multiple months, not a single burst), and qualitative contributions (governance participation, content creation, community support).

Define a minimum threshold that excludes dust-level interactions but is accessible to real users — you want to filter noise without excluding your actual early community. Forgd's Airdrop Framework recommends segmenting users into tiers based on engagement depth, with higher tiers receiving proportionally larger allocations. This approach rewards power users without alienating the long tail.