Academy and forum accounts still haven't linked

I thought I asked about this before, but I could not find my question in my list of form posts and answers.

I looked around the forum and eventually found a few links, but they form a loop (linking back to each other) without telling me more than “it will automagically work.”

https://forum.uipath.com/groups/foundation

I have completed all of the academy trainings except for Level 3, which I am still working on. What do I need to do for the system to figure that out and grant my the extra badges that reflect my progress?

I completed the RPA Developer Foundation too, but shortly afterwards the course was locked and deprecated.

So it turns out that the links back to this page UiPath Graduates Group are red herrings. In each group page liked to, there’s a button to the right to request to join the group. Waaaaaay to the right and hiding with low contrast, just like a ninja.

However, that’s only half my request. There are additional forum features (badges and trust) that have to automatically come from the system recognizing you. How do I obtain those things?

the email address that I used for the academy and the forum are already the same, and have always been the same. I created my academy account before my forum account.