Forum Ranks: The Official Guide

[CraigStern]

Well, what's better: a Newbie or a Hero? :P

[Frosty]

True that.

[Zhampir]

an old fad that never really caught on "n't n't fact"

[Ertxiem]

Post well, and one day you too can become a Savior of these forums!

Title	Star Power	Posts to Earn
Newbie	-	0
Bandit	*	5
Mechanic	*	10
Mechanic Captain	**	50
Red Cape	**	100
Blue Cape	**	200
Black Cape	***	500
White Cape	***	1000
Tactician	****	2000
General	****	3000
Hero	****	4000
Savior	*****	5000

May I suggest adding a new rank at 1 post and at 20 posts? I have no solid reason, other than up to 2000 everything was looking like an exponential growth: posts=10^rank/3 rounded to a single digit (followed by zeros).
So, I'm suggesting 0, 1,2,5, 10,20,50, 100,200,500, 1000,2000. From 2000 on it would take quite a long time to get 1000 posts, so I think that intervals of 1000 might be reasonable to have (I made a bit more than 1600 posts in one year on the old forums, which would mean about 3 years to reach Savior). At 1 post one could become a beggar and at 10 posts one could become a raider and mechanic would be reached at 20 posts.

Is there an easy way to distinguish posts made in forum games and posts elsewhere? And if it's possible, is it a good idea to posts in the forum games count less (perhaps 1/2) than posts elsewhere?

[Zhampir]

I personally like the current system. 8 more till blue cape.^^

[CraigStern]

I actually just added a new rank at 1 post yesterday: Ghost. It wouldn't be much trouble to add in a new one at 25.

[KZ]

Heh, good. I think that's quite original, having a rank for 1 post, but useful as well, since something like 95% of the 14000 users never posted more than 1 post.
By the way, is it possible to completely remove post count from forum games section? 'Cause those posts do not in any way constructively contribute to the forums discussions in general, other than providing a bit of entertainment (which is good), but if the ranking system is to be of any value (reputation/repsect/weight, etc), then if posts outside the forum games count, it will be an indicator of how much a person has been active on the general discussions (as there have been users with posts into the hundreds who have barely contributed anything elsewhere). This would make the attainment of each rank be more worthwhile and something to be even more pleased about.

[CraigStern]

That's not a bad idea. I'll do that.

[hellboy222]

darn so close to blue cape but I would like to fell like I have earned it because alot of my posts are from forum games.

[KZ]

Hence the whole point of only non-game posts couting ;) People will feel they've actually earned it by doing something useful- anyone can write a word in a game, but not everyone can give an intelligent and useful imput into forum discussion. The solution is simple: to get cracking with writing useful and interesting posts in other section of the forums as well.

[hellboy222]

what about like say an role playing game do you think those posts should count because usually it's something creative or what not, or have it count for only part of a post like .5 of a post or something?

[Zhampir]

If the role playing involves the Telepath world, then I think the posts should count. Simply because they can help develop story lines for the game if Mr. Stern ever gets a mental block.

[KZ]

This goes down in the creative writing section of the forums, not the forum games, usually, so that's fine. There is also the technical side of things- it's much simpler to discount any posts made in one section of the forums, rather than selectively allow posts to be counted in certain threads.

By the looks of it, the posts that were made in the games section before the changes still count towards the total post number, so quite a few posters have a large in-forum games post cushion anyway, which will more than compensate the lack of post counting from role-playing forum games with lots of content.

[Dayn]

What's star power

[Zhampir]

the amount of stars is simply a visual tool to show the users posting prowess. For instance, even though me and KZ are both blue capes he has more stars (they're cooler too) to show he's a mod.