Member Levels

[donteatpoop]

Currently we are all labeled "Junior Members". This forum setup is the kind where that label changes with participation, I believe.

So can we come up with some silly shit for levels? Or cool stuff? Personally, I'd like to see some silly shit.

Any ideas? Assuming severenz is cool with this idea.

I think a theme for the titles would be necessary. I love breakfast cereal, so maybe the levels could be things like "Tony the Tiger" "Count Chocula" "Cap'n Crunch" etc, etc.

Or, we could go the criminal route, everything from Damer to Capone.

[Dragavan]

Being that this is a writing site, I would rather see them related to writing. Like everything from Dimestore Novelist or Hack to Number One Bestseller. Or names of popular writers, like Stephen King, JK Rowling, JRR Tolkein, Hemingway, Ian Flemming, etc. Stick with the theme of the site and all.

[donteatpoop]

Yeah, that would be cooler. Famous characters from literature could be an option too. Sherlock Holmes, Captain Ahab, Jean valJean, etc.

[Vesnic]

Yeah, I like Drag's idea. As long as we make Paperback Writer one of the options.

Paperback Wriiiiiiiiiiiiiter!

God I hate that song.

[apotheosis]

I think this scale can be used to determine ranks (by number of posts).

1st rank- 0
2nd rank- 10
3rd rank- 30
4th rank- 60
5th rank- 100
6th rank- 150
7th rank- 210

and so on...


We would need a lot of ranks, but I'd be more than willing to write them out for you. I'm opposed to the author idea because everyone has a different idea of which authors are good and which ones are terrible.

[Usoki]

I second Apoth's point. If I were to, say, suddenly attain the rank of Hemmingway, I would post rampantly and haphazardly until it went away. Or Hawthorne. Or Melville. Probably Shelley, too.

[Vesnic]

Right, I think it would be better if we used generic terms for levels of writing ability, starting out with the ideas for something like "hack" and advancing to something like Nobel Prizewinner or Literary Muse...something like that.

[apotheosis]

Right then, let us start compiling a list. The lower on the list the better the rank, the higher the worst. Take the last persons list and add a few in. We will keep this up until we have a good 50 ranks.

Writing Newbie
Literary Hack
Dime Store Novelist
Talentless Smut-maker
Story-Telling Apprentice
Novice Writer
Short Story Crafter
Word Smith
Adept Writer
Novelist


There are a few ranks... everyone edit the list and insert ranks inbetween ranks or new ones on the beginning or end.

[Vesnic]

Writing Newbie
Literary Hack
Starving Artist
Dime Store Novelist
Talentless Smut-maker
Story-Telling Apprentice
Novice Writer
Short Story Crafter
Word Smith
Adept Writer
Novelist
Non-Starving Artist
Book Tourer
Second-string Prize Winner
Nobel Prizewinner
Household Name
Literary Muse
Undisputed Literary God

[apotheosis]

Writing Newbie
6 Year Old Fan Fiction Writer
Literary Hack
Starving Artist
Dime Store Novelist
Talentless Smut-maker
Story-Telling Apprentice
Novice Writer
Short Story Crafter
Word Smith
Plot Crafter
Adept Writer
Novelist
Non-Starving Artist
Book Tourer
Second-string Prize Winner
Book Birther
Nobel Prizewinner
Household Name
Literary Muse
Champion Author
Literary Legend
Virtuoso of the Written Word
Undisputed Literary God

[Vesnic]

Illiterate Fool
Learning A-B-C's
Knows Alphabet by Heart
Writing Newbie
6 Year Old Fan Fiction Writer
Literary Hack
Starving Artist
Dime Store Novelist
Talentless Smut-maker
Story-Telling Apprentice
Novice Writer
Short Story Crafter
Word Smith
Plot Crafter
Adept Writer
Novelist
Non-Starving Artist
Book Tourer
Second-string Prize Winner
Book Birther
Nobel Prizewinner
Household Name
Literary Muse
Champion Author
Literary Legend
Virtuoso of the Written Word
Undisputed Literary God

[apotheosis]

Also... as an aside note (not to detract from the literary ranks)... I use to have a fairly active forum and these were the ranks I used. They go up past 16000 posts which I doubt any member would reach... so we could use these ranks as well... though they aren't writing related, more just forum related in general. Upside is they are all here, organized and have set number of posts for each rank.



Newbie 0
Novice 10
Average Joe 30
Forum Adept 60
Forum Veteran 100
Forum Elite 150
Cool Person 210
Awesome Person 280
Superior Member 360
Epic Member 450
Legendary Member 550
Deific Member 660
Posting Enthusiast 780
Posting Maniac 910
Posting Hero 1050
Posting Champion 1200
Expert Poster 1360
Posting Virtuoso 1530
Prodigious Poster 1710
Forum Elder 1900
Forum Master 2100
Forum Duke 2310
Forum Lord 2530
Forum King 2760
Forum Emperor 3000
Grand Master of the Posting Legions 3250
Pope of Postholicism 3510
Czar of the Boards 3780
Reincarnation of Caesar 4060
Paragon Poster 4350
Pelletronic Poster 4650
Poster of Intransient Intemporality 4960
Preponderant Poster 5280
The Great Khan of the Mongol Boards 5610
Immortal Entity 5950
Almost as Keen as Commander Keen 6300
Commensurate of Commander Keen 6660
Keener than Commander Keen 7030
Bandwidth Langolier 7410
Suzerian phpBB Overlord 7800
The Messiah 8200
Cyber-Omnipotence 8610
Libido of Gunther 9030
Katamari Rolling Prince 9460
Katamari Cousin Tag-Team 9900
King of the Cosmos 10350
Beyond Insanity 10810
Christopher Walken Clone Army 11280
Incomprehensible Awesomeness 11760
Eater of Worlds 12250
The Overmind 12750
God of this Forum 13260
The Big Banger 13780
Omniversal Czar 14310
Deus Ex Machina 14850
You Can Stop Now 15400
GET A LIFE! 15960
Postwhore 16530

[Dragavan]

I don't think we need that many ranks and they don't need to cover that short of number jumps. Gaining a new rank should have meaning, but when you get new ones so fast they become more meaningless.

Most other forums I have been a part of give you a newbie one at a low level that goes away rather fast (between 5 and 25 posts, depending on the forum). Then they don't generally have another change until at least 50 or 100. Then perhaps 250 or 500 for the third change. After that is is large jumps only. Mind you these are for very active forums, so it's not unusual for people to have thousands of posts.

This forum is a bit less active than most of those, so perhaps we go a little smaller. I don't think we should see the ranks change too fast though, which means we shouldn't have so many ranks. I would be happy with around ten or so ranks, and the best part would be not knowing what they were ahead of time, so when the new one hits us it's a surprise. I do think it would be best to keep them on some kind of meaningful whole number and not odd numbers like 210 or 380. Keep it simple.

I did this with my site's forum for my players and anyone else interested in my game. I have about ten standard ranks (based on social ranks in the game) and some personalized ones for certain people. Each rank also has a little graphic that goes with it, so visually they are easy to tell apart too. The set up and ranks I used are (only some graphics shown as the forum limits their use):

Serf - 0 http://www.landofkarn.com/uploads/rank4527762e752a5.gif
Freeman - 5
Freeholder - 25
Commoner - 50 http://www.landofkarn.com/uploads/rank452777529de13.gif
Tradesmen - 100
Merchant - 250
Scholar - 500 http://www.landofkarn.com/uploads/rank4527782c39d1e.gif
Mage - 750
Noble - 1000
Lord - 2000 http://www.landofkarn.com/uploads/rank45277942a00d1.gif

Something similar with literary terms would work fine and still allow each rank to actually have meaning. If the ranks change too often they have no real meaning and should just be able to be set by the user at that point (like another setting similar to location). When I see somebody who is a "Merchant" I know clearly where they sit in the rankings. You start adding far too many it becomes confusing as to where they fall and what they mean, like the level names AD&D (first edition) used to have for each class (was cutpurse higher than pickpocket?). Watering things down with too many levels just causes them to become meaningless.

Ten ranks broken apart at clean commonly understood break points (although not mathematically exponential or anything) would work best to keep them meaningful and clearly understandable. Complexity and large size are not a good thing here. Something along the lines of this:

Literary Hack - 0
Online Fic Writer - 5
Dime Store Novelist - 25
Short Story Crafter - 50
Word Smith - 100
Published Author - 200
Novelist - 500
Best Seller - 1000
Pulitzer Prize Winner - 2000
Literary Muse - 5000

Good number of well spaced ranks that each have meaning, without getting overwhelming. The actual titles could easily be changed and even the numbers could be tweaked (but I see no reason to push it larger).

[apotheosis]

I disagree. I believe smaller jumps will encourage people. It also keeps things interesting because you will constantly have a new rank to enjoy, and if you don't like your current rank it won't last to long. Being stuck with the same stale crappy old rank for a long time would drive me bonkers.

[Locke]

I agree with Dragavan.:cool:

[donteatpoop]

While many categories can be amuzing, I think there are just too many there. dragavans proposed list seems too short though. Maybe double dragavans, or even add 50%.

[severenz]

I appreciate the enthusiasm on this and definitely agree with Dragavan that it should be writing related. I also think a huge list is overkill and too tough to absorb.

Dragavan, I'll leave it to you to email me a finalized list you think is appropriate and I'll implement it.