So this thread has fallen by the wayside due to a certain controversial submission and work to improve the statistics and ratings systems (great work guys, BTW). However I'm curious if any more thought has been given to the player rankings and how a new system would look. I certainly think that a... umm... more prestigious title should be given to those who have contributed a large amount of runs to the site (3, 5, 7, 10, whatever it be), and I also think that those who rate movies should have some recognition (even though I personally don't tend to rate movies, I understand to some it is very important as witnessed in the ratings poll). With this in mind, I'd like to propose a slightly modified version of JXQ's idea.
I think that people who manage this site and contribute beyond the normal call of duty (i.e. judges, encoders/publishers, and editors), should be given a single title superseding all other parts of the rank. I had "Operator" in mind. The rest could pose a problem because the current system shows favoritism towards those who submit movies (as it probably should, since this site wouldn't exist without the runs). However it's hard to determine whether posting or rating movies is more important.
I personally think that people who post regularly tend to contribute to the making of new runs more than those who rate movies, in that they have the opportunity and the means to propose new ideas and give feedback on WIPs. This way, people who solely rate movies would be ranked below those who contribute to the boards, who in turn would be ranked below those who contribute to the "Front Page".
So here's a layout of how this could work:
A lurker would still be someone who skulks around doing nothing.
A watcher would be someone who (duh) watches movies but doesn't have more than say 50 posts.
A poster (contributor, talker, etc) writes on the forums and has more than 50 posts (arbitrary # from previous point), but doesn't have any published runs. This rank would be given no matter how many movies they have rated. *I know a lot of people will probably disagree with this, but it's just my proposal, no need to get too bent out of shape about it*
A player is someone who has a published run, as it is now.
All of these ranks could be preceded by modifiers such as those that exist now (i.e. quiet, active, etc), and could possibly have some sort of complicated mathimatical formula to take into account overall activity on the site, by factoring in the # of movies rated and # of posts, but I'm not sure how to go about this quite yet. Some adjectives to consider could be quiet, (in)active, working, vigilant, energetic, master, prime, ace, unconscious, etc.
And as I mentioned in my first paragraph, an outstanding member who has contributed an incredible amount of movies could be given a rank such as veteran/ninja/expert based on Baxter's formula.
I'm still trying to piece together a good way to explain the modifier system so that it's fair to everyone (and makes sense), but I think this takes the current (and in my opinion decent) system and makes it less arbitrary and at the same time somewhat more descriptive. Here's some examples:
Bisqwit- Still Site Manager if he'd want it like that, otherwise his title could be "Operator, Unconsious Player" ("Unconscious" due to high post count and movies rated)
Nitsuja- "Operator, Unconsious Ninja" (ninja is due to total domination)
Baxter- "Working Player" (or Ninja, if the formula is adapted)
Comicalflop- "Energetic Player" (high posts, low movie rating)
Moozooh- "Working Poster"
etc....
Like I said, the modifiers would need some work and some consistency but I think this is at worst a decent system. And even if people totally disagree with it, at least I got the topic going again ;)
