User Titles

[smc]

I received a PM from a member asking why he had gone from "junior ladyboy lover" to "apprentice ladyboy lover" -- which he took to be a "demotion." I explained to SSL, the site owner, that the reason for this confusion that most people think "apprentice" is lower than "junior." For instance, at a business firm, an "apprentice" might be a non-paid intern who is learning, whereas a junior associate or junior partner or something like that is definitely higher up.

SSL's response: "We certainly need a new set of user titles as the current one sucks."

So, I am beginning this thread to discuss possibilities. I've given this some thought today. One question is how many levels there should be. More broadly, though, are the terms we should use.

I have thought about models from the military (ranks), chess (the FIDE world chess federation rankings), and the old guild structure from the Middle Ages and Renaissance. I have avoided anything associated with video games, since that is a world I do not know.

My suggestion first is to dispense with "ladyboy lover" as part of the title. I recommend that whatever titles we use include "poster" or "forum member" or "member," or if we want to retain something of the old titles, "Trans Lover." "Member" and "Poster" seems to be the preferred use at some other forums I looked at. At one, for instance, the titles are:

Silver Poster
Veteran Poster
Junior Poster

At another, there are:

Senior Member
Junior Member

If we don't want anything quite so simple, we could adapt (not literally) the chess model and have four levels:

Grandmaster Member / Grandmaster Poster / Grandmaster Trans Lover
Master Member / Master Poster / Master Trans Lover
Junior ...
Apprentice ...

Of course, using Master means we could also have Senior Master Bator

A Guild-like schema might be:

Master
Journeyman / Journeywoman / Journeyperson
Apprentice

These are just brainstorming ideas, to get the discussion going.