Missed opportunity to speak of TITLES

[Jock Scot]

Ghostlight.

It appears that you may have missed my point. No matter and perhaps I should have been more clear with my thoughts. Your point of view is absolutely respected by me and in many ways I agree with you. However, I for one don't just visit this site to just talk about kilts, actually after a week of kilt talking there really is little else to say!

Yes, I enjoy helping others get themselves sorted out with kilt matters if that is what is wanted, yes I do still find things to learn, or re learn, no I do not need to come here to get kilt and kilt attire recommendations, no I don't come here with the intention of buying something, I mainly come here for some light hearted fun with like minded people and I am comfortable with the surroundings and people here. If the light hearted part ceases, then I will not have the fun that I have had and in the end I will not visit here.

Now that is not a threat, I am just one person amongst the many and life will carry on with, or without me, but I like it here and I want to stay and I would like the fun to be kept alive and I really do think that the "special titles" do add something to this website. As it has been pointed out, these titles do not make you an expert, they do not make you any better, richer, cleverer, poorer than anyone else(hence my first two questions on my previous post), it is just a recognition that certain people have contributed to the very special character of this website, nothing more.

It may take 500 posts,4000 posts, or 50 posts, or never, to warrant recognition for a genuine contribution above and beyond-------, that is up to whoever decides these things and the trust that we all give them. As we all know handing out "pats on the back" for contributing little or nothing is valueless and pointless. Recognition in the tongue in cheek way that some of us, I think, are asking Steve to consider, are for real effort and can only create goodwill and may reinstate some of the fun that is sadly hard to find, in places, here at the moment. Basically its a morale thing. Life will go on with or without these things, but without them, in my humble opinion, we are in a lesser place.

[robthehiker]

Wouldn't the fact that this topic keeps coming back suggest that some gave them more attention than they were due?

I would humbly suggest that each member is paying as much attention to this topic as they see fit.

[ghostlight]

Ghostlight. It appears that you may have missed my point.

It seems I did.

Whether or not special morale titles are awarded independently of post count (and I really have no stake in that side of the titles issue), I hope the people who helped make X Marks what it is remember that they distinguished themselves through their actions before they held special titles. While funny tag lines under user names might be amusing for the bearers of those titles, the rest of us selfishly get more enjoyment out of the bearer's continued contributions to the community.

I hope I'm reading too much into the fact that this particular issue keeps coming up for discussion. I hope people understand that their past contributions to the community and their place in the on-going community haven't been devalued over different or missing titles.

[auld argonian]

"...and I wouldn't want to belong to any club that would have people like me as a member." -Groucho

I don't think that anyone took the titles seriously...it wasn't like rank or anything like that, it was just about the time you put in....though, there were/are people who managed, say, the 2,000 posts that rated them a "kilted legend" designation in a very short time and some who took years to achieve it. Consider that some posters didn't post unless they had something to say and some posters had a lot of "nice kilt" posts that added to the count. Thus, the discriminating participant knew that the number of one's posts had less to do with one's contribution than the quality of one's posts.

Think of it in terms of any martial art (or any of several other disciplines, I suppose)...if all you go into it for is to get a "black belt", then you've missed the point.

It was, however, nice to see who the old duffers were...some of these folks established a lot of "cred" sticking around that long.

Best

AA

[ccga3359]

Surely no one takes these titles seriously?

I assure you that as "Grand Defender of the Rubber Chicken" I most certainly took my role very seriously, and then there were all the trappings that came with it...

From my perspective, part of the problem with the past implementation of the titles was that they were taken seriously. If they had just been a tongue-in-cheek attempt at some gentle fun as you said, there would not have been a need to exclude some of the forums from one's post count. But some of the forums that are the most tongue-in-cheek and/or fun and/or directly friendly were the forums that did not count.

My title, as it were, was not based on post count but on association to rubber chickens. Before I was awarded this fitting title I was a "Grand Defender of the Kilt" for having over 4000 posts, some of which were accidentally almost quite profound! A count that I did take pride in as it showed that I contributed, I helped build this forum.

There are gentlemen like Jock Scot or Matt Newsome that can in a single post contribute more to kilt wearing than I could in 100 posts. So in that mind the post count based titles are irrelevent. They are very deserving of their special titles that they did indeed earn. Where I cannot add in knowledge I hope I've added in fun. How many have tuned in just to see that Panache thug give that handsome Grant fellow his come-uppance?

[BoldHighlander]

How many have tuned in just to see that Panache thug give that handsome Grant fellow his come-uppance?

Oo...Oo...I did! I did!

(...and might I say it was usually well deserved too! )

[Jock Scot]

Oo...Oo...I did! I did!

(...and might I say it was usually well deserved too! )

Me too!

Grant your contributions do, as far as I am concerned, help the fun element along in a major way. Gosh! Did I really say that? Should I have said that? Well actually --------YES I SHOULD!

[M. A. C. Newsome]

This is my first, and perhaps only post concerning the removal and/or restoration of titles. I never really paid much attention to them when we had them, and didn't even notice when they were removed until people started discussing it. So count me in that camp that doesn't really care one way or the other.

But it has occurred to me reading the posts in this and other threads, that people either post to say how much they miss the titles and hope they come back, or they post to say that (like me) they never really paid attention to them so it doesn't really matter.

I have yet to see a post by someone who adamantly feels that they should not come back and have no place in the forum.

I think that fact alone may be telling....

[longhuntr74]

I have yet to see a post by someone who adamantly feels that they should not come back and have no place in the forum.

I think that fact alone may be telling....

Add me to this camp! I sometimes noted them, most times not. I can't say that there presence or absence has a profound impact on my life, but I would like to see them returned...because, as many others have said, they add some fun to the forum, give a goal for some to achieve, and do recognize peoples contributions (more or less).

I disagree with those that say they are "exclusionary"...the only qualification to achieve one is time spent and contribution to the community...and isn't that what the forum is about and what makes it a great place to visit? Everybody can achieve one if they do what others have done to achieve theirs.

[ForresterModern]

This is my first, and perhaps only post concerning the removal and/or restoration of titles. I never really paid much attention to them when we had them, and didn't even notice when they were removed until people started discussing it. So count me in that camp that doesn't really care one way or the other.

But it has occurred to me reading the posts in this and other threads, that people either post to say how much they miss the titles and hope they come back, or they post to say that (like me) they never really paid attention to them so it doesn't really matter.

I have yet to see a post by someone who adamantly feels that they should not come back and have no place in the forum.

I think that fact alone may be telling....

Matt has a great point here I think. The original premise for removing the special titles and post count related rankings, all of which meant little REAL effect in the grand scheme of things, was that they were potentially intimidating to new members and had little relevance to the value of that persons posts and contribution to the forum. As Matt has astutely noted, instead of three camps in this debate--those of those in favor of the titles, those against the titles for some particular REAL (not imagined) reason, and those who couldn't give a rip either way---we seem to be hearing only the voices of those in the first and thrid camps, and no REAL valid argumants for why the special titles and ranking should NOT be a part of the forum again.

I for one, when I arrived, and to a degree still, valued the notoriety of those with special titles, even silly and meaningless as, say, grand defender of the rubber chicken, as they were unofficially earned recognition of some particular contribution to the forum, be that based on knowledge, service, or simply a major contribution to the overall tenor and tone of the forum family atmosphere. The ranking, faulted as they were by potentially inflated numbers due to low utility posts like "nice kilt" and "way to go", still, when combined with the recognition of how long the poster had been a member here, and with the reading of just a few of that member's posts, fairly quickly could tell the newbie who really had a valued voice and opinion in this forum, regardless of who often they posted. And over time those with lesser numbers of posts, but a long duration here, also came to be recognized as being knowledgeable, but selective in their choice of what to say and when, such as Mac o Rath, just as an example.

But the point overall is that where was the hue and cry to rid the forum of these achievement points actually coming from, the populace in general, the newbies (I for one never as a newbie complained about intimidation by either the numbers or titles), or the admins for fear of scaring of newcomers (something I am not sure has ever been demonstrated to be a valid concern with any case demonstration or data).

I like Grant, Jock, and the many others here miss them, and the whimsical jocularity that they brought with them to this extended kilted family we call a forum, and long for those "olden days" of yore.

I even see that Grant has changed his avatar to a black swatch, a symbol of his mourning for their loss, perhaps?

Again, just one man's O.

jeff