It’s a tough question – just like creating a forum in the first place. I swear, half the time when we’re sitting around trying to make a decision about some GWC thing or another, we’re just trying to figure out how not to frack it up by doing something that gets in the way of everyone having fun instead of making things easier.
I like the idea of having ‘ranks’ but that they be completely unintelligable to anyone without a GWC scorecard. Something like Alpaca->Bigboote->Hasn’t read Dune->Likes Starship Troopers. Or whatever.
Just subvert the whole idea. No incentive to get a ‘higher’ rank, but the frequent posters (and observant lurkers) will be tickled.
Oh, I like that. Turn the thing on its head. Allow users to either pick from a drop down of GWC centric titles or simply choose their title and be done with it.
:D:D
I like Solai’s list, but I’m ashamed to say I don’t get half the references. In the end, though, I agree with Chuck. This forum is just about hanging out and enjoying one another’s virtual company.
I am sorry! Didn’t mean to make something exclusionary. I went through a bunch of the old GWC materials and pulled some references to things that have been talked about. Here is a translation table:
Alpaca - You know, for kids
Bean - Ender’s Game
Bigboote - Buckeroo Bonzai
Browncoat - Firefly
Cryptozoologist - I threw this in because I have always been facinated by the study of mythical animals
Duke of Edinburgh - Black Adder
Ensign Roe - Admiral Cain/Star Trek TNS
Hollyfeld - Real Genius
Lebowski - Big Lebowski
Leela - Futurama
Luck Dragon - Neverending Story
Master Control - Tron
Neo - Matrix
Noonan - Caddyshack
Passport - Sneakers
Psychohistorian - Foundation Series, Isaac Asimov
Replicant - Blade Runner
Rimmer - Red Dwarf
The Todd - Scrubs
Wookie - Little known sci-fi epic
For Black Adder, I think Baldrick would be a better choice…
Gasp, no red-shirt rank.
When you put it that way it makes sense. I guess I just don’t get the Alpaca thing. I didn’t even know what it was until I looked it up on wikipedia.:o
There’s a forum I’ve lurked in sometimes where the titles are completely random. The users get a title for a while, then it changes automagically to something else. No hierachy, and no custom titles for non-admins.
Just my .000001 cents (before tax, title, and surcharges)
You know, after some thought… Forget ranks, I think we’re all happy just to be a part of GWC.
I wonder if this forum software has the ability of letting users select their own titles…?
I call dibs on Supreme Cylon Commander
You will address me as Imperious Leader!
If “All-Being, Master of Time, Space, and Dimension” is still available, what the hell.
I’ll be fine with everyone calling me “The Doctor”.
Expendable Redshirt for me 
You can address me as Dude.
For me, The Alpaca Herder is just fine as a moniker. Off the forum I am called many things (sometimes simply: “Oh, swear word(s)!”). Here I simply answer to The Alpaca Herder.
<strange metallic voice>The…Doc-Tor?</strange metallic voice>
You too? personally I’ve spent much of my time in the search for and study of the elusive Paradoxotaur, sometimes when frustrated with that I turn my studies instead to the RexFidoBuster… props if you catch the reference =)
as far as ranks, if you implement them you’d have to put Baltar-like (or whatever similar baltar related rank) at the top, because only somebody like baltar has the sheer will to gain enough power to be ontop (reading that now, it probably doesn’t make sense, so I’ll just say that Baltar is my favorite character)
from my personal experience on boards, with post related ranks you do get a group of people usually that will try to pad their posts and fill up threads, but they’ve never bothered me, and you really have to weigh the increased discussion participation of those individuals against the number of meaningless posts they put out. silly posts can be ignored easily enough, but sometimes the desire to get numbers up will draw an increased interest into discussions by the individual which may generate some very intriguing thoughts that may otherwise have gone unsaid.
another popular thing is board mods giving customized ranks for particular individuals (or allowing them to create their own) this can definately be fun and help with quicker recognition of individuals (example: “oh hes the alpaca herder!” or “ah thats the guy thats obsessed with Gaius”). however on the flip side you can get some people who will bug the board mods begging for a specific rank, as i’ve never run a board personally i’m not sure on the quantity of these people, but i know they’re out there.
just some thoughts…