User rankings are a mixture of things you do on the forum.
The most basic thing is the amount of time you're a member. That has one "path" with several rankings.The longer you're a member of these forums, the more you go up ranks over long periods of time.
Another "path" of ranks is how frequently you post, both starting a new thread and replying to others.
Other paths promote ranks for tagging posts or providing solutions to other users in reply.
These are meant as a fun means to grow and share your feedback with others on the forums. Big brother isn't watching. Higher ranks don't grant any particular privileges over others. Ranks promote automatically based on the forums' settings. It's not a competition.
It might be useful in SOME cases to notice that a person's rank indicates his level of helpfulness when asking a woodworking project question, for example. But, this is only a casual means to gauge someone's helpfulness or expertise.
You're all right on that the good content in your posts, your courtesy, the unspoken standing you earn in the forums here are the best measure of value. People who hang out here for any period of time will indeed recognize that most.
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Assoc. Director, Digital Development
WOODMagazine.com
