[#21]

I'm sure many of you have visited a forum. If you say you haven't then you are wrong, because you are looking at one right now (Trik.com MMORPG Cheats Forum). You may see that certain members are a different color, have a different user-title, have a crown next to their name, have a different profile picture, or even all of these. Usually, this means this member is more than a regular member. They have a better rank than the bulk of the forum. If they are a special rank this means that they did something to earn it. There are two main types of special ranks:

1 - Recognized Member
2 - Staff Member

There is a third one (BANNED) however that is the lowest of the low, and it means the person broke one or more of the rules of the forum to deserve a ban.

A recognized member is one who has done something special to earn that rank. Some examples of what a recognized member would receive are:

Donor/Extreme Donor/Rich Bitch/Ultra Donor (Usually misspelled as "Donator")
V.I.P/Playboy/Pimp/Elite User/Senior Member
Legend/Oldie/Honored Member/Fogie
Programmer/Coder/Programming Team
Graphics Team (Sometimes can be staff depending on the forum)

The Donor Rank(s) are given to members when they have donated an amount of real life cash/money or have donated a type of money that the webmaster of the forum accepts.

The V.I.P. Rank(s) are usually given to members when they have reached a certain requirement of posts/thanks/thread starts/etc to show their loyalty and activity to a site. It can differ however, some forums require you to donate a small sum of money to become a very important person. Some sites don't even have a goal for you to reach for you to get V.I.P., but just give it to you when they think you have worked hard for it. Usually a person with the rank of V.I.P. gets access to exclusive sections on the forum, and/or get extra benefits such as more Private Message space.

The Legend Rank(s) are almost 100% of the time given to people who have been around the forum for a long time, and deserve some recognition for registering early with the site or just being an "oldie". Some forums will give it out just because that person has been around on the internet/runescape forums/mmorpg forums for a long time.

I have only ever seen the Programmer Rank given to one type of member. The person has to be good at coding/programming programs. Usually they are given that rank to help make programs (whether it be bots, autos, etc) for the community's benefit.
The Graphics Team Rank(s) is almost always given to members who are very good at graphical art and are willing to use their skill to help the forum. They usually have to be active on the forum to maintain this rank as well.


A Staff Member must have done something above the ordinary to deserve such a rank. There are several types of Staff Ranks:

Moderator/Mod/Manager/Section Moderator
Middleman/MM
Universal Mod(erator)/Global Mod(erator)/Super Mod(erator)
Jr. Admin/Junior Admin(istrator)
Admin/Administrator/Forum Admin(istrator)

The Moderator Rank(s) mean that the person has stood out and really earned it. They almost always moderate a select few boards of the forum. Usually they moderate the sections in which they are most active, and would have the most knowledge about. They use all the normal Moderating Tools: Close, Edit, Move, Stick, Delete, Merge. They have access to hidden boards in which only the Forum Staff can discuss topics.

The Middle-Man Rank(s) are given to somebody if and only if they have proven themselves trustworthy. A Middle-Man is somebody to whom both the buyer and the seller entrust the items being sold and bought. This obviously should only be given to very trusted members. Sometimes the Middle-Men will have moderating powers in the Market(s) section(s).

The Super Moderator Rank(s) is an upgraded version of the Moderator Rank. A Super Moderator has a couple more moderating tools. Not only that they have all those moderating tools in all of the boards/sections of the forum. Usually a member can only get this rank if they have already been the Moderator Rank. This rank requires more experience, skill, and general knowledge. A Moderator would have to work extra hard to earn this higher Moderating Rank.

The Jr. Administrator Rank(s) is an even more spoofed up version of a Super Moderator. They have all the powers described above in that of the Super Moderator. Beside that, they have access to something called the "Admin Control Panel" (sometimes known as the ACP or the Admin cp). Inside this Admin Control Panel, they can do more powerful updates, changes, and outlooks on the forum. They can edit users, massively move threads, and other cool things. However as Junior Admin, they do not have all the tools that they could have as a full admin.

An Administrator is a full admin, and has all of the Admin Tools/Powers and all of the Moderating Tools/Powers. They can prune users, change pictures of certain ranks, install plugins, create new boards for the forum, and more. They have the utmost power and have also worked their butts off trying to get to this position. Other members usually come to these admins for help.


Well there you have it, the basic idea for a forum's hiearchy. Rate out of 10 guys .

Credits to -> #21 From Trik.com.

[Dr. Pepper]

9/10 very descriptive. Nice guide, overall.

[Enemy]

I say 10 out of 10. Very descriptive and helpful. I didn't even know there were ranks like Playboy, Fogie, Pimp, and so on. I also never knew what MM stood for.
Thanks #21.

~Enemy

[Dan]

1/10 because every rank description should be 5 words or less. You made it long for no reason.

[1-DUB]

dan be quiet... he can make it how he wants it also i have seen many forums that have ranks way longer than 5 letters.. he was being descriptive and i think he did a pretty good job at it.

[Blacky]

i rated 10/10 it was easy to understand and a great guide to follow and all that other bullsh|t lol cheers

[Simple]

I feel really cool having the legendary rank now :3

9/10

[Strike Freedom]

Thats a nice guide, very descriptive. 9/10

[Dan]

Think of me as the devil's advocate.

Now, lets say some new guy joins the forum. He has never been on any forum before in his life, and knows nothing about any ranks, and hes mostly here to try and scam someone, or play in the arcade. (thinking this is just another lame rs site) Then he sees this guide to ranks, and wanders in to read it.. Except its 2 pages long, so he just decides to go scam someone. I guarantee that is what will happen with at least 90% of the new people who view this guide.

To fix it, you should have a simple description for each rank, and then at the bottom of the post add more information, such as how to get these ranks, etc. Because the fact of the matter is, people in general, are lazy bastards. (prove me wrong?)

and most of you probly stopped reading this post after the first few letters =p

[DS]

Originally Posted by Dan

and most of you probly stopped reading this post after the first few letters =p

That, my friend is absolutely correct.

[#21]

Why don't you give me your shortened version then, my great Dan.

[Dan]

I am of no obligation to do anything for the site, considering I'm just a regular member. In fact it's the other way around. You should be making the site better for me.

[1-DUB]

lol... if there that lazy then they can just sit there and wait and see what rank they get next and wonder what it means

[Dalpra]

8/10, Very nice. Maybe put the post counts people need to get a certain rank, like captain, etc. But apart from that It's Great!

[#21]

I would, but not all forums have the same hiearchy like captain.

[Bootylove]

Sophisticate guide. Hopefully, this can explain to all the new members the basic of ranks.

[T3hUb3rz]

How come theres no Sexy rank? huh i should get that rank

Discription

Sexy: only given to the sexy people like t3hub3rz

[deltatsunami]

Wow. Awesome guide. How long does this take you to type up?

[SeeSaw]

Thats pretty helpful to explain to some people. Great guide

[KR4ZY]

10/10
this really helped me get more knowledge of the ranks