First one out of Orc rank

[Aeleorn]

-----> very jealous!!!!!!!

[Stormrider]

Wow! I just discovered with the new upgrade, that we can add more levels to the posting rankings! Right now we have:

300 posts Elf
200 posts Dúnadain
100 posts Dwarf
25 posts Hobbit
0 posts Orc

We can add five more levels now! So right off, I am thinking: Rohirrim, Gondorian, Half Elf, High Elf, Eagle, Istari, Maiar, Valar, and Ilúvatar. However, the administration team are Maiar, Valar, and Ilúvatar. But I don't have any problem offering these ranks to our members for posting, but they would not actually receive the administration abilities with these ranks--we have to set the settings on a member for that!

Anyway what other entities in Arda can the rest of you come up with? Should we have more evil creatures, too, or is being a lowly Orc bad enough? Or should we do away with Orcs and such and stick with the more pleasant beings of Middle-earth?

Also we can now assign different colored stars for these rankings and how many stars!

[Magpie]

So I will move from Hobbit to Dwarf. Okay.

About 95% of me doesn't really fuss over post counts and designations. I definitely don't assign value or rank through post counts (some people on another forum were really into posting in one word games so they could get their counts up in the 1,000s then were upset when told the forum was looking for evidence of meatier posts.)

But the 5% of me that does 'care' is the part that giggles over action figures, trading cards, etc. It's childlike fun.

Having said that, It'll probably be a long time before I make another 100. The child in me would enjoy some change before that. I think 'in the old days' counts came much quicker. Things are different for me these days.

If we're looking at 'races' we can consider these divisions: Men/Mortals, Dwarves and Elves (or Quendi)

Among the Men/Mortals these might be fun:

• Beornings
  
• Woses (also called Drúedain)
  
• Hobbits
  
• Dúnadain
  
• Rohirrim
  

Instead of Half Elf and High Elf how about some of the divisions Tolkien set up
see: www.glyphweb.com/arda/e/elves.html
although there isn't a strong heirarchy here.

• Avari (could be considered an unattractive status to a member)
  
• Eldar
  
  • Vanyar
    
  • Noldor
    
  • Teleri
    
    • Falmari
      
    • Sindar
      
    • Silvan Elves
      
    • Nandor
      
      • Laiquendi

Then we could expand the list into the Ainur

• Valar (singular Vala)
  
  • Maiar (singular Maia)
    
    • Istari (singular Istar)

Outside of those three categories we have

• Ents
  
• Eagles

I haven't listed any more of the 'bad guys'. No one wants to be a 'bad guy' and we all complain. The only reason I could think of for adding any of these in is to break up the low post counts so the new member is so entranced by their changing bad guy status that they don't get too annoyed by being a bad guy. But adding these takes the place of an added 'good guy' designation.

• Easterlings
  
• Haradrim
  
• Trolls
  
• Orcs
  
• Uruk-hai
  
• Dragons
  
• Balrogs

At EZBoards (DA's forum), after reaching a certain level of post counts, the member could chose their own designation. I don't know if that was an EZBoard function, a function DA set up... or if that's even available here at Proboards.

And, obviously, I've listed way more titles than we have the capacity to include. I'm off school and indulging in research more than suggestions. My suggestions would have to be.... (hmmm.... thinking)
Outside of the administrators, no one had reached the upper level of 300. And those that are in the 200's aren't currently very active. (That is to say, they're not soaring towards 300 and likely to pass beyond it soon) I would like to break the counts below 300 into more levels with maybe an added top level at 400. (And that's a definite 'maybe'. I could live with it and without it)
How about something like:
0 - 25 - 50 - 75 - 100 - 150 - 200 - 250 - 300 - 400
or
0 - 25 - 50 - 75 - 100 - 125 - 150 - 200 - 250 - 300
This gives the newer members some movement they can feel.

As to what designations to add...
I'd say stick to keeping only that 0-25 count a 'bad guy'.
I have no problem keeping Maiar, Valar, and Iluvatar as moderator designations. In fact, I probably have a preference for it.
I'm not really sure how I'd work in Ents or Eagles. If I ever reached the highest count I think I'd like to be an Elf but that's just me. Ents and Eagles lie outside the heirarchy of Man/Dwarf and Elves.
If I had to vote on my top 9 favorite groups they would be (in no particular order)
1. Woses (also called Drúedain)
2. Beornings
3. Eagles
4. Ents
5. Hobbits
6. Rohirrim
7. Dunedain
8. Noldor
9. Eldar
10. Istari

I love the Elves and would love to move through various ranks of Elves. But the heirarchy is iffy and I wonder if it's unfair to use multiple titles for Elf designations when not everybody loves the Elves as much as I. I am just as happy moving through the other cultures.

Whew... can you tell I'm out of school? I am nuts sometimes!

[Desi Baggins]

Lowering the posting counts for each level sounds good. You have great suggestions for levels, it is so hard to decided what to use. It took a little bit to decide when we originally set it up.

[Stormrider]

I am pretty sure that members cannot chose their own race once they get to a certain posting level. I don't see any place in the administration functions that allows for that.

I knew I had missed a lot of different races when I quickly listed mine this morning. Thank you, Magpie, for your thorough research! It seems we could use 15, 20, or 25 slots for ranking!

Perhaps if we eliminate Iluvatar, Valar, and Maiar and keep those for administration, we could still allow Istari as the highest rank for members. That would be quite an honorable rank, don't you think?

It could be fun to make the newer members have to post their way thru the evil races before they could get to the more honorable ranks! lol! However, there could be some members who are a bit orcish and might prefer to be in the evil entity category! I confess that I have a little orcish nature at times, too.

I rather like the list of 10 race that you selected, Magpie. They seem to cover just about all the important ones! Now we just need to put them in some order!