Former Ranks

[Teddy]

Zybez staff should carry over their ranks, particularly SeMes+. As Toe said - its just a way of showing basic respect to people who previously put in hundreds of hours+ into the old forums. Otherwise why would they bother posting again when they can just spare themselves the embarrassment and simply move on with their lives like others who haven't (yet) swung by.

It looks like double standards with Yoto, Wee, and Kevin keeping Smod. And whilst you've very kindly given me Mod again, why am I different to duck, Toe, and Magick?

First of all, howdy Murdoc, nice seeing you after six years haha.

Secondly, and more to the point: In my mind, a balanced approach should be taken here. Like you said, a total permanent rank reset would probably be a bad idea. I've seen it done before with mass demotions, but at this point in the starting stages of a new community, it would be demoralizing to a lot of individuals who have spent many hundreds or thousands of hours on the old forums as stewards of the community. On the other hand, I think giving everybody back their ranks immediately would not be great optics...it would look top-heavy to have the majority of people be ranked, and it would not provide much growth area from newer members who are joining RSC from other forums that may get shut down, or Redditors who want to have a part of a chill forum environment.

Instead, I would propose that anybody who had a rank is grandfathered in and can earn it back after posting a certain amount on the board. It could be something like 25 or 50 posts per rank that you had. If somebody had been ranked, it's unlikely they'll be spamming to get there, as they would not have earned their rank in the past if they were spammers. However, if each of the SeMes+ posted 25 or 50 times, think about how much more active the forum would be.

That is why they would bother posting again. No embarrassment, and no need to move on. Enjoy time in the community with your friends and acquaintances, and it's basically a formality that they then get it back. If they want to stick around, they can. If they can't post that much, they probably don't care that much anymore.

And it is critical during these first few weeks/months for the forum to be active. Many of us who just popped in to say our goodbyes have considered sticking around to say a few more hellos. If the forum is inactive, that wave of individuals could disappear, and anyone else who wanted to stop by might not join, and this experiment could quickly fail. In the past, RSC grew quickly out of necessity to understand the game and communicate with others. Now, its staying power in RuneScape's twilight is through an intimate forum community experience that Reddit and others can't hope to match. Having active posting right now is essential, and having some post count incentives here for the ranks could be just the kind of organic kickstart that it needs to take root and begin a state of solid growth.

-Teddy