(The quotes were not working properly in the OP. I assume Bara is hard at work tweaking... )

That is about the jist of it so far.

I know i have, especially in the OT threads had no idea as to the location (SD site wise) of fellow posters, as many assume they are all reading that thread from their own native site. Also, the ranks being non functional now, (apart from level of karma able to give out) aside from their use on WC has left many of us wondering exactly what our fellow users area of expertise or specialty actually is.

The Stardockians have the very helpful banner that list exactly what function, for lack of a better description they actually perform on the forums and within SD and having something similar for the members would save much grief in cross posted topics and give us a bit more insight into our fellow users.

Discuss....

You might want to post in a colour other than yellow/orange, its almost impossible to read

'Ranks' on WC are not forum related, but related to the contribution you make to the site. So someone can progress through the ranks by submitting skins, being helpful to other users etc.

I'm currently Master(5) which comes from submitting skins and 8 years of commitment to the site and to its wellbeing. I was formerly Super Wizop(7) which I held for four years until I 'retired' last summer.

I agree it would be good to have a uniform system across all sites. There was some suggestion it might go altogether but I believe that would be a bad thing. People like to have recognition for their contribution to a site.

I have long wanted a system whereby you knew which site people are posting from. We are all Stardockians, so to speak, but with widely different interests. But we are all here for the common good, namely, to pursue our interests with like minded people.

Weird, the yellow has now gone... fuzzy scratches head...

Also, last time I saw suggestions like these, SD ended up reading the Riot Act. (I like 'em though.)

I'm not sure about the necessity for ranks, apart from the official StarDock banners, but some consistency would be nice. For Karma, but also for things as clicking 'My Posts'. I'm currently posting from the Elemental forums, but when I click My Posts in the GalCiv2 forums I don't see anything, despite this being the Off-Topic forum which is shared between all forums

The banners/usergroups aren't actually related to the ranks at all. If you you look around you might find some SD people who don't frequently do anything on the forums, thus ar estill Citizen rank.

Anyway, at presetnt the groups are only settable by the highest admins. I don't really foresee any option for users to add their own or anything like that since that would lead to issues (they could fake an official one) and avatars already let people add their own stuff.

I did have some yellow text in the OP prior to actually posting it but edited it for the reasons you pointed out, never posted it though.....Very Strange.

I'd agree that allowing users to have any control over this is open to abuse.

My thoughts though at the very least is some kind of indication in each members post of exactly where they are posting from. I admit, i like the idea of member banners reflecting their interests and their native site, but that's not an actual productive feature, where the showing of "posted from" would be invaluable to many.

A great example would be with piderman above. Where Kryo's Stardock banner is piderman could simply have a similarly sized Elemental banner.

Ranks aside that feature would help other users become aware of the other SD sites that are open to them but might just not know about and even increase participation/sales in other parts of the community.

Perhaps not. I'm only speaking really of my own experiance in what i have viewed. But it seems that folks like Crazy, Kryo, Zommba, Bara, Brad/Draginol, Shirley, Highlander, Melibee, Zubaz, Jafo.....uhmmm..that's about all i can think of, all those do seem to carry their respective banners across all sites.

In that i would think that such a system is possible to implement. Be it worth the time in SD's eyes is for others to decide but i sure think it would add to the forums.

Boy this "view edits" function is impressive, but I wonder if all this effort just to mostly watch people correct their spelling mistakes is really worth it.

All in all I do think the effort at making all the sites consistent is a good thing. I even think that the blurring of sites by the sharing of forums is not all that bad either. I do think that it would be helpful to at least have the knowledge of which site a post or reply is coming from. I also think that since it's been made clear that this is the way things will be then you should go "all the way".

Why is it that I have 80 karma on Galciv2 and 31 karma on Joe User and 0 karma on some other sites? Why if I look at my profile on Galciv2 does it say that I'm a journeyman (4) but on Joe User I'm a citizen (1)? Also if I view my profile on Galciv2 it says I've made 24 posts and 736 replies but if I view my profile on Galciv2 I've made 101 posts and 3935 replies. Why the difference.

Basically I'm all for consistency but if you're making changes that blur the distinction of one site to the next then be consistent and make these functions the same across *all* sites.

Also the earlier comment about yellow text brings up another source of inconsistency.

Each site has it's own default color scheme. The game sites are predominately light text on a black background while other sites are black text on a white background along with some other variations.

One thing is that the user has no choice in the matter and I know people have complained about one scheme versus another due to readability issues. It would be nice if the user had at least a limited choice between dark on light versus light on dark.

Also if you stick with the "default" font/formating you're at least reasonably legible on *all* sites, but once you try and use color or font size or anything not default to make your post or reply more legible on the site that you're posting from you run the risk of making your post/reply totally illegible on another site which as far as you know may be where most response is coming from.

[edit] Check out the "view edits" feature on this post to see me change the word "reply" to "response" and to add this edit. I think this makes for more confusion not less. [/edit]

I am all for more consistency... the "highlight" function helps a littile with legibility, as you can set the background color if you are using a non-auto font.

On TriggerStreet.com (a screenplay writers gathering place owned & operated by Dana Brunetti & Kevin Spacey), i once gave out a set of "bannerlike" ranking images that were tied with people's quantity of posts... i'm sure we could do a much more complex & ingenious system that correlates a number of participatory elements to everyone's Forum status, be it across numerous SD sites or not.

Such as this;

Want some? Assuming the feature would be implemented and that the overall thematic Icons and background frameworks should be altered to be galactic in nature or games driven or somethin' along those lines.

You'd reach 10,000 replies & posts on TS, you got to ride a maximum reddish stampede reputation (And well, RobinHood as long gained 25,000 and still counting, last i checked!) and be perceived as a "Blue Peeker" for having less than 20!

Lemme know!

Make it a two side coin, then. And flip it, member #2379736 is far from being indicative of someone's site location or participation ratio(s) be it Karma or otherwise.

Admit it Neilo, if it weren't for some TyrannyofEvil friends your own "Karma Value" would be a little less... and mine would spike up in the stratosphere for being helpful!

Fairplay indications to the many by the most is my motto here, only.