[Denied] Remove programming fun ranks or commit to them

Programming fun ranks don't mean anything and some of them are out of date. I've got "VB Programmer" rank for example, but VB hasn't been relevant in over a decade. There's a SCAR Programmer one floating around too, and SCAR hasn't been relevant for even longer than that. Most of the programming fun ranks are held by old, inactive users.

I think the site should either commit to having some sort of official framework/guidelines on obtaining or changing a programming fun rank, or to remove them altogether. Whenever I've brought something up like this in the past it's always been delegated, nebulously, to Matthew or Sythe, without anything happening.

What committing would look like:
- Set requirements for obtaining the rank. X years since registration, and commitment to the community through code in some capacity (e.g. writing free bots/scripts for the community, posting tutorials, etc)
- Someone, other than Sythe or Matthew, who manages these ranks
- Someone who keeps the ranks up to date. The VB rank shouldn't exist anymore, but there is a .NET rank, so anyone holding the VB rank should just get that (or re-apply or whatever).

The easy route would be to just remove them but I think that'd be lazy and short-sighted.

 

I believe this would be a fantastic idea, I also like the idea of the admins/staff team handling the rank management, perhaps they could also consider the removal of CDT since the pr and tech core team is gone.

 

@Dev Zach seems competent enough to know what good spaghetti looks like

I think I've lowkey barked up the tree for the Java developer rank in the past but didn't get much of anywhere with it even though (I'd like to assume) that I'm a half decent developer.
I think the ranks are cool and they may even give a sense of what kind of skills a certain person has.

 

I 100% support this. As someone who has contributed to the site with Python and .NET, there should be an incentive for helping the site.

 

100% support, also should standardize graphic funrank or remove it all together while we're at it

 

I support removing them entirely. They're outdated and irrelevant.

 

The reason why I said removing it outright would be short sighted is because there is potential in the rank to stimulate a part of the forum that isn't the market. With some kind of path toward obtaining a rank, you give people the incentive to contribute to the community. This site has a big issue with activity and engagement outside of the market sections - I think it can use all the help it can get.

 

Agreed. I want a 'programmer but doesn't actually know what the fuck I'm doing' fun rank

 

Support, seems pointless now.

 

I agree, but I think that non-market activity has to stem from Richard/Matthew first. If they're not making moves I feel like it'll be hard to incentivize people to contribute.

Personally I would prefer having more fun ranks that would be given to people contributing to the site in some way. I might even make them tradable - who knows. I just don't like they "hey u programmed once, here's a thing" approach we took with these years ago.

 

I agree that the scarcity of fun ranks is a bit ridiculous and should be reworked

 

I looked over the list of run rank holders recently and most of them are OG users who I haven't seen in like 100 years. I don't think they should be made abundant (certainly not as abundant as miniranks) but they could be used as a real incentiviser for the 12 year olds who place value in something like that. It's a system that the site has access to right now without additional work, that could be used to breathe a bit of life back into non-market sections.

 

Support; either removing entirely or reworking. I think there is value in a rework, but don't know if the powers that be would spend the time to make it happen?

 

Since fun ranks are so desirable, and NEVER given out to people that actually deserve them (continuous time, effort, and dedication to the site) just remove all fun ranks in general.
There is this weird agenda behind fun ranks & it’s pretty lousy how they are not given out, or sold?

 

Tbh fun ranks and miniranks are pretty redundant

 

They are useless sure, but when you don’t have one... you want one.. especially when they are scarce

 

The difference in languages doesn't matter all that much if the rank is going to be just a marker of contributions

 

I would like to see a rework in how fun ranks are awarded in general. It currently is almost impossible for new users to get them. Like Blupig mentioned most old hats or inactive users are the ones that have them. I'm for a rework in these and other fun ranks.