Member Ranks on CaribbeanChoice

The Basics
What are Lurkers?
Overview of Member Ranks
Special Ranks

The Basics

On CaribbeanChoice.com, we have created a variety of ranks to identify the various people who participate on the website. Every member is assigned a rank that indicates the level of participation of the member in the community. A member's rank also determines what privileges a member may have on the site. Some ranks are earned based on a member's participation on CaribbeanChoice, and some are assigned by an Administrator. 

Instead of stars, we chose to use pips  to indicate rank.  The more pips, the higher the rank.

You can view your rank by looking at the upper right hand corner of this and other pages (when you are logged in). This is the rank other people see next to your username in the forums, in the members directory, and anywhere else your username is displayed to others.

What are Lurkers?

Lurkers are people who have never posted in the forum. Although ominous sounding, it really isn't when used on the internet. It simply means someone who reads but does not participate. They "lurk" in the background, never speaking.

At CaribbeanChoice, we love lurkers. The more the merrier! But if you don't want to be a lurker anymore, simply post in the forum once and you will no longer be a lurker.

Overview of Ranks

As a regular member, you will go through a series of ranks as you participate on CaribbeanChoice. Just for fun, we based our member ranks on Pirate and Navy Ranks (with the exception of the first few).

You start off as a Lurker, as stated above. As soon as you make your first post in the forum, you then become a Newbie. After posting for awhile, you then become a Landlubber. And on and on.

There are currently 9 different ranks a regular member can have, each indicating your level of participation. Currently your rank is determined by the number of posts you have made in the forums, but in the future there will be more ways to earn a higher rank.

Here are some of the ranks:

0 pips: Lurker (All Members Start Here!)
1 faded pip: Newbie
1 pip: Landlubber
2 pips: Mate
3 pips
4 pips
5 pips
6 pips
7 pips

(I only revealed the names of some of the lower level ranks because we want the names of the upper level ranks to be a surprise.)

Note: A Lurker is the only rank that does not have any pips. You earn your first pip by posting at least once.

Special Ranks

Some special ranks on CaribbeanChoice include Administrator, Moderator, Senior Staff, Staff, Syndicated Columnist, Facilitator, etc. Members of these ranks have special privileges according to their rank, or have a specific role on the website.

Examples include:

Administrator
Senior Staff
Moderator
Syndicated Columnist

There are many more, but this should give you an idea of some of the ranks you may see.