After thinking about all this I've come to the conclusion that they're all childish things which are totally meaningless dreamed up by those who are equally childish with nothing better to do! Does any of those responsible realise they've "ranked" some active posters the same as people who are no longer with us?

What do any of those ranks mean to someone reading the boards (well, what's left of them) for the first (or if they venture back the next) few times? By what standard or number of posts have they been defined and how does any poster "advance" in rank, that is if one rank is "better" than another after all, a rank is a grade of some sort?