Why do we have "junior" members?

[alanl]

Without wishing offence to those who administer this fine site, at 64 years old, having been on boats (and ships) of all shapes and sizes since I was 7, having built two yachts, sail on Sydney harbour (not for the faint hearted I assure you), I find being a "junior" member puzzling, even mildly demeaning.

Certainly, it is reasonable to acknowledge those who have made exceptional contributions by calling them "senior" or "expert" but I see no positive value in having anyone else identified by junior, female, etc. If others wish to defend the current arrangement, then please take this all the way to its logical conclusion with "Black" "Gay" "Short" "Hairy" "Infirm" "Stupid" categories and so on!

Cheers from Oz

AlanL

[gsheath]

Alan,

My thoughts too - that's why I changed my 'tag' to 'New Member' for now, and at some stage will alter to 'Member'; but the real point is, of course, why have a description at all!

Maybe it's an American status thing

(That'll stir things up!)

Cheers from Melbourne

PS Have sailed Sydney Harbour also.

[PBzeer]

It's merely the default setting for the site. It corresponds to the number of posts you have made. And as was noted, you are free to attach any other that you choose. I don't think there is any intent to be demeaning with it, just a handy way to show how much input you have made on the board. I go to another board as well that is set up similar to this one, and they also have a rating system that is post based.

If you go to your profile, you'll find a tab to change it to something more to your liking. Since it isn't mandatory to keep the one they assign by default, I don't see it as a big problem.

Regards,

[sidiag]

I changed mine, a while ago, to reflect the sailboat that
currently owns me.

[Fstbttms]

Originally Posted by alanl

Without wishing offence to those who administer this fine site, at 64 years old, having been on boats (and ships) of all shapes and sizes since I was 7, having built two yachts, sail on Sydney harbour (not for the faint hearted I assure you), I find being a "junior" member puzzling, even mildly demeaning.

I can't think of a single online forum that I have visited (and I have been to hundreds) that hasn't had some method of identifying the user's posting frequency. And while a user might have decades of experience pertinent to that forum's particular subject matter, you still have to pay your dues to move up the ranks in the forum pecking order. My advice is to not worry about what ranking the forum gives you but to make intelligent, thoughtful posts and you will gain the respect of your fellow forum members, regardless of whether you have a high post count or not.

[Hawkwind]

How many posts before I lose the junior title?

This one will be #25, so maybe.......

Doesn't really matter. I just joined a Nagios (Linux network monitor software) forum and they just flat out call ya "newb" there. On my MG (little British Cars) forum, they have all these Star Wars titles like "Obi-Won" or "Jedi Master".

[foxglove]

Also, if you click on the balance scale at the top right of a post, you can add to, or subtract from a posters rep (reputation). If you feel strongly, that a post is particularly helpful or agrees with you viewpoint, this is the way to vote on that poster' comments.

Jeff H, the site adminisrator and writer/lecturer on sailing, has a rep of 10 which must be the highest you can get. If I'm wrong about this, you'll see his post correcting me.