Simon T.:
As this website will move to an updated platform, I hope this will open new possibilities. One of the thing that I find regrettable about the DhO is that we lost advanced practitioners. At some point, they can no longer get much information from here as there are too advanced in there practice. They come commenting once in a while but their very insightful post is drowned is a sea of advice from less mature practitioners.
I'm deeply, fundamentally opposed to such a ranking system, but that may be just me. FWIW, here are a few points to consider:
What does "advanced" mean? Which milestones from which map should be used? How can these attainments be verified? Can a reborn Christian get the Stream Enterer badge? Should a Master of the Temple be listened to by someone in Equanimity? Can a materialist who really gets Pascal's "Cogito ergo Sum" be considered to have the mind-body-ñana, or is is the fetter of identity-view or even the fetter of self-conceit?
What about abuse scenarios? My experience is that a title, any title, will lead to a reduction in critical thinking. "This person is an anagami with 8 Jhanas and Nirodha S. and lucid dreams and Siddhis X, Y, and Z. Surely their advice on relationship matters / financial matters / diet / health / political orientation / job situatin / ... must be sound!!!!11!!1!" ;)
On the other end, what does it do to someone to be put on a pedestal like that? When normal interaction is always spiced by the level of respect corresponding to that badge on a webside? Can get lonely... If we want to keep the old-timers engaged, better to treat them like any other poster here, which is a lot more fun.
The notion that there is "advanced Dhamma" and "basic Dhamma" which are somehow different, is kinda tricky in itself, since the Dhamma is universal. Yeah, I know, I know, "already enlightened" and related fallacies. That's not what I mean. Delusion is delusion no matter who is deluded. Dhamma is Dhamma even if it's printed in a tabloid.
If we introduce grades for someone's advancement in the Dhamma, we should also introduce a measure of how refined (and therefore hard to notice) their Kilesas have become. Like, "Anagami. Beware: subtle levels of greed, hatered, and delusion which may fool anyone up to and including Anagami" While it's not that simple, it's not that far from my experience of this situation, either.
Not every long-time practitioner is a good teacher. Not every talented teacher is an expert in every technique and view. Not every charismatic person is either a long-time practitioner or a good teacher or both.
Do we want teacher roles at all? I for one really like the egalitarian model.
Since one of the intention of the DhO is to encourage people to be more open about their achievement, I think having a way to show more visibility and recognition of those achievement would be helpful. It would orient new comers and still keep them comfortable to seek and provide advice at their own level.
I'm more in favor of new participants actually reading posts and forming their own conclusions rather than relying on some simple grading model. People tend to be quite open about their achievements in their posts here.
Regarding the technical possibilities of an upgraded Liferay: certainly looking forward to it, having tried to do it and failed, a year ago.
Chees,
Florian