Rickard wrote: In large forums, we would end up with 0.1% ranks and stuff like that. Say the forums have a million posts.
So? If you wan't to have 5 ranks does it matter if the first is 0% to 0.1%, the next 0.1% -> 1%, etc.? As long as the percentages can be changed then it should be fine.
The problem wouldn't be with large forums, but with small forums. Say the total posts is 50 (early in the forums history...), one post would be 2% of the total posts. A big thread could lead to lots of title changes, because as each person posts, their percentage of the total would change a lot. Say I have 20 posts of 40, that's 50%, but if a big thread comes along and I know have 20 posts of 60, now I only have 33% of the total. In a forum with a million posts, 1 post would only be 0.0001%, so ratings would be more stable (although it would be hard to increase your rating...)
Perhaps if instead of the total posts, the number of posts in the last week or two weeks could be used. It most probably won't be anywhere near one million, but the percentages would still be fairly distinct. Such a system wwould reward currently active members, instead of people who posted for a bit, and didn't stay.
Anyway, I'm just rambling on... maybe when 1.2 is released i'll work on this as a mod
I like soup.