[DirectPixel]

I am sure there are better ways of rewarding those who contribute to the community.

Perhaps a daily or weekly "What's Going On" anouncement similar to the ones they have at Aqua-Soft (http://www.aqua-soft.org) would work. It gives coders recognition for their contributions, but still maintains a sense of equality on forum-wide basis.

I just personally think that the usertitles don't work. Every single time I look at the usertitles here, I get put off by how judgemental they seem to be. I'm listed as a regular "Member". Does that mean I can't code? Of course not. Sure, I haven't really released any modifications, but that's not a requirement for knowing how to write good code, is it? Likewise, just because you've released a lot of hacks doesn't necessarily mean you know how to write safe and efficient code, right? There are better ways to distinguish hard-working members of the community without alienating the rest of the users.