There are several problems inherent in scaling rank according to percentages... Let's assume that Saint is the 99.9th percentile automatically... That might equate to one person right now... whoever has the most XP (merlyn) would be the only one which is no real problem... but examine what happens near the middle as the site grows...

Let's say the monk level begins at 50 percent. If the site grows thickly in the bottom half (where more newbies are creating accounts everyday and gathering lots of collective XP), this will oversaturate the bottom half of the breakdown and thrust everyone upward constantly even if they don't do anything (and as long as their XP level is not surpassed by the average of the growing bottom half). This would mean that the bottom half would constantly drive users with lower and lower XP amounts (and presumably contribution levels) into the higher user levels.

I just don't see an easy answer to this escalating XP problem. It would take a long time just voting everyday to reach high levels and why would anybody want to do nothing but vote unless they wrote a bot to do it for them =).

I think static thresholds are probably the best way to go but they should be more widely spaced. I just can't help but feel that the average hacker using PerlMonks should get to stay at the Monk level for a much longer time before progressing beyond (like approximately twice as long as it took them to attain Monk status). This would help to have more Monk loyalty and ownership I think. Anyways, it's a tricky issue. Hopefully any changes that can be made will ultimately be for the better. We should all keep thinking about this as some Monk is bound to have a brainstorm (er epiphany) as to the right way to do it. Hope this helps the discussions somewhat. TTFN.

-PipTigger

p.s. I'm Not Really I!