In the early days of this community existing, ranks and promotions were a big deal. New members had to prove themselves and over time, often years, build up to the point where they would be promoted to the rank of Jedi or Sith Master. I know that it was a big deal for me, years ago, when I was promoted to a Jedi Knight. Getting to wear that rank like a badge that demonstrated people respected my characters journey and trusted me as a writer? That was so cool.
That being said... I personally don't believe that this system makes sense for our community anymore. We do not have any formalised rules around character progression, if we ever did, and instead tend to favour a narrative-focused roleplaying format. We have evolved a lot over the decades (!) that this community has been in existence, but some of our basic rules haven't.
For this reason, I think we should do away with the notion of rank transfers and 'promotions' altogether. In their place I'd propose we have a single rule (wording not ideal, but hopefully the theme comes through):
You can play whatever rank you like, but we would ask that you think of a credible backstory to explain your choice, and that you consider the wider community narrative when writing here.
What do you all think?
EDIT: Also, just incase it wasn't clear.. I think this should apply to any new characters, whether it's new people joining the community or old-timers creating a new character.
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