I suggest it is time to rename/retire the Evangelist moniker?
 

I'm too old and too jagged to be anywhere near Cancel Culture or political correctness.

That being said, the title of 'Evangelist' on FT has always rubbed me the wrong way. It reeks of entitlement and hubris, in my opinion.

Reaching 10k posts should covey loyalty and knowledge. but I feel this title sends the wrong message to fellow posters, most especially newer members. A sense of implied authority that is not earned but rather gained by compilation or attrition.

Thank you for your time.

This is an interesting conundrum. Pretty much every website of this type - where it's a community of members mutually helping each other with advice - has all sorts of different descriptions for members depending on their level of contribution. Quite how some of them are awarded is a mystery - if you look at community.screwfix.com, a UK building website, they have New Member, Member, Screwfix Select, Active Member and Super Member as a minimum. If you contribute to the site you probably know what they all mean and how you move up (and maybe down) between levels, but to an outsider or newbie it's not anywhere near as obvious.

So we, at least, keep things fairly simple. We show, on the desktop version, a clear post count. We recognise Original Members, and we choose to call our higher post count members Evangelists. We also have Legends, although very few of them. I can't remember the last one and I'm not even sure there was ever a formal criteria. That's it in terms of honours - nothing too complicated. All of this dates back a long while - to when Randy formed FT. In that sense, it reflects the origins and history of what he created.

Now here's where it gets more difficult - none of this is automatic. You don't hit 10k posts and just become an Evangelist. You have to ask, and we have to manually update the description every time. You'll notice that not everyone chooses to ask, in spite of having very large post counts. So if we decided to do away with all that history, or change any descriptions, we'd have to go through every member individually and edit their record. That is, I'm afraid, beyond our available resources.

I'd also say, much like everything else on the internet, you need to make your own mind up about how reliable anyone's advice is. It really doesn't matter what title they have here.

If we started life now, would we do things differently? Maybe. Perhaps we'd choose a different moniker more widely used in today's lexicon. But the fact is we took the path we did, and we're too far down the line to unravel it now. So I understand your view, I have some sympathy with it, but ultimately it's only a naming convention, and what individuals actually contribute is far more important.

Thank you for taking the time to respond and convey your thoughts. Also glad to hear it's not automatic. I understand the technical difficulty involved. Regards

Let me be clear - the process for changing a member's status is manual. The software doesn't detect post count, and we don't go out actively hunting out people who've crossed the threshold. Should anyone reach 10k posts and apply for Evangelist status, it would have to be a pretty extreme circumstance which would cause me to refuse, although ultimately I do have absolute discretion over the award.

That is what I had understood. Thanks again.

In the early days of FT (early 2000s) having 10 000 posts meant you were pretty much living in the forum for most of your time. So the elation was somewhat understandable... some examples:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/comm...d-threads.html
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/comm...vangelist.html

25 years on, the usual regulars who stayed definitely have more than 10k under their belt (OK people like me with far more should probably get a life, but that is another topic ;)).

Thank you, NWIFlyer for your comments, which I completely agree with. :)

:confused:
Since when? Always? I didn't ask for the title change (to my knowledge/memory), it just magically happened when I hit 10k.

I was thinking the same thing. After 14 years, I finally posted #10,000 and the very next post I was given the honorific title. Happy!

That was my understanding of the process too.

I recall something from Ken Hamer not wanting the title and got special permission to start a second pseudonym given his status on the forum.

Sounds like I'll have to go back to plan A and stop posting before 10k. So.. Ya'll can all start celebrating.

Since we're talking, what exactly is an "original poster"? It obviously doesn't track with registration date, but I'm not sure with what it does.

The person that made the first post in the thread.

I never got the Evangelist when I hit 10k. I assumed it was because I already had "Ambassador" where Evangelist would have shown. But I've seen others with more than one, so maybe that's it? If you don't already have a title it's automatic, if you want more than one, then it's manual.

The Evangelist title has to be manually added to moderators and ambassadors' profiles when they pass the 10K posts threshold; it is automatic for regular members. SanDiego1K added it to my profile shortly after I hit the 10K posts mark.

It is possible to manually remove the Evangelist designation. Send a note to the Community Director or to the Internet Brands support person, either one of whom can do this for you.