No. The default behaviour is "do not tell", because the knowledge they hold is of any potential value. But this is not the main issue. Some people in the community know more of the platform than the average Nokian.

A Nokian who spends his time designing user interfaces will not have any idea why feature X hasn't been implemented into application Y, and what the approximate timeline is to see it live. This is something this is extremely visible during meetings. When you talk to a Nokian, and ask for his opinion, he will most of the time back of nicely and be very considerate of his answer, exactly because he (or she) actually signed a contract.

Nobody should be "idolised". Be it Nokian or Community Council members. There is no point in respecting anyone because of their status. One earns respect, it doesn't come for free just by doing something which pays the bills. Look at the post count, this gives an indication. Look at the number of thanks they got, and look at the ratio (someone with 5000 posts and no thanks is probably someone who idly spends his time in off-topic, or never contributes anything helpful; he just has a lot of free time on his hands).

There's a reason people don't want to have something like that stickered on their faces: because a lot of stupid people annoy them for no good reason. The same questions come again and again, and the same stupid discussions are started again and again.

In other words, this has been discussed countless times (see paragraph above), and the discussion has never been any more productive than it was the first 10 times. However, if you have any new arguments to bring to the table, feel free to open a bug in bmo.

I don't understand why he cannot do so without having a "NOKIA" tag. He can still identify himself as someone working at Nokia.

How? That was pretty much the question. I assume no one wants to begin every post with "hi, i work for the company"

Okay, so it seems i found a problem discussed to death, and proposed a solution not really wanted by anyone. Sorry 'bout that. I only wish there was a way to find previously discussed subjects
Anyway, thank you for your time

There is, but it involves a little effort. For me I use Google. What ever topic I search, I add the word Maemo to it. Most things Maemo have been discussed here and Google crawls this site so relevant posts usually turn up on the first page of Google's search results.

As to ranking or categorizing of members I don't think that is necessary because of the thanks system.

Not because of the number of thanks posted but because every member has access to every other members thanks statistics with just 2 clicks from any post you read.

You can click on a members name and then choose to view their profile or view other posts made by them. Once you are at their profile page you can view what expertise they choose to mention in their "about me".

However, it has been my experience that some of the best information comes from members who say very little about them selves for what ever reason. That's why I use the 'Thanks" system.

In that same profile page you can choose to see all statistics and in addition to posts you can view the threads started by the member, posts where they received thanks, as well as posts where they have given thanks.

In my humble opinion, those last three items tell the most about a members intent, knowledge, and willingness to share accurate and timely information.

I suspect that with most members you will find that their first threads asked some pretty basic questions about the OS or the device. Maybe some of the same questions you had when you first started... For those members that contribute you will see the topics of their threads progress as they learn more until they too are posting threads that show how to do interesting and useful things. Others may propose equally useful ideas or invite us to think about things we may not have even imagined before.

Thanked posts will show you the quality of a members posts, and posts that they thanked will show what qualities they value in others. All this useful information is just two or three clicks away from any post you read on this forum.

Welcome aboard MrGrim, no one has ever had to apologize for asking questions or proposing solutions. Don't put too much into post count, familiarize yourself with the many resources available here, and most of all... have fun.

I've only really contributed 2 or 3 times

MrGrim, I think you are simply asking for better signatures from certain people.

All the forum posts get aun automatic tag made of number of posts, thanks received and the date of registration to the forum. It's not a perfect description but interesting enough.

Then there is the signature. I have a link to my maemo.org profile for those interested in knowing more. One useful line, not obstrusive for those knowing already or those that couldn't care less.

I had my Nokia role written explicitely in the signature and I got it stamped on my face a couple of times in a relatively short period of time. I removed it and I think it helps.

A good reason to tag yourself in your signature instead of having a system level tag is that you can optionally include your signature or not. For instance, I'm systematically avoiding to post my signature in Chess related threads becausle I love Chess but this has nothing to do with my role at Nokia.

So please, feel free bugging any users that you think could do better with their signatures. I actually bet some of them will feel honored by your interest (not me).

I was actually thinking about you when I wrote this bit... Some of your posts got me thinkin' thoughts I never thunk before.

Thanks...
I think

Hell, I would never have imagined some of the stuff you dream up.

it is the same story every time. one must always spend some time and see who is who.

a nokia worker can be an *******, community council member too, heck everyone can!

so yes, I am against that kind of classification, there is no real usage for that after one has been here long enough (and it can be confusing in the beginning too). I am terribly sorry but that is the way world (and vbulletins etc) spin around.

My first response to this suggestion was "Oh yes! What a good idea. It would be good to know that I am getting advice from Someone Reputable".

And that's when I saw the flaw. What makes someone a reputable source for information? Why would I assume that someone from the council or Nokia would give me a better answer than, say, someone who has been developing for the OS for some time or has specialist knowledge relevent to my question.

Take my Bible, for example (No, don't run off to the religious topics!). There are a few folk here who have exceptional knowledge of and experience with mobile Bible platforms. I'd hazzard a guess they have greated knowledge in that particular field than some person from Nokia, who might know the OS inside out but never thought about asking it to run Rapier or Olive tree.

In the end, I don't necessarily always want to engage with Nokia Experts - the community may have a better expert.

I also understand people's anxiety about wearing a 'Nokia' badge in an open forum where you might get duffed up by an angry Nokia customer over something not your fault. (One of the things I always do when ringing customer service is explain to the person on the other end that I am not angry at them personally!)

What would this achieve? I'm not sure it would achieve anything of major value.