"Ranks"

[Bieneke]

Since every decent forum seems to have them, this forum cannot stay behind: I am talking about ranks.

The ranks on this forum are as follows:

Nieuwkomer
Newcomer
0 - 4 posts

Lid
Member
5 - 25 posts

Waardevol lid
'Valuable' member
25 - 99 posts

Superlid
Super member
100 posts and up

I realize the rank titles are not very original. If you can think of a nicer title, do drop me a pm.

Other titles:

Vraagbaak --> 28 January 2009: abolished (now: 'moedertaalspreker/native speaker')
A helpdesk or 'anwer-person'. This is a (near) native Dutch speaker who helps you with your Dutch, corrects your Dutch phrases, or makes you work hard by letting you solve Dutch puzzles or translate phrases from English (or any other language) to Dutch. I cannot think of a good translation for 'vraagbaak' - anyone?

[Edit on June 13, 2008] A few nice translations for 'vraagbaak' offered by Twedekin (see post below) are "fountain of knowledge", "beacon of light", and "friendly Dutch uncle/aunt". [/edit]

Deskundige --> 28 January 2009: abolished
A Dutch teacher or linguist. This person has made the Dutch language his or her profession and can generally be trusted for giving good advice.

Moderator
Someone who is in charge of one or more forums. He or she keeps an eye on the forum and can edit, delete, close, (re)open, move, and split topics and posts. The moderator makes sure the posts are decent and on-topic.

Editors and translators
These are actually not forum titles as they apply to the non-forum sections of dutchgrammar.com. Editors and translators work on the grammar pages by translating and proofreading them. It is because of these people that the grammar chapters are (partly) available in all these different languages.

[LaPingvino]

English for "vraagbaak" is helpdesk...

[Bieneke]

Since I cannot post to announcements, I thought I would send you my
translation of a vraagbaak.

It refers to a person full of trivia and knowledge.
You can translate it to:

Oracle

Walking Encyclopedia

Answer-man
Answer-woman
(In fact there was an old Shell Oil commercial which had the character
"The Shell Answer-man" who answered questions about Shell gasoline.)
This may give you an idea of my age (upper 40's))

A helpdesk is not a person. Your other listed titles refer to people.

[LaPingvino]

What about know-all ?

[yeknom]

100 is too litlle.. i think should be another category, a higher one, like 1000 post!

just an idea! =)

[kwalijkje]

English for "vraagbaak" is helpdesk...

It seems a bit impersonal calling someone 'help-desk', no? Especially since the vraagbaken here are much nicer than the people who get paid at help-desks.

[Sullivan]

Agreed. And unlike helpdesk personnel, de vraagbaken actually help. ;-)

One of my various woordenboeken at some stage gave me the translation of vraagbaak as 'oracle' or even better 'walking encyclopedia', which I think captures the essence of de vraagbaken onder ons.

Oh, Bieneke's already quoted something similar... never mind.

The word 'know-all' in English often carries a negative implication, someone who makes damn sure everybody else knows how smart they are.

[Grytolle]

Agreed. And unlike helpdesk personnel, de vraagbaken actually help.

My first loud laugh at this forum! Well done >:)

[EetSmakelijk]

I do agree that the vraagbaken are helpful but I don't agree that people at helpdesks are always unhelpful. I've had more than one time when people were most helpful at a helpdesk.
I do like the term walking encyclopedia though.
I suppose "walking treasure troves full of information about Dutch" is too long?
Groetjes,

[Twedekin]

Since I cannot post to announcements, I thought I would send you my
translation of a vraagbaak.
You can translate it to:
Oracle
Walking Encyclopedia

Another couple of suggestions: fountain of knowledge or beacon of light. baak=beacon, no?

Here it's a bit of a stretch but you could also have :agony aunt, agony uncle. So why not "Friendly Dutch aunt/uncle."?