I feel like it's disingenuous of us to pull the separate but equal thing here on the comments. The party line right now is that tier 2 is just as good, really! They just don't show up unless someone goes out of their way to view the comments -- unless some nice person in tier 1 decides that they're funny or interesting enough to merit showing up. You can't make a group dependent on another group for something without inherently giving the second group power over the first one. I'll say it, the tiers are not the same. I like tier 1 more. I hope I can stay in tier 1, but it kills me that for there to be a tier 1 there has to also be a tier 2. Even if it's just a perception of prestige, that's still something setting us apart as a group.

Nerdily enough, I was crushed yesterday when I realized what was going on. I was actually sad and upset. I got "promoted" this afternoon and I was really happy. I don't think it's good or right that other people have to feel that way and that we're minimizing what they're feeling. I know that the editors here can't do anything about it, and I know that at this point it's here to stay because the developers have obviously put a lot of time into it already and they won't be getting rid of it any time soon. And I know that the editors here can't say what I'm saying, because it's their jobs on the line and not just their stars. But I think that there needs to be acknowledgment at least from the commenters that tier 2 is feeling disenfranchised right now and that they have a good reason to. Those feelings are valid and tier 1 going, "oh I think this is great! Really, you're just as important!" isn't helping. They have a right to be pissed, let's be pissed for them. Minimizing won't do anything but secure an "us against them" mentality in the comments and it could fracture the community.

Like I said, I don't expect the editors to agree with me publicly or to even be able to fix this. I just hope that the other commenters understand that a large portion of our group feel as though their thoughts and opinions are no longer important. We should at least listen to them.