Why was a martial arts belt system chosen to reflect the rankings of Mahalo users?

Probably because the founder of Mahalo, Jason Calacanis, is a martial arts enthusiast, and apparently a fifth degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do. crunchbase.com/person/jason-calacanis It's not a bad terminology as "black belt" is a widely used expression, and generally understood to mean highly skilled. Unlike some other terms you could use like "levels", it has an implication of something you achieve through dedication, practice and work.

However in the martial arts world itself, black belt doesn't mean quite the same as in the popular imagination. It means more "proficient" rather than "the very best" If you had belts for driving a black belt would mean that you are good to go driving on all roads in most conditions rather than that you're a race car champion. If you really want to know what a Tae Kwon Do black belt can do, check out this.... lower down it also explains the meanings of the other belts... itf-administration.com/articles.asp?artu....

I don't know what the official Mahalo explanation is, but here's my theory. One of the features of Mahalo is its transparency in advancement. So, it is essentially a type of URL1 martial arts, advancement is directly related to demonstrating acquired skills.

Students are tested and have to display a certain level of competence before advancing. At Mahalo, it's part competence and part participation.As we answer questions and complete tasks, we learn more about the Mahalo system as we participate in the process. We display our competence on a daily basis.

So, rather than being tested when we reach a certain level, the body of work that we have built up behind us acts as a display of our competence. The large jumps in required points as we work our way up the ladder means we have to work harder and learn more to achieve each new belt. Just my M$0.02.

My theory is that someone at Mahalo thinks it is cool. I think it is the same phenomina that led Six Sigma to use martial arts belts for management "efficiency" levels (which gave Dilbert lots of material and accomplishes little else). In my opinion the analogy is completely inappropriate and should be jettisoned at once.

A rainbow of non-martial colors would be a great improvement, as would changing to say, ribbons, instead of belts. Or maybe socks.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.