Also some people confuse being well known with being popular, which is not the same thing at all. I was actually recently very surprised when I went to a site that was mentioned here on a thread about how somebody here is being bullied and harassed or something by folks on one of those sites where they talk s**t about us and saw that I was mentioned. I had no clue that folks other than the group here knew who I was. However, they didnt say anything bad about me, surprisingly. They just said that I was there in some thread and giving out good advice, and they said "as usual" which made me feel nice. That doesn't mean I'm popular though, but it just means I've typed enough s**t online that people recognize my user name and that some folks noticed that I'm better at solving other people's problems than I am at solving my own.
And I've seen, many times, people who claim to hate the idea of popularity or seeking social status are usually the first ones to bring up the notion that some kind of social ranking is afoot and that they aren't in the top ten or whatever. I've yet to see someone complain that they feel that popularity and social status is stupid and that they dislike the fact that they are popular or that people seem to like them more than they like others. I think the complaints about it usually boil down to some version of "Nobody likes me. It's not fair."
A majority of people don't like me. That's very fair, and they have every right to not like me. I don't care about it most of the time, but occasionally it bothers me when some people dislike me, or when some people dislike me for idiotic reasons when there are plenty of valid reasons to dislike me. People who say they don't care at all, ever, about people not liking them are most likely not being truthful and want to come across looking like some kind of Clint Eastwood of emotions, but it's just human nature to want to be liked somewhat, or respected or somehow or other sought after.
There are lots of threads with this kind of point at the root of them. Insecurity is a huge deal here on WP and like I said, it's why we can't have a like button or a reputation system like lots of other forums have. It would cause too many hurt feelings, fights, whinefests, people leaving, and even mental breakdowns in some cases. Sad, but true. I've asked for one for a while now, several times, as have others, and even asking for one can cause some folks to spin out into a tizzy over the idea of it, which you can probably find in the site suggestions thread if it goes back far enough on there. Some folks have an out and out horror of even contemplating the idea.
But no, there is no popularity contest here and people can always, ALWAYS, set up one in their minds and rank themselves wherever they want to on any given day depending on whether they are feeling good or bad.
Not for nothing.
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I'm giving it another shot. We will see.
My forum is still there and everyone is welcome to come join as well. There is a private women only subforum there if anyone is interested. Also, there is no CAPTCHA.

The link to the forum is
http://www.rightplanet.proboards.com