[Cd9JfGHR]

I have a sandan friend who stopped posting because too often he would give advice and someone (a beginner) would take offense or disagree and start an argument. It was always the same "Yeah, i'm just a beginner but that doesn't mean my opinion is worthless, I studied (fill in MA style) for (fill in number) years and I know something" or whatever.

great point. It's why I tend to shy away from some newbie threads...

I'd love if no-one here put their grade in their profile or use the lenght of time they have been practicing kendo as a benchmark.

Personally, I'm very glad that people put their rank up in here.. as neil said, nobody can prove who's on the other side of the monitor, but still...
I think it's good when, for example, a 2.kyu gets up and asks a question about seme, then somebody like Neil (5.dan) can look at the question and give an answer on seme that a 2.kyu needs or can understand. If a 2.kyu asks about seme, he's gonna get a different answer than a 2.dan who asks the same question. (at least, he should get a different answer, IMO).

short of that, if you take it away, then everybody's just gonna ask what everybody else's rank is anyway... so why not just allow it in the profile so people can do a quick check?

How many regulars here start out answering a noob's question with "I'm a .dan, so here's what I think"... Most of the time, you just get an answer.
(Granted, I do that sometimes but not in an attempt to justify my answer (I normally use it as a caveat!), but y'know, I've NEVER seen Neil -- for example -- advertise the fact that he is a m'f'n 5.dan in any of his responses.

In the greater scheme of things, I don't think anybody around here gives a damn who holds what rank... but sometimes, we need to ask questions to people who do hold a specific rank for information specific TO that rank..
and the easiest way to do that is to check a profile and maybe follow up with a PM..

just my opinion
YMMV