Two problems with this approach:
- It’s not easily visible. I want to look at a thread and quickly see who’s who without clicking on the user’s name.
It also took me sometime to realize that you can actually click on the username. I bet most users don’t bother clicking unless they need to contact the user for something.
- User levels (i.e., Member) as a metric are too coarse. I have users that are in Level 0, 1 and 2. Most of the active users are at Level 2. It doesn’t tell me anything when most of the active threads are being discussed by Level 2 people.
I think displaying something right next to the user’s avatar is the ideal solution. When I browse other forums, the user’s reputation/# of posts/custom label is the first thing that catches my eye when I try to figure out who the user is.