Are there plans to incorporate 'custom rankings' in the new forum module?  For example, assume we have a forum created to discuss, say, baseball.  It would be nice to have a custom ranking feature that allows you to upload a graphic for 1st rank, 2nd, rank, ...5th rank (little basbeballs, for example) and have a custom rank naming scheme (rookie, pinch hitter, slugger, et al) and the ability to set advancement based on any number of posts (100< =1st rank, 200 <=2nd, etc).

Very nice! I look forward to the much-welcomed additions!

One more?  :) Is it possible, or would the team consider making it possible in a future release, to add a generic post, per se, automatically to any new thread created by a forum member?  For example, after I created this thread and my post was published, the module would add a post (or a box that has the look and feel of a post, just not attributable to any user account) that includes some predetermined html?

I frequent a forum that currently does something similar, though done with phpBB, and thought this would be a nice touch for my forums.  I am not sure my description lends itself to a visual, so here's an example of what I am talking about:

http://www.fatwallet.com/t/18/740721/     Take a look at the 2nd post.

Chuck (owns the site) has added some Google ads in there, some affiliate links, and now the ability to edit that post (save the ads and affiliate links) and add relevant information related to the respective deal...simply the ability to add a generic, predetermined post immediately following the first post would be godsend for many forums  :)

I am not saying this will never be included, but it is far down on the roadmap as I see it. I seriously doubt this is something that can be achieved with only a few lines of code and would require some changes in the data schema.