There was some very interesting discussion about status here previously:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=937541

I particularly liked nazgulnarsil's post which linked to:

http://greenlightwiki.com/improv/Status

which was subsequently posted

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1042624

and also referenced in the article

(would be nice if HN had some way to link ongoing discussion on subjects - I'm not a huge fan of tags but it could apply here)

Previous entries in this excellent series were discussed at:

http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-o... — http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=881296

http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/11/11/the-gervais-principle-i... — http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=937541

http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2010/04/14/the-gervais-principle-i... — http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1267202

http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2010/10/14/the-gervais-principle-i... — http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1790749