A few words of thought on how I think promotions should be arranged.
First, there must be made a distinction between the levels that a wiz
can reach by working hard himself, and the 'ruling' levels.

For the first category, I think the current system is adequate enough:
APPR - reach 3M xp and do sufficient quests.
NEW  - Pass a (serious) test about the rules and the basic coding principles.
WIZ  - Show that you can code well enough to open your own area.

Of course there come duties with the pleasures:
APPR - Get to know the rules and learn to behave wizardly (i.e. seriously
       watch your behaviour towards mortals).
NEW  - Learn to code well (== correctly (syntax, runtime and layout) and
       efficiently), know what things to may and may NOT code.
WIZ  - Keep your own code up to date, help other wizards to do their jobs
       right or learn them to do it right, find bugs, be fair to players
       and wizards alike, code new things very well.

This means that the majority of wizards will eventually be of WIZ level,
without any discrimination among them. I think this is good, for it will
keep the mud stable and arguments low on frequency, because there's little
cause for them. WIZ levels have enough freedom to do as they please within
the framework of the rules and common sense (in that order), I think.

Then I come to what I've called the 'ruling' levels. I choose this title
because of the responsibility that comes with the levels. These levels
can not be reached by just completing a certain tour-de-force (like coding
a guild). There will be only so many wizards of each level as is necessary
to run the mud smoothly. If the WIZ levels and lower do well and there is
enough control to keep the quality of their work high, then there will be
no need for many 'ruling' wizards. A suggestion of how it should work:

LORD - Lords have control of the wizards' part of the code that forms the
       mud. They have the right to, in conference with each other, approve
       areas and quests. They check for illegal objects and code that does
       not (any more) live up to the current standards. They may also
       settle disputes between wizards of lower levels then themselves.
ARCH - Arches are in charge of the mudlib and mudpolicy. They control the
       work of the Lords and decide on any matters Lords can not solve
       themselves for whatever reason. Arches set the rules that the mud
       has to live by, of course in conference with each other. Arches,
       being the highest councel, have to decide together on things, as
       their decisions will affect the whole of the mud.
GOD  - Highest authority. Gods have to keep the mud as a whole running.
       Any final decisions the arches make have to be approved by the god.
       The god has to confer with the arches on mudpolicy, in order to
       retain a fair level of reason along the way, but with this difference
       that a god can always say NO to a proposition (Note that this does
       not mean that if he says YES it automatically is accepted, although
       in many cases that are discussed properly it will result in that).
       Gods take care of game administration.

The key characteristics of 'ruling' wizards are:
being an excellent coder (as they have to check other people's code too),
being responsible, not only for your own work, but for the goals of the
mud as a whole too,
being fair and reasonble (talk, even _long_ talk, always goes before hard
words and arguments) in any decisions made personally or as a group.
Be on a lot. If this is not the case, get back to WIZ level, or if it is
really wanted, RETD can be maintained.
Well, I guess that basically the rules of a hierarchic democracy are
playing up here...
Decisions on how many of each level of 'ruling' wizards are needed are made by the arches
and gods. Promotions can be made by arches and god, but only after reaching
a reasonable level of consensus among them (i.e. has been talked about for
at least a week). This goes as well for promotions to any of the 'standard'
wizard levels, although this is only necessary to keep a reasonable level
of quality control down the hierarchical pyramid.
Won't this slow down decision making too much? I think not, because once a
bunch of wizards is used to checking their boards and having discussions
about what's going on, this can be done smoothly and thus fast.
These are just my ideas on how this mud could be run well, while keeping
everyone happy and keeping reasons for arguments low and decisions fast and fair.

Hmmmm... I suppose these ideas may sound a bit conservative. They work though.
It's not so much important whether the levels are made this way or that,
but get the spirit of this way of working. I think it will avoid a lot of
arguments. The idea of a group of all equal WIZards is one I like a lot.
Although I suppose quite a few people will be against it, because they're
very proud of their high position. *shrug*
