Ed Poor wrote in part:
I don't understand your "functionality" vs. "authority" distinction.
I maintain that Wikipedia has *de facto* five levels of AUTHORITY.
There are five levels of POWER in our community.
I don't know exactly what "functionality" is supposed to mean, but there is definitely a difference between power and authority. You alluded to it in your description of the developer level, although not with exactly those terms.
Power is purely factual; it's what you can do if you decide to. Authority is normative; it's what you're authorised to do. Power without authority, if acted upon, is abuse of power. Authority without power cannot be acted upon, but should be; to rectify this, authority must be backed up with power.
"functionality", AFAICT, could mean either of these, or something else entirely.
-- Toby