Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24133975-20141230033116/@comment-6218837-20150102062904

As Forze said, having a highlighted username, as previously indicated, isn't really anything to especially want rights for, and I find it a very trivial little thing - as well as having confidence in our users to tell who actually wants to help the wiki.

At the risk of sounding metaphorical, I see a colored name like a police badge: this user is staff, they can help with your problems, and they enforce the wiki's rules. Also like officers (I am wincingly aware of the current state of some communities' police forces) they can be trusted by the community.

In short, I find colored names a helpful little indicator that doesn't really promote a rights-for-aesthetics or ranks-not-rights mentality.