Oh, surprise - after a brief stay at apprentice I've drifted back down to observer. Guess this means the ratings are dynamically recalculated, rather than fixed. I was going to post something about the DarkeWolf article - guess I'll have to do it here.
As someone on the observer/apprentice borderline, I actually found the article helpful. I've realised there's no point in announcing 'here's my pet project idea - come and help me write it' - you need at least some working code before going public. What I hadn't thought of was how to handle the transition between the one-person development stage and the open development stage. The idea of developing the program 'as if' multiple users with separate accounts for each role may be blindingly obvious to the experienced, but it hadn't occurred to me. Thanks, DarkeWolf.