Although I'm still undecided on the matter, I'd like to chime in with my thoughts about the current state of the Hylian Knight rank.
Now I probably shouldn't reveal this, but I was browsing the trash subforum and happened to stumble upon an HK nomination thread that had been moved to that section. It was one of the newer threads under the system that was used to promote Heroine and JC. Before reading any further, I decided to search for an old nomination thread from when nominations were monthly. The difference between quality of threads was extremely extensive to say the least.
Under the old nomination system, a thread would be created halfway through the month where HKs simply suggested some names of people who looked like potential HK candidates with a sentence of elaboration. Then, in a usually separate thread, voting would occur with members listing the proposed nominees as "yes" or 'no" votes with no reasoning at all.
In comparison, the nomination threads starting from last year are a lot more detailed and discussion promoting. Since every user has a thread dedicated to themselves, HKs go in depth about a potential candidate's quality of posts, attitude, and willingness to contribute to the forums, while also noting any reservations they may have, whether it be a past lapse in behavior or dedication. Most of the knights post 2-3 paragraphs per nomination thread they choose to participate in.
With an apparent drive to increase discussion in the subforum and from what I have heard Thareous, Vee, Fig, and several others state about the efficiency of the newest voting system implemented, I'm somewhat inclined to give the Hylian Knight rank the benefit of the doubt.
That said, the members who are opposed to keep the rank on the basis of its inefficiency (not what it stands for), are rightfully so as no progress has been made in the past year. Yes, promises are good and all; however, members want to see this talk translate into action.
As I don't have action to the Hylian Knights' section, I'll have to take JC's word for the following statement, and I'm very inclined to since others have voiced similar sentiments in the past; aside from promotion, another glaring issue with the HK rank is the lack of demotions for people who clearly lack interest in being active forum role models. Where has Majora's Cat been for the longest time? I'll admit that anyone who knows my activity on the Wiki has the right to call me a hypocrite in this regard, as I have been slacking for a scribe in 2014, yet I have never vanished from the face of the site completely; rather, I've chosen to prioritize one of my responsibilities over the other.
I still could understand keeping the rank if someone was contributing to other facets of the site. For example, there was a time period in which Hanyou was not the most active forum poster, but whenever he did log on, he made an effort to make exceptionally high quality posts, and he regularly contributed to the main site by posting articles on a rotating basis with Axle, Djinn, and Garo.
I don't have an inherent problem with the HK rank as its members do not flaunt their rank as some symbol of superiority, but its inner workings need to be more clearly defined to include rules for getting people in and out of the rank. And I guarantee, that if the rank is eliminated, which does not seem to be the case as this thread is going, there will be compensation for affected members. I'm in agreement with Wolf Sage that members such as MW7 and misskiten who have no ranks to "fall back on" so to speak should not go unacknowledged for making high quality posts over an extended period of time. I've considered revamping the Golden Fro and there will be more awards to follow in the near future including Locke's idea to honor those who have left a lasting imprint on the forums.
