ok. This might be very confusing and I apologise if it is, and i also have no idea if it is possible.
In short: make it so that only the commisioned ranks (Knight and above) can be contributors/Elite members, BUT, make it so that rep counts towards gaining the ranks as well, so, for example, a person with 300 posts and 4 rep would not be such a high rank as someone with 200 posts and 80 rep.
Then, you could get rid of the contributor thing and still display it as the rank, but everyone would know that they are a contributor as they are a contributor rank.
Does that make any sense at all? sorry if it doesn't, or if it isn't possible
Well, something did come out of that... I confused myself