To answer the original question of how one attains a higher rank, there's no exact list of requirements we check off. It's more or less a subjective process where one of the moderators or admins suggests someone for a promotion, based on their helpfulness, contribution to the community, time in community etc. and several other mods/admins toss in their two cents on the suggested people.
So there's no submission quota you have to hit, or number of nice forum posts you have to make. Promotions are rewards for people who overall make the community a better place with their presence. The process isn't perfect so sometimes we miss people, but in the long run we seem to be doing pretty good.