If it has, I'm sure it's failed miserably. Don't get me wrong, it's a very interesting notion, and possibly quite productive overall, but it would be really annoying to quick learners or ingrafts from other UNIX backgrounds. Or just people like me, who don't really do any kernel hacking, but would want the ability to drop in on the really interesting threads at that level. (Actually, I doubt any real kernel discussion takes place or is expected on Ubuntu forums, but the same attitude applies to other levels.)

And that sort of authoritarian slotting of people into classes rubs a huge number of people the wrong way, especially those actually involved in OSS; it might drastically prune the upper tiers, just from aversion to the concept, even though they would have been grandfathered in at an unrestricted level. On the other hand, one should never underestimate the power of the mind to rationalize authoritarianism for the sake of slotting ignorant, annoying, helpless imbeciles into their appropriate classes.