Miltary and Diplomatic Ranks are not and never have been titles.
Titles are Honerfics given for use in the Armed Forces and Diplomatic Corp with ranks. So you cannot be Admiral Captain Jones-Smythe but you can have Admiral Sir Jones Smythe. You would be Ambassador Lord So & So

Titles in STO could be such tihngs as Veteran of Starbase 24. Defender of Uranus. and such given to signify bravery above and beyond the call of duty. Something actually worthy of recieveing. Something you would be proud to have.

"title" in this case, refers to "the text that you want to appear over your character's head"

In my case, (for the moment) it is:

Career Officer
Lambert

It is also important to remember (as Cryptic has) that "not everyone" wants to rank beyond "Captain". In fact many of us work tirelessly for years in some back room at our local copy centers year after year just so some Star Trek fan club someplace can call us "Commander" or whatever... and many of us will place a great deal of pride in being called "Lieutenant" regardless of whichever rank the game places us.

The ranks in STO are simply "levels of achievement within the game".. think of them as numbers if you prefer.. the names are only there to be "cute and startrekkish"

Making the titles (ranks) optional is a great idea, and allows roleplayers to continue to play "Captain Quarnof" or "Ensign Expendable" long after the game has ranked them to Rear Admiral... the only downside being that you must unlock the rank titles by achieving that level in the game first. Meanwhile, there are still plenty of other titles available, including "Crash Test Tribble" (for load-testing the beta server last weekend), "Ambassador" (something about being an ancient forum member I think?), "Career Officer" (buying a lifetime subscription to the game) and others. I'm sure more honorific titles will be winnable as time goes on.

Try not to take things so seriously.

But it's stupid to have the ranks and titles the same do you want to be addressed as Admiral Captain. or Would you rather be addressed as Admiral Defender of Starbase 24. and that is the same whatever rank you are.
I have no problem with it being optional the problem is the titles are not logical. It's looks like Cryptic were just to lazy to do a little bit of Creative thinking.

They don't address me by my title.

ever.

My rank is "LtCmdr" my "title" is "Career Officer" my short name is "Lambert".. every time "they" talk to me, it's "Lieutenant Commander Lambert" (or occassionally just "Captain" where the dialog doesn't seem to be referring to my rank, more to my position as ship's commanding officer.. we are all "Starship Captains" regardless of rank)

Did you fill out your character's info with something weird like "Captain" as your short name?

I fail to see anything idiotic or lacking sense in this explanation.

Actually they are not are far as this game goes....my title is captain of the the Tirpitz. My rank is Commander. I fail to see any logic in your argument.

Because as has been stated Captain is not a title neither is Admiral, Ensign or Ambassador they are ranks. I can only assume the confusion over this is because most of you are non-native Americans or come from other countries which have never had a Monarchy and Titles.

This statement is confusion in of itself. Are you saying only Native Americans had a monarchy and titles? Ensign, Lt., Lt. Commander, Commander, Captain, and Rear Admiral are used as titles because certain players wish to be recognized by a certain rank and not the current rank their level deems them to be.