In a nutshell: ditch post count entirely

Chaos Angel · Post by **Chaos Angel** » Sun Oct 20, 2002 12:06 am

Here is my suggestion for improving the site. I feel that this would be a great thing to do to help make the site that much more enjoyable.

Completely ditch the Post Count. Throw it away entirely.

For one thing, it serves no purpose as a catalogue of posts made by each user now that old threads are being pruned. Second, it has been used for far too long as a means of rank and discrimination and we would be better off without it, anyway. Does it even matter how many posts someone has made? Post count means nothing as a way of measuring the validity of an argument or opinion. Since it serves no real purpose, and has a tendency to promote prejudice and discrimination, I propose that it be removed entirely.

My thoughts on that, anyway.

Bahamut God · Post by **Bahamut God** » Sun Oct 20, 2002 3:51 am

I know this sounds werid, but I was a memeber of a forum that did very well for it's self. The people were there every day, sometime for hours at night. It was more like an insnstant message place than a forum. It was wacky and fun, and did have post counts. We would have little birthday partys for people every 100 posts, or something like that. It was the most close nit place I have ever found on the internet. I have made freinds there that I now in person, and online freinds I have kept for over 3 years. (which is forver in internet time, as you most likely know)

I think the member who posted the most had over 20,000(!) in less than a year and a half. I had close to 10,000, and many had well over 1,000. Because we just met because we did, there was no ego, and it was the most fun I have ever had on the internet. However, we were competive about our post counts. In a nice way, if that's posable. We had three monters, and I think they may have had to act on like 10 things over the years.

However, one day we got so big the that owner could no longer suport the site. We moved, and when we did, we got rid of the post counts. Slowly, people started leaveing. With out some way to mark there progress, they just started to go away. Of course, a lot more of this had to do with the loss of free hosting. (we were hosting a of ranma rm files for a while)

I still think it was loss of post counts that did it the most though. We held in for a long time after the free hosting stoped, and it was a very sudden deline after the post counts stoped. Now the forum is a empty husk, with maybe 10 of the last remaining die hard memembers left. Even the 20,000 member was gone.

That's a long story I know. I don't even think that will happen with th is forum, because the draw from amvs, but it still makes forums more fun.

And just because I have 15 post counts, does not mean I'm play favriotes to those that have higher post counts, or be afaid of them. I think we can give more credit to people than that. ...maybe

I understand what your saying though, I've just seen it go bad before.

Chaos Angel · Post by **Chaos Angel** » Sun Oct 20, 2002 10:30 am

Yes, well, we've had cases where people will shoot down someone's opinion or tell them they don't matter, based entirely on their post count. We have had some of what you are describing, with the friendly competition and good-natured fun, but we have also had lots of negativity that has caused me to feel that we would be better off without it.

I agree with what you said, though, I don't think too many people would leave this forum if post count was removed. If I thought removing post count would kill this forum, I would never have suggested it. It simply isn't important at this site. Or, to be more accurate, it isn't an important part of this site in my own opinion.

AbsoluteDestiny · Post by **AbsoluteDestiny** » Sun Oct 20, 2002 10:47 am

The only problem is that everything that happens on this forum is dependant on the forum software and post count is very very intergrated into the software.

It is possible, on the other hand, to enable a system where the post count does not increase. There is a modification for that which can be applied easily, (according to the phpbb website)

It doesnt really matter anymore though. - there wont be any more post count wars because they are OT and the OT forums have pruning.

Kusoyaro · Post by **Kusoyaro** » Sun Oct 20, 2002 11:10 am

Another problem is that I've often noticed some punk(s) creating fake accounts trying to imitate other people...the only way I was able to notice was that their post count was absurdly low. I notified Phade, and he or the mods canned them.

Chaos Angel · Post by **Chaos Angel** » Sun Oct 20, 2002 12:00 pm

Kusoyaro wrote:Another problem is that I've often noticed some punk(s) creating fake accounts trying to imitate other people...the only way I was able to notice was that their post count was absurdly low. I notified Phade, and he or the mods canned them.

...Ick. Lets hope THAT doesn't pop up anymore. ::fingers crossed::

AbsoluteDestiny wrote:It doesnt really matter anymore though. - there wont be any more post count wars because they are OT and the OT forums have pruning.

Hmmm. Good point. After all, you don't get more unproductive than a Post Count war.

Bahamut God · Post by **Bahamut God** » Sun Oct 20, 2002 3:17 pm

Kusayaro: ------------------------------------------------------------------------Another problem is that I've often noticed some punk(s) creating fake accounts trying to imitate other people...the only way I was able to notice was that their post count was absurdly low. I notified Phade, and he or the mods canned them.

Hehe, we had that in my forum too. We also had people sign up for a new account, and got for a few days acting like they were new, untill someone figgured out it was them because they used the same style of speaking, or if a memeber was gone for too long. We used to call them Clones, and it was a lot of fun. >_< I miss those days.

Oh well, at this point i'm just spreading good thoghts of the "good old days" so I'll be quite. I still like post counts though. ^_^

Oh, I don't think it imposable, but it's not easy. We use err ikonboard, and it was really hard to get the post counts out. I'm not sure how they did it, but I think they took out the code for it or something. >_<

Zarxrax · Post by **Zarxrax** » Sun Oct 20, 2002 7:58 pm

Kusoyaro - Why wouldn't you be able to tell that they are a different person? I mean 2 people cant have the same name can they?

I agree the post count is pretty pointless. I think it should be removed from peoples posts if possible, yet remain on their profile or something.

Kusoyaro · Post by **Kusoyaro** » Sun Oct 20, 2002 9:20 pm

Zarxrax wrote:Kusoyaro - Why wouldn't you be able to tell that they are a different person? I mean 2 people cant have the same name can they

They found a loophole, apparently. I hear it's since been corrected...but still, I do think post count is somewhat significant, when it's not being abused by spammers who mistake it as status. I watched some AMV vets that I respect very much get completely blown off because of their low post counts, and i see a lot of idiots receiving respect because they've managed to spam beyond all possible reason.

Angel_Killer_777 · Post by **Angel_Killer_777** » Sun Oct 20, 2002 10:40 pm

Go ahead and lose the post count. It doesn't matter, and then maybe certain people will stop bitching about it all the time, you know who you are.