An interesting proposition

action9000 · **Reply #40 on:** June 17, 2009, 03:28:39 AM

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Really, it makes up for far more than 10% of the boards total posts (and I just mentioned three of the extremest threads in that respect).

If 10 or 15% of our whole board tends to be one-word-response games, whether we hide the numbers or not it will still be true. I see what you're getting at, Malte. In the end, we know and can find out who is making posts in which sections of the board. Everyone can easily find out where a lot of the posts a member makes are, just by spending a little time on the GoF. Why is there a need to artificially bias our post count numbers when, let's be honest, if word association is important enough to our members to have 11600 posts in it, I don't think that's anything to ignore either.

I think this comes down to another question too:
What exactly does post count *mean* to us? I am getting the impression that you would prefer it to be a representation of the number of 'meaningful' posts a member as made that has helped develop and progress our community, and that you don't believe the existance of such one-word games is doing anything beneficial for our community and therefore ought to be all but ignored in this "post count", as defined easlier in this paragraph.

I sincerely apologize if that sounded harsh in any way, mate.

And having post count reflect the number of meaningful posts a member has made is very logical. That being said, if my post in a game helps to allow someone else to have fun in their game, is that not beneficial? I don't spend much time on the one-word games myself, but if we refuse to acknowledge a part of our board that has, indeed, found a way to grab over 10% of our total posts, which obviously says something about our community and how we just like to come here and spend a little time having random fun, than in my mind it is a step towards turning our GoF into an elitist community. Again, sincere apologies for any extremist wording, that is just a representation of where this is leading, in my eyes.

Petrie. · **Reply #41 on:** June 17, 2009, 06:25:10 AM

Admin decisions will be reached by tonight likely. Stay tuned.

Shinji-Lee · **Reply #42 on:** June 19, 2009, 02:40:32 AM

uhm...i wish i had your problems...
action is right about asking how important the counts are.
i know about a forum, where posters with less than 100 posts are ignored, laughed at and flamed. the name of that forum is NOT the gang of five.
i say postcounts is a number, which does not say: i have made many posts so i'm a better member/ i'm cooler/ whatever.

i seem to not understand the problem. hide the counts, take them out of the system or leave everything like it is. 'im positive either way.

Petrie. · **Reply #43 on:** June 19, 2009, 07:01:51 AM

The admins have reached a decision and this idea will go on for a trial period of 30 days and then we can reassess whether or not it was worth it. The Party Room will have an additional sub-forum where any remaining "no post-count" games wiill go. Therefore, when you enter the party room all you will see are subforums, and then you pick a sub-forum and choose where you go.

The Chronicler · **Reply #44 on:** June 19, 2009, 09:54:56 AM

A 30-day trial seems like a good idea. It will give everyone an idea of what such a change will mean for them, without having to worry about the change being permanent.

One thing I wanted to point out, I did some calculations on the number of posts in the 'no post-count' sub-forum. As of now, there are only 4 topics there, but the total posts already there consists of nearly 12% of the total number of posts on the entire forum! The largest of those topics, word association, has nearly 6% of the total posts for the entire forum! For one topic, that's a very big number!

Malte279 · **Reply #45 on:** June 19, 2009, 11:44:46 AM

Aye, but for so large a thread also a very small number of words

landbeforetimelover · **Reply #46 on:** June 19, 2009, 11:52:34 AM

Great! Now that the posts don't count in the "Word Association" and "Word Connection" threads, I can post there without feeling guilty. Ya see, the thing is I want my post count to be truly based on posts that have meaning. Though fun, I've been sticking away from those two topics because of this. Now I can start posting there again.

Petrie. · **Reply #47 on:** June 19, 2009, 04:48:58 PM

Quote from: landbeforetimelover,Jun 19 2009 on 10:52 AM

Great! Now that the posts don't count in the "Word Association" and "Word Connection" threads, I can post there without feeling guilty. Ya see, the thing is I want my post count to be truly based on posts that have meaning. Though fun, I've been sticking away from those two topics because of this. Now I can start posting there again.

I wonder how many people feel that way besides you.

landbeforetimelover · **Reply #48 on:** June 19, 2009, 04:55:37 PM

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I wonder how many people feel that way besides you.

Probably not many. I'm a lot more sentimental than most folks and my post count means a lot to me. But it's certainly not the number that matters. It's the quality posts that I'm proud of. I don't usually make responses that are any shorter than the response you're reading right now.

lbt/cty_lover · **Reply #49 on:** July 17, 2009, 10:16:04 PM

Well, even though you might feel that way LBTLover, and I do as well, the topics have pretty much died.

I'm not going to go as far as asking for these topics to count towards posts again, but I am saying that ever since they were moved to a new sub-forum, they have lost almost all the posters there.

DarkHououmon · **Reply #50 on:** July 17, 2009, 10:22:59 PM

I'm not really surprised that happened. It doesn't matter what kind of topic it is. Take away the post count and it seems likely activity would decrease as well. Doesn't matter if it's a one-word type of topic or one that requires more thought. No post counts, less activity. That's just my opinion of course.

lbt/cty_lover · **Reply #51 on:** July 17, 2009, 10:24:46 PM

Quote from: DarkHououmon,Jul 17 2009 on 09:22 PM

I'm not really surprised that happened. It doesn't matter what kind of topic it is. Take away the post count and it seems likely activity would decrease as well. Doesn't matter if it's a one-word type of topic or one that requires more thought. No post counts, less activity. That's just my opinion of course.

Then that is just sad. I'm not calling you sad, but that concept is depressing. It makes me think that people only care about his/her postcount, which isn't what a board is about.

DarkHououmon · **Reply #52 on:** July 17, 2009, 10:31:31 PM

That was just my opinion on how I think things would go if post counts were taken away. I don't think everyone would reduce their activity because post counts were taken away, though.

Personally, I would feel less compelled to post if my post count remained the same. I like to know how many times I posted on a board. It's just my preference. Do I care only about post counts? No. I know that's not what a board is about. However, I still like to know how many posts I made. This includes the short, one-word posts.

Malte279 · **Reply #53 on:** July 18, 2009, 02:54:38 AM

In a sense the last days were kind of a test about whether those games were mere post count boosters or if people really played them for the fun of the games. The extreme degree in activity in those games suggests that indeed they were mainly post count boosters. Therefore they are going to stay in the not counted section permanently.

lbt/cty_lover · **Reply #54 on:** July 18, 2009, 08:49:15 AM

Well, even though the activity will stay down, I can't say I don't approve of the decision. I shall keep trying to keep the activity up in the sub-forum.

DarkHououmon · **Reply #55 on:** July 18, 2009, 08:58:51 AM

I admit, I've never been part of a board where post counts were restricted. It feels strange to me.

When I make a post, I don't do it to increase my post count; just to participate. But as stated before, I still like an accurate number on how much I particpated, including one-word posts. If you were to take away post counts for another section, you'd see less activity from me for that section because the post counts would no longer be accurate.

Kor · **Reply #56 on:** July 18, 2009, 10:22:03 AM

I don't care about post counts myself. On dragonadopters 99% of my posts are in threads that do not add to your post counts. It just happens here most of mine are in threads that add to your post count.

lbt/cty_lover · **Reply #57 on:** July 18, 2009, 11:41:18 AM

Same here, Kor. On the DA forum, I post a lot in the Clubs/Clans forum and the Forum Games forum.

Petrie. · **Reply #58 on:** July 18, 2009, 04:27:33 PM

Just to pinpoint it, its unanimous among the admins to keep the threads where they are. You still can post in the threads as freely as before.