Forums General Discussion Petition To Hide POSTCOUNT

GENERAL REPLY:
I think the potential for abuse re the rating system idea is pretty high judging by the numerous squabbles seen on threads and would prolly just create more havoc. This isnt a contest. Regardless of any rating or post count, ppl know if they give helpful and accurate answers and so does everyone else. An op in a help channel doesnt have a tally of the number of ppl they help, they dont get a different level of ops. There are a lot of us here who would have to go look to see how many posts we have, there are others who monitor it answer by answer.

Of course it would be great if some ppl didnt spend their time (and waste others) posting just for the sake of increasing their post count, but ppl will be ppl. I suspect those same ppl, if there werent a visible count, would still be making useless posts just so they and others saw their name a lot. Just as there are ppl who think their implied worth is based on how many power swirlies (@) they can collect or how expensive their car is or where they buy clothes, etc. If the post count were hidden, i doubt it would be long before someone decided to count a persons posts and include the number in a reply in some way shape or form. Hiding it, leaving it to show only in profile, showing the "title" for number of posts or not... it isnt going to change a person's basic nature.

When i see posts like "looky looky, i have ___ posts now!!" or continuous nonsense posts or repeatedly inaccurate posts, I wonder if the person has any idea of the poor impression they are giving of themselves. A rating system would fast turn into some silly popularity contest or means of "getting even". I dont like anything that implies helping ppl is a contest. Help if thats where your nature lies. If you want to make a ton of crud posts to satisfy some need, expect that ppl will think less of you. Just consider the post count as a bit of trivia, interesting to some, of no import to others.

* Raccoon thinks ParaBrat should change her name to ZenMaster. (Edit: ZenBrat)

Your wisdom is reflected in your words. You have the Tao.

And you're right, it probably doesn't matter in the end. You can't change the nature of people, myself included. I'd like to think the solutions I make will make it less tempting to do annoying things, but there are almost certainly an infinite number of other annoying things that will occupy people's time.

Does this mean there are no changes that can be made for us, to make our world better... but only changes we can make for ourselves in how we perceive and react to that world?

- Raccoon

I post because I have something to say, not because I want to increase a number.

Is that part of your argument? There are a few hundreds or thousands of people who post, apart from you, and you must consider the possibility that not all of them are like you. We don't want YOU to stop posting, we want the people who post for the count's sake to stop. You almost sounded guilty there :tongue:

Anyway, to the point...

In anycase, I think hiding the post count would be stupid, it won't solve anything, pointless posts will still exist.

I disagree. Imo, most (as in >90%) of the junk posted in these forums comes from people who just want to increase their post count. Hiding the post count won't stop all post-count idiots but it'll stop a LOT of them. Having to wade through 20 junk posts (for example) instead of 100 is something I *could* care less about.

Raccoon's suggestion is the best idea I've seen in this forum so far, I'm definitely in favour, but I have some objections. I want the "Title" thing AND the rating system to die as well, even from the User Profile page. I don't want any of this visible anywhere. Imo, these features have valid uses generally, but not in these particular forums (for reasons I won't get into). I'm sorry that people who enjoy statistics would be disappointed, but you can't have everything.

That could be a scenario, yes, however I never said the only deciding factor is their post count. And how will hiding it stop such judgements? Ok so then I (and most people here who I'm sure do the same thing but won't admit it), no longer base it on the number, we base it on whether we remember seeing many posts by that name. Therefore it would be even less "fair" since someone may have posted hundreds of times, yet since I don't remember them, I don't spend the extra time to answer them.


Can you list me someone who has made a thousand feature suggestions and only one helpful reply? If it is a valid issue, it must actually happen on these forums. In fact, this situation doesn't happen. Seeing as how I read just about every post made on these forums, I have yet to notice anyone who has a post count of 1001 where 1000 of those posts appear in the feature suggestion forum.


Please read what I wrote not what you imply. I said a high post count makes me more inclined to help them in more detail. That doean't mean post count is 100% the ONLY factor I use when deciding how to answer a question. I never said anything like that. If I saw the person was a moderator or administrator of the forum that would clearly supercede their post count.


Oh and btw to those suggesting showing the "rating," have any of you ever taken a class in statistics? A mean average alone is useless. Ok so lets say I have 2 stars out of a possible 5. Is that good or bad? First opinion is it is bad, it's not even half. However if I add the fact that everyone except me has 1 star, now my 2 stars looks pretty good. Also, how many people voted? If I have 5 stars but only received one vote (which was obviously 5 stars) that clearly isn't as good of a representation as someone who has 4 stars but has 5000 votes. Statistical information is not a single number, it requires a great deal of information to actually be useful. If people are saying the post count is too little information to be useful, I don't see how a rating could be any more useful.

qwerty: It would perhaps stop some, but i really doubt it would stop many, there are just too many ppl who would continue to post for misguided reasons. Yes, its a pain wading thru a bunch of junk and/or irrelevant posts and i hate it when someone new tells me they used the search feature and found a bunch of bickering so they gave up. But i still think that when you have a public forum you have to expect to see ppl with diff motivations and degrees of common sense. Human nature being what it is, idiotic posts often engender several replies expressing annoyance, which only encourages the original poster to reply yet again.

Seems to me the titles are more for a bit of humour, ie "poohbah" and "carpaltunnel", but i agree that some ppl would take them as some kind of merit badge. As for the rating, i think its pretty much useless.

Altho every case is diff, like codemastr if i see a user has a lot of posts i am more inclined to feel i dont have to explain every little detail and can use more technical terminology. If i see a user has 1 or only a few posts, then i feel i have to explain every little thing to be on the safe side, for example explaining what MOTD is or detailing how to get to options. Considering the number of ppl who rudely reply that they arent an idiot just cause they only have 1 post and already know that stuff, that logic doesnt always work

Masked Critter: re your question, i recently read a comment by a Japanese official about misuse of cell phones that take pics and it reminded me of all forums, IRC and life in general. Essentially he said that regardless of technology, there will always be some ppl who lose their manners. So yes, while there are things/changes that can be done for us to make our world better, so too will there always be ppl who misplace manners and common sense. Its more than a bit unfair that the rest of the world has to be subjected to them, but thats life.

May I suggest that those who do not like the 'post count' just use a post-it note to stick on your screen where the count appears and then you won't be able to see it.

You know sometimes very stupid questions call for very stupid answers!

Simply wouldnt work what with scrolling etc.. unless yuo had a feature in your profile to "HIDE" personal postcount.

As to something Parabrat said, there definitely are levels to ops in channels..


+
% half op on some servers
@ AOP | SOP | Founder

Im not sure what you meant by there are no levels to ops perhaps ....

kupotec: sorry about that, i could have phrased that "diff levels of ops" better. my intent would have been clearer if i had said diff levels of aop, or diff levels of sop. as in you dont have aop1 who after posting a certain number of times to the channel, goes to aop2, etc, with the perception being one is better than another simply because they made the most number of comments in the channel.

ryker: the issue in this thread isnt whether one person likes to see the post count or not. its discussing if perhaps not allowing anyone to see them would cut down on the number of ppl who post only to increase their count and think quantity is more important than quality. one person blocking them from showing wouldnt do anything in that regard.

Well to be honest, I've only seen one person who in my mind, without any doubt, posted something to raise his post count... and that is the person who started this thread, Racoon. So I really don't see it being a problem.

While i dont agree with the premise that started this thread, in fairness i have to mention that i usually try to delete the "looky, i have ___ posts now!" type posts so everyone may not be aware of who posts them. Ditto for a fair number of posts that are so astoundingly illogical or incorrect its no wonder ppl interpret them as done only to increase count.

I dont think hiding the post count would put a stop to that, (honestly, i dont think anything will) but i can see why it would be so annoying that ppl would search for a solution.

and on that note... *me gives Parabrat a peanut butter cookie*

*chomp* thanks

As i browse the threads i kinda wonder. The one who started this threads marks thier post count every so often at the bottom of their post in yellow.. There's something fish about someone who makes not on post counts, and advertises it themself

I don't even know why post count makes such a hot topic here. I am a member on one called Whirlpool which has about 30,000 members and everyone there is too busy debating which ISP is better. Postcount never rates a mention.

Ah, I started that a while ago as a personal reference when I noticed that many of my posts started disappearing as threads were getting deleted... and it was messing with my head. The numbers help me keep track of how many posts of mine disappeared since the last time I checked. Honest. (I click on my View All Posts, and change the PostsPerPage to 99 (displays 100), then check how many posts appear beyond the tagged post.)

Why how many posts have disappeared is of any concern to me? I dunno. It's just nice to know that I'm not going crazy when I thought I said something and can no longer find it. This is part of the reason for my suggestion about starting a Manure Pile forum, so deleted off-topic thoughts don't abruptly disconnect sockets from my brain, leaving me disoriented and confused.

- Raccoon

I smell a rodent of some sort here. Have any of you ever read neil gaiman's american gods? If you have I think a simialr scam is going on here...

Racoon is just starting up this thread appearing to do one thing, yet quitely upping his post count at the same time. AH HAH! *uncovers the fiendish plot*

heheh

"Get rid of it" I say. I'll never catch up to watchdog. Hide my shame!

or codemastr

Nice icon. How did you set it? Here, the icon isn't a selection at the posting page.

Deletions are usually done to clean things up so ppl using the search feature arent discouraged and/or the posts/threads are a monumental waste of space. Times when i prolly wont send a pm that a post of someone's has been deleted:

When i delete an old thread cause its been repeated a bazillion times since with nothing new added (like: how do i register a nick, dcc pending)

When i delete 14 nonsense posts from a thread saying
ksjghwerio or or absurd bickering (recent example: 16 posts arguing whether fish is a meat or not) or extremely unpleasant, disgusting or incorrect

When someone is spamming or asking for a specific movie,crack, intending to only be annoying etc and i send them a pm about it instead of posting a reply, other replies telling the person not to do whatever they did go with it

When someone makes a post that HAS to be edited for content or completely deleted and the next 10 ppl feel the need to include a quote of that content in their reply telling the person they are a twit.

Offtopic: well, kinda depends. Are they a progression of thought from the original post or are they a ton of "gee im bored" "so am i" "why do bananas grow on trees" "you're stupid" "no, you are"

I see no need for a "manure pile". If they werent worth reading once, why keep them? Besides, they would just be flame fuel.

I agree. I noticed that some guys abuse from it. Some are here for more than one year, they coment almost all posts and have only about 500 post, while some others are here for 3 months and have about 1500. Something is not right...
but i am just thinking...