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Should Postcounts be hidden?

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TheEllipticalDisillusion
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Posted: Tue 10 May , 2005 4:38 pm
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Here I doubt (and hope) we'll have that problem, but one thing that we can do to avoid it (if post counts stay visible) is keep it so we don't get little shields and swords and horses and rings for however many posts we have. That might make people actually think that post counts matter. Here our titles are our own and not contingent on how many posts you make.

There is always going to be a seniority in the member ranks. That is inevitable, but I don't think it is necessarily bad. Seniority is going to come about regardless because people will either post topics saying "hi, I'm new" or it will be apparent who knows who and who doesn't know anyone. Seniority could work in our favor because those who have been members can and I'm sure would, help those who are new to the site. In the Counter-Strike server I play on (called Newbie Roundup) we have plenty of newbs come on and ask for help and almost always a regular will do what he or she can to help the newb.

Those are my thoughts on the matter. If post counts and join dates are voted to be hidden so be it...

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Eruname
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Posted: Tue 10 May , 2005 4:45 pm
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Din, we don't have any spammers at this board. I'm being quite serious. :) So we're pretty lucky right now. :)

TED, I agree...no icons and no member ranks.

I like the idea of post counts only being visible in the member's profile, but of course that's something we won't have control over until we move to the new place as control over this board is too limited.

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Pippin4242
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Posted: Wed 11 May , 2005 10:32 pm
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Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 7:14 pm Post subject:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm against hiding postcounts (cries of booooo, spammer' ensue). For me they provide an incentive to post- and by that I mean getting involved properly, not just spamming. They show you how much imput somebody has had in a web community. You could have joined on day one, not post for a year and in your first post n00bs would assume you knew all about the place.

No. It just makes me really uncomfortable.

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Anthriel
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Posted: Fri 13 May , 2005 3:19 am
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Alatar has a low post count? :scratch

Personally, I didn't notice. :oops:

I rarely do! I always feel a bit bad about the people who start their own postcount celebration thread, and include a comment about how they felt their accomplishment was overlooked. :(

I would definitely start a congrats thread for someone, because I think that many people really enjoy such threads, but I just don't NOTICE! And then feel bad that I didn't...

Perhaps this is a bit of a non-issue? Or are most participants here more observant than I am?


P.S. Alatar, I always enjoy reading your posts. No matter how many there are!


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Alatar
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Posted: Fri 13 May , 2005 8:28 am
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Thanks Anth. As I've said before, people should be judged on how they post and what they post, not how often they post.

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Axordil
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Posted: Fri 13 May , 2005 2:11 pm
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I am pretty much indifferent, but think showing we should show either nothing, or both count and date of join. We value both our most senior and our most proific posters here.

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Alatar
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Posted: Fri 13 May , 2005 2:41 pm
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Why?

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Rodia
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Posted: Fri 13 May , 2005 3:47 pm
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We should show both dates and postcounts. It should not be the one criterium to judge people with, but it's a good guideline. On TORC sometimes I'd meet someone who I didn't know- and I'd look at the joined date and post count and get a vague (VAGUE) idea of how much they participated, or at least of how much they might have known about the website and the people on it based on how long ago they joined. It was helpful in interpretating certain posts.

I don't think anyone uses these numbers to work out another poster's worth, really. They're just useful when you're not sure exactly where someone came from.

Plus, remember when on TORC some people got usurpers making their names similar, using lowercase 'l' instead of uppercase 'I' ? A glance at the joined date and post count was what told their game away. And these people were usually rude trolls.
This wouldn't be possible here right now anyway since all members must be approved by the admin first, but it's just an example of how the date and count can help identify posters you don't know that well.

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TheEllipticalDisillusion
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Posted: Fri 13 May , 2005 4:26 pm
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Post count and join date obviously are helpful to some posters in determining familiarity with the board and as we've established should never be any type of criteria for determining a poster's worth, but people probably have and do use it as such and maybe that is what Alatar wants to avoid? If that is the case I'd say Ax is right with either all or none.

I've personally never looked at post count or join date other than when I'm curious how long a poster has been a member (like on TORC). Sometimes I'm curious to know insignificant minutia about a poster. Though in Manwe it is easy to tell who are the new people to the forum (not necessarily the board since we did get a big influx from movies at one point). Since it had such a reputation a lot of people kept out (or didn't post) and the same names would come up again and again.

I say at some point people either put it to a vote or whatnot and then either post count is done away with or it isn't. It's cool either way.

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Rowanberry
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Posted: Sat 14 May , 2005 9:28 pm
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As examples, I just want to present the practice on the other boards I mostly hang on (except TORC, which is familiar to all of you):

Council of Elrond: Join date visible, post count only visible in user profile. User title doesn't change with post count, but one has to contribute to the site in other means to get a rank other than "Council Member". No privilegies depending on post count.

Minas Tirith: Join month visible, join date and post count only visible in user profile. Only two default ranks: one for those with less than 100 posts, and one for those with over 100 posts. No privilegies depending on post count.

Cinescape: Both join date and post count visible. Basic titles dependent on post count, but one can get a personal title by request independent on post count. Spamming just to increase post count is not approved (well, at least not officially, but there are some rather spammy threads :P ) Boasting with a high post count is DEFINITELY not approved. No privilegies depending on post count.

So, no matter if the post count is visible or not, the attitude is what really matters. If people don't put too much importance on it, but rather to what a member has to say, it's all the same if the post count is visible or not.

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Wilma
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Posted: Sun 15 May , 2005 5:54 am
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I agree with Rowanberry it's the attitude. Once we open we will be leading by example. On another board you do not get any kind of reward until you reach 10 000 posts. Then you get a custom title. You are allowed to rate other posters though which I think is stupid. For the most part it truly is really the attitude of the poster. Once on that same board a person came out of the blue and said to another poster 'You are not that high on the totem pole (so what you say does not matter)' and down rated them. The other poster was devastated (they both went on to overeact). Many people with thousands of posts never ever thought there was a totem pole. Obviously this particular comment said far more about that poster then the actual climate of the board. Although I do think just to make it clear, and I think it should be possibly be said in an FAQ that one does not gain more 'clout' by post count so it won't do you any good to spam.

Particularly if we get strangers coming in once we open. I once helped a newbie and he was utterly stunned people with high postcounts were addressing him. I think a lot of people think post count clout is the norm on message boards. It shouldn't be.

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Angbasdil
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Posted: Sun 15 May , 2005 4:21 pm
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I understand Al's concerns here, and I like to be as egalitarian as possible. But as others have pointed out, postcounts and joined dates can be a useful thing to see to in many cases. So I'm in favor of keeping both items visible until and unless it becomes a problem.
We have a fairly firm social environment in place here already, so I think that a lot of potential problems like this one just won't materialize the way they might if we were starting this community completely from scratch. We are who and what we are, and any elitist attitude like what we're talking about here would be a significant change.

It's all well and good to look ahead for potential issues, but at some point you just gotta accept that you can't prevent all of them and just deal with the ones that do come up when they come up.

I don't think one will come up, but if it does we'll change things.


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Voronwë_the_Faithful
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Posted: Sun 15 May , 2005 4:34 pm
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Al, I admit that I have a hard time understanding your concerns, because I think highly of you and I can't really picture someone else not thinking highly of you because you have a relatively low post count. I could as easily think less highly of someone like Athrabeth because she has a low post count. I could pictured wishing that you or her had more time to post, but that is different then thinking less highly of you.

But perhaps this is something that I am not seeing. Do you really feel that there are people who treat you differently because you have a low post count, or demonstrate that they think less highly of you for that reason? If so, I'll try to look out for that kind of attitude more intently in the future to see if I can observe it myself.


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Cerin
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Posted: Sun 15 May , 2005 6:36 pm
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I'm another who rarely thinks to look at someone's post count. If I do, I'm more inclined to interpret it as an indication of someone's sociability and talkativeness, than to regard it as a status indicator. Lower post count tends to mean to me, someone who doesn't post unless they have something more thoughtful or serious to contribute (which may be as silly an assumption in its own way as some other kinds).

I agree that it can be helpful to have join date and post count to glance at when encountering a new name.


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