Do you love your post count?

[cheapprick]

Okay, here's the thing. As most people have agreed, the lounge posts contributing to a person's post count is not a big deal. So when changes are enabled, the lounge posts will cease to affect our post counts.

Following that thought, some people who post a great deal in the lounge, myself included, will lose most of their post count. Probably in the neighborhood of 70-80% for a lot of us.

That's not a big deal, or really any deal to me. Most people here have indicated that post counts are not important. I hope they were being honest. LOL

Given that post counts overall are probably about to drop a large percentage, is it important to keep post counts? Or would this be a good time to just turn off the feature and prevent clever trolls who attempt to blend in a few weeks an opportunity to lay a foundation?

Right now we are leaning toward dropping post counts entirely, because anybody here that wants to fit in has done so on what they have said, not how many times they have posted. No?

[Kooperman]

The post counts mean nothing more than longevity or willingness to respond to almost any thread. I won't miss them at all. Quantity doesn't mean quality.

[collideous]

If that rids the forum of the "Hurray John.Doe! Congrats to your 4,327th post!" threads that litter the lounge, I'm all for nuking the post counts. For that matter, kill the birthdays too. They have no place outside the PM universe.

[tMoD]

After my post count gets savaged, I'll be lucky to have a dozen left. Might as well be zero.

[phalkon30]

I disagree with removing the post counts. When there were trolls inpersonating members here, the only way I could easily tell them apart was post count.

When a new member comes to our forums, they generally look up to people with higher post counts. Who do you want new members looking up to? New members? I think most of the higher post count people here are decent roll models.

I'm all for removing lounge posts from post counts, and mod forums for that matter. I think its going to stir some things up, which will maybe change some oppinions on who actually helps out around here. I'm NOT all for removing though.

Btw, the poll is kinda...confusing.

[wingnut2600]

I don't really care about post count, in fact, I sometimes just post using my alter ego, which has a low post count.

That being said, I think treating the Lounge separately is silly. It is part of the forum. I think that if you rid the lounge of post counts, the reason for having a post count statistic (the reason being to count the amount of posts made in the forum) is taken away.

Treat all the forums the same or just create a new p2p site, similar to FOF, just for the Lounge.

[phalkon30]

Wingnut, here's where I disagree with you on that. I think lounge posts should reflect how much you've HELPED in the forums. Anybody can make a million lounge posts (and nearly have)...

[Krell]

Quantity doesn't mean quality.

Man that's an understatement . . . .

It doesnt mean noobie either. It doesnt mean "this is my 8th freaking alias".

People take you seriously at 576 posts a lot more than they do at 5.

[mojo-ris-in]

My first reaction is to kill the post counts but phalkon makes a good point about imposters impersonating other people and there have been problems with that before. At least with the post count you can tell who is who most times. However, if there was a better way to distinguish people besides post count I'd be more in support of that.

[DudeAsInCool]

[QUOTE=Krell][QUOTE]Quantity doesn't mean quality.

Man that's an understatement . . . . It doesnt mean noobie either. It doesnt mean "this is my 8th freaking alias". People take you seriously at 576 posts a lot more than they do at 5.

Krell is right--once again...

[DainBramaged]

There will always be a way to abuse (I use that term loosely) any system that would attempt to rate the general usefulness of someone's posts.

For example, if you rate a person's helpfulness by having forum readers rate them, you'd have the reputation system like we have now, albeit not working. This can be abused by having someone repeatedly vote for you.

I've seen other forums use experience to gain levels, though this is just another way to cleverly display a post count.

All this being said, there is no easy solution. Phalkon and Krell have made good points. There are also reasons and ways to successfully do away with post counts.

[Malicious Intent]

You can't repeatedly vote for people, I've tried. It says something about voting for other people first, despite the fact that I'm always giving out points. Then I gave up because it was a ll just stupid.

I say getting rid of lounge posts would be helpful for newbies. Then they can tell the difference between those that just lounge post and those that regularly provide help. Why should a newbie look up to me? Because I chatted a lot for my first month here? Discounting them posts would be fine.
In futher arguement to regulars getting looked up to, a newbie could as easily hold the answer as anyone else.

[Psilaxs]

Keep post counts. Whether people want to admit it or not seniority IS important. Though there are some who rack up an insane amount of post in a relitively short period of time, it takes most members a long time to accumulate post numbers. (hell at 2 years I haven't even hit 2 grand yet)

The point I would like to bring up is, whoever is fueling this move about post counts behind the scenes is making more of an ordeal about post count than even the most adamant post counters. if post count is so irellevent then why get rid of it, or dictate how the numbers are applied? Seems silly to me.

When I arrived at Zeropaid it wasn't too long before i posted a "help me" thread, in which Krell (and other Senior members) kindly helped me, I trusted Krell, (and others) for technical help because I SAW their post count, and knew they have been members for a long time.

I'm not sure if i would have trusted technical help from someone with 5 posts, unless it was supported by a senior member.

Lets say lounge posts stop counting towards your post count (Something which I am opposed to) Is there a way to just stop it from adding to your count, while keeping the current total? I think that solution would make the most people happy, myself included.

In closing i would like to say this whole ordeal is just plain silly, if it isn't broke do not fix it. Someone is creating an issue when we have very little problems with members raising concern about post count. Might as well get rid of the buggy "Date joined" function as well.

[isus]

while the post count itself isn't all that important, i don't think we should start seperating the post counts. then we're gonna have people who come in, and in an attempt to raise their post count, toss lounge-type threads in other sections. then mods hafta move them.

and the whole seniority thing is also important.

besides, why does zp run a 'lounge', if it's not going to end up as part of the bbs? i don't care about my post count that much, but we already have so many restrictions, why add another?

[Induna]

Cheap prick, you could hand out gold stars for helpful members to indicate 'high stature'.


Imposters/trolls/flamers/general time wasters would get a mucky star.