About postcount off in the off-topic forum.

[Turanil]

I vaguely remember to have read Darkness saying that there was a thread on this subject, but I am unable to find it. So I begin one, hoping it's not a double thread.

Well, there has been a controverse lately (in the off topic forum), and I know that I myself sometimes post more for the sake of posting than anything else... Now, on the long run, the space available on the server and the bandwidth are not infinite.

So, I guess that if Off-Topic Forum posts weren't counted in the postcount, there would be (how to say that...) a greater percentage of genuine threads and comments in the off-topic forum.

I thought to make a poll about it: so, do you think it is a good idea to have postcounts not count the posts in the off-topic forums?

 

[Angel Tarragon]

I don't really giving a flying toot as to whether off topic posts are included in postcount or not.

 

[Bront]

I think you should have seperated the last section into Don't care, and Yes, count them.

 

[Turanil]

I don't really giving a flying toot as to whether off topic posts are included in postcount or not.

I am waiting to see that when (if) what I suggest is ever implemented. I predict that the posting rate will divided by half if this is ever implemented, hopefully only to leave the meaningfull/funny/genuine stuff. In any case, I know that myself will post less in Off-Topic if it was implemented. I am also pretty sure this would sign the death of the hivemind threads...

 

[reveal]

I don't care either way. If someone is posting in Off-Topic simply to bump up their postcount then, ya, they will not post much anymore. But I think most people will continue to post whether or not it counts in the OT forum.

 

[the Jester]

Actually, we've done that before. I don't know about post rate, but in the end the the admins decided to turn postcount back on.

I prefer it on, personally. But postcount doesn't matter anyway.

 

[Umbran]

I prefer it on, personally. But postcount doesn't matter anyway.

Seems like a contradiction, there. If poscout really didn't matter, then you wouldn't care if the posts there (or anywhere) were counted, because it'd be meanignless data. Why care if meaningless data is recorded or not?

The proof is in the pudding. If postcount didn't matter, people would not refer to it. If it didn't matter, people would feel no need to celebrate milestones, or post to increase it, etc. Individual posters may or may not give a whit about postcount, but on the whole, it seems that it does matter.

 

[DaveMage]

Though it doesn't *really* matter, I'd rather see the postcounts kept separately.

Under each person's name you'd see:

Posts:
Off-Topic Posts:

For many people, I'm sure the stats would be quite heavily skewed one way or the other.

 

[reveal]

Unfortunately, I think this poll is more reactionary than anything else. As far as I can tell, some folks are upset that Frukathka posts a lot of replies in a row and a lot of replies that consist of one or two words or simply a few emoticons in a row and nothing more. They make comments about him "catching up to Crothian" and things like that.

Otherwise, I don't think it would be an issue at all. One person doing something you dislike is not a reason to disable a feature for everyone.

And I don't think too many people care about postcounts anyway. True, there are a lot of "My #####th thread!" posts in OT but that doesn't seem to affect any other aspect of EN World. As William Ronald so elequently pointed out in this thread, people of EN World are inclusive and just plain polite. If postcount mattered as much as some people make out, I don't think you'd see as much inclusion because people would look at postcount and decide whether or not you were "worthy" of their time.

And isn't what the OT forum is supposed to be about is posting stuff that is "Off-Topic?" Posting things that are mainly tongue-in-cheek? People saying "Damn you all! Stop posting interesting things," or the Hivemind threads, which have been here a LOT longer than Frukathka has been on this board, or "30 Hornets vs. 30,000 Honey Bees."

I guess my point, if I ever had one, is that if you post/reply in forums other than OT, it becomes a problem if you're not contributing to a thread but simply seeming to post just to post or just replying to reply. But if it's OT and you're not being rude or abusive, what does it matter what you post about or how you reply?

 

[Turanil]

But if it's OT and you're not being rude or abusive, what does it matter what you post about or how you reply?

I had the vague sensation of being spammed lately, and then saw other people with the same concern. So I made this poll, because I believe (despite having been told otherwise) that this spamming wouldn't occur if it had no effect on the postcount. I have nothing against the poster, but would prefer to read his real contributions to the discussions, not his effort to "catch up with Crothian". But well, I feel that my comments bring this thread closer to being closed.