About postcount off in the off-topic forum.

[reveal]

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.

And that is why I think that this poll is unnecessary, as was the thread started by der_kluge. If you want to take someone to task about something, I don't think it's right to start a thread about them or create a poll that is a thinly veiled to apply to everyone when, in reality, it's simply because of one person.

As was pointed out in the thread by der_kluge, if you dislike the "spam," then either contact that person directly, in private, or contact a mod and let them warn the offender. I don't think anyone on this board wants to be disciplined in public.

 

[EricNoah]

IF someone was highly motivated by postcount, and IF postcount was turned off in OT ... wouldn't that result in this poster posting more junk in other forums? If any forum is to be the dumping ground for "junk posts" it should be OT.

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

I've never really understood why we count posts to begin with. But - if we're going to - we might as well count all of 'em.

 

[Brain]

IF someone was highly motivated by postcount, and IF postcount was turned off in OT ... wouldn't that result in this poster posting more junk in other forums? If any forum is to be the dumping ground for "junk posts" it should be OT.

I agree with this.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

IF someone was highly motivated by postcount, and IF postcount was turned off in OT ... wouldn't that result in this poster posting more junk in other forums? If any forum is to be the dumping ground for "junk posts" it should be OT.

I probably should have read this before I voted to can post counting in the Off Topic forum… It does make perfect sense. :\

Is there away to find out how many off topic posts one has?

 

[DaveStebbins]

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.

As soon as you start making value judgements about "this post counts more than that one" you open up the entire "where do you stop?" can of worms. Should bumps count? What about posts in "real" forums which add no value to the discussion? Why should those count when posts which are genuinely and personally helpful in off-topic don't?

As QD said, if we are going to count posts, we should count all of them.

-Dave

 

[Crothian]

IF someone was highly motivated by postcount, and IF postcount was turned off in OT ... wouldn't that result in this poster posting more junk in other forums? If any forum is to be the dumping ground for "junk posts" it should be OT.

it might at first, but the mods would stop that very fast.

I say turn Postcount off

 

[Michael Morris]

We can't. The welcome thread in Off topic is linked to a greeting message in the announcement bar that launches whenever the system sees a user with 0 posts (Or did you think it was magical how the new users always found the welcome thread even when it was 3 or 4 pages deep ). If post count in that forum didn't count the message wouldn't go away - leading to a barrage of complaint messages from new users here in meta that I don't want to deal with.

The alternative, moving the welcome thread to a forum where posts count - say here in meta - isn't too attractive either because if any thread is "off topic", it's a "Hi I'm new here" collection.

So the thread was left in off-topic and post counts for that forum where turned back on.

 

[Jdvn1]

Couldn't postcount be counted but not shown? That's effectively the same as turning it off.

 

[DaveMage]

IF someone was highly motivated by postcount, and IF postcount was turned off in OT ... wouldn't that result in this poster posting more junk in other forums? If any forum is to be the dumping ground for "junk posts" it should be OT.

I disagree. It's very easy to comment in off-topic about *every* thread *and* be relevant to the thread. It's not so easy to do so in the regular forums. Of course, the hivemind threads (not allowed in the on-topic fora) are a very significant postcount producer for some.

As soon as you start making value judgements about "this post counts more than that one" you open up the entire "where do you stop?" can of worms.

I dunno. It could degenerate into that, but simply separating on-topic from off-topic wouldn't make any value judgement - simply note a forum count.