2012-12-16, 02:16 | Link #21 |
The Interstellar Medium
Author
Join Date: May 2008
Location: [SWE]
Age: 34
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The Fluff and those following summarized my thoughts on it. Let it remain on the profile, no need to let it publicly show. I've seen first-hand what it can lead to and posters should be judged based on their posts, not post counts.
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2012-12-16, 05:14 | Link #23 |
blinded by blood
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I like the fact that post count isn't displayed. I wish it wasn't displayed in my profile, either. Every time I look and see how high it's gotten I feel bad about wasting so much time bumming around a message board.
TheFluff has a good point. The only thing I'm missing is the rep system's "instant troll detection" functionality. People with red squares or disabled rep always raised a red flag with me--not that everyone with disabled rep is a troll, but a lot of folks disabled rep because all they received was negative rep for their trolling or highly inflammatory posts.
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2012-12-16, 09:31 | Link #24 | |
Lets be reality
Join Date: May 2007
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2012-12-16, 10:15 | Link #25 | |
Moving in circles
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Singapore
Age: 49
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Member since April 3, 2006. Total posts, including this one, 3,970. I take some pride in getting where I got in terms "reputation" with that average post count. On a more serious note, no, please don't make post counts any more "public" than they need to be. As TheFluff said, we really don't need another number to judge the "quality" of membership. Let's return the focus to where it always should have been, the content of one's post in any given discussion. |
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2012-12-16, 16:36 | Link #26 | |||
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Los Angeles, California
Age: 39
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yeah it solves a lot of issues associated with that. . .personally I also think that the join date should be removed too, just put in the persons profile like the post count, It'll pretty much FORCE people to be more observant, and use their brains to determine who the good posters are. It'll help people think more critically in the long run, and cull the posters that just post for their ego's sake instead of posting to add contribute to a discussion. I think that people/communities who feel they "need" any kind of measuring system do so to mask the fact that they a)feel not so adequate in their own life, so they have to use these petty systems on a discussion forum to make them feel better (and forums are not psychiatry offices) and b)promotes behavior to mask that feeling of inadequacy. . .kinda like how anime tends to rely on fan service once the directors/writers realize that they cant make a decent show without a ton of flaws. It's actually insulting to the intelligence of people that post on the site. There is no way that someone CAN'T tell if a poster is a good poster or not, a good poster is able to present their points in a way that can shine light on why they have a certain opinion, and do that WITHOUT passively aggressively attacking the opinions of others. . .that's pretty much what taking away all these unnecessary measurements would promote. It would be like taking the training wheels of the bike, or taking the alcohol away from a drunkard etc etc. . .in the long run people will be able to just make better posts, and recognize those who make those posts. Those that can't do either, wont be a part of the community, leaving the rest of those still here to make the community here way better than it is. . .which in turn would draw more new people who can have or can learn the aforementioned skills (being a good poster/recognizing good posters) Measuring systems arent needed at all. |
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2012-12-16, 16:45 | Link #27 | |
Love Yourself
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Northeast USA
Age: 38
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But looking at your suggestions, why not take it a step farther? How about we get rid of user accounts all together and have a system like 2ch or 4chan, where it's all completely anonymous? Sure, it would create a very warped sense of community (and if you want to talk about psychiatry offices... well, hmm) but then you'd really be judging the post based on the post, itself. I hate the idea, because I like to get to know who else is participating in the community. It adds flair and flavor to the forum. But I'm interested to know, what do you think about that idea?
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2012-12-16, 17:41 | Link #28 |
I disagree with you all.
Join Date: Dec 2005
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I don't really care either way (about the post count), but as for figuring out who's worth reading or not... Won't those who invest time in the forum figure it out soon enough? As for the others, won't they just not care?
I don't like the idea of an anonymous forum either. For much the same reasons. |
2012-12-16, 18:09 | Link #29 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: East Cupcake
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--- As for the OP...well, it's a little silly to focus on amount of posts (or rep, join date, amount of friends, amount of threads started, amount of pms/vms received, or any other statistic you can mention) as indicators of anything beyond possible experience in using the various forum tools or knowing your way around the different sub-forums. My amount of posts does not make me a better or worse discussion partner on these forums nor should it add or detract the weight of my post (being a moderator should do that automatically ). Quantifying membership seems downright prejudicial and very unnecessary. |
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2012-12-16, 22:25 | Link #30 | |
(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻
Moderator
Join Date: Mar 2006
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Veterans know who veterans are by participation in the community. As a very old member (gets out cane and mumbles something about kids these days), I've seen a lot of people come and go. And honestly, join date and posts aren't even a good measure. Veterans remember the forum crash that wiped out everything - even my join date is a "lie". I've been around here since 2004 as a lurker, but in 2005 my account was part of the crash and I had to re-register in 2006. I didn't post much back then until after I registered the second time. Frankly I'd much rather see discussion be less "Facebook" and more quality, meaning people going back to making posts with good content and not vain appeals for attention. And yes, I say that as someone who is basically max on rep, and have been for a while. I built the rep by being a constant presence in the community, but I didn't do it for the rep, and I won't stop because the rep is gone. I did it to build a name, which is what I hope people notice when they see my posts and hopefully they associated it with good things (although I'm sure that's not anywhere near as true as I hope ). I don't want my eventual fading from the forums to be "oh yeah, that guy with all those decorations", I want it to be "oh yeah, that guy made a lot of good posts". One of my favorite quotes: "A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives." - Jackie Robinson
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2012-12-17, 00:11 | Link #32 | |
Lets be reality
Join Date: May 2007
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2012-12-17, 00:38 | Link #33 |
Last Engage
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Florida
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My primary message board has neither. The post counts are displayed, but only because of a board upgrade - the original admin didn't want them. By removing those things, the content of the posts themselves becomes important, above all else.
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2012-12-17, 05:40 | Link #34 |
Banned
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In counting post counts.. does it include the "unreported troll post and jokes"?
and another thing for example Member A joined in 2004 posted only 1000 post but are very helpful and intelligent in content.... then Member B joined in 2010 but posted 5000 post 3/4 are video links, jokes, questions etc... Based on the example wouldn't it make Member B appear more active and "superior" to Member A? Don't get me wrong, just asking... |
2012-12-17, 12:10 | Link #36 |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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Eyah, I see enough posts from people who joined many years ago but who apparently never read the forum rules (e.g. "wears the warez!!!?") or people who consistently toss out pointless one-liners no matter what their join date to worry about post counts.
My post counts only reflect that I read fast and type fast ... whee ;P
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2012-12-17, 12:51 | Link #37 | |
(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻
Moderator
Join Date: Mar 2006
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Just look at the responses from the decision to put the rep system on hiatus temporarily, and it's not hard to see why we tend to keep things as status quo for (probably) longer than we should. Truth is, we're very much a site and forum that was built for a somewhat different community than exists today. This makes every notable change all the more difficult to do, as every change (or suggestion of change), no matter how seemingly simple or innocent in intent, becomes controversial.
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2012-12-17, 13:14 | Link #38 | |
Love Yourself
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Northeast USA
Age: 38
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But what does it matter? The hard reality is that you can't please everyone, and having seen the staff advising some upset members that they might want to seek out a different forum, I believe they've accepted that fact. Once you've accepted that the forum can't be everything to everyone, and once you've decided to make changes that aren't determined by public opinion, knowing full well that some forum members (including the "old ones") will be unhappy, what's really holding you back from making even more changes? On the topic of scrubbing even more information from underneath a user's avatar, I really don't understand the request. The argument for removing that information seems to be that somehow people will focus more on the content of the post, instead of on who's writing it. As I've mentioned before, this makes me think of forums like 2ch and 4chan, where there's no such thing as a user account: people can use a handle with their posts, but most are anonymous, and nothing prevents multiple people from using the same handle. Is that really what people want? I like western-style forums, with their user accounts, because the sense of community is greater. You can take interest in the people you're talking with, and not just the basic information in their post. Age, join date, gender, choice of user avatar, location - all of these are intriguing facts about the person whose thoughts and opinions you're reading and interacting with. They add "flavor" to posts and can aid in understanding what a person is trying to say, and why they're saying it. I don't think I'm unique in saying that I am not blinded by user information or that it heavily biases me when I read someone's posts. This concern that the personal information somehow gets in the way of discussion really seems like a non-issue. My worry is what effect this drive for "depersonalization" would have on the sense of community in the forum.
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2012-12-17, 13:24 | Link #39 | |
阿賀野型3番艦、矢矧 Lv180
Graphic Designer
Moderator Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Belgium, Brussels
Age: 37
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Frankly, I don't really care if the join date stay or is removed (and the idea never crossed our mind in the mod team), but talking about it, I surely see no reason to keep it either. It is really not the same as username, avatars etc: username define the user (obviously) so not only you can track their posts later on and identify them, whereas Signature and Avatar give a quick idea of what they currently like/promote and so on. However, what is the importance of the join date here? I sincerely see nothing much aside of how long the member has been around, and that doesn't say much if they went on hiatus for a long time, to which happened to various members, "unknown" or "popular" alike. It doesn't define the "identity" of the user, unlike age and gender. It is probably because I hardly have any notion of "elder - junior" regarding any community in the internet, but frankly I put personality on a specific member with their tastes (anime list, avatar, signature, title), arguments and writing style, and other interactions if there is any. Pretty much like Solace, that pulled me a "yeah why not?" but hardly anything to debate, considering it doesn't really harm anything (unlike post count that surely have potential negative effects, and the rep system).
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2012-12-17, 13:40 | Link #40 | |
Love Yourself
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Northeast USA
Age: 38
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When I join a new forum I take an interest in join dates. It's a quick way to see who's invested in the community. While it's true that someone could make an account, disappear for a few years, and then return, that's pretty uncommon (and our own forum statistics back that up - or at least, they did when NightWish collected them about a year or two ago). It's also an easy way to spot "griefers" - someone exhibiting a bad attitude with a recent join date likely isn't invested in the community, and if the poor behavior is fairly consistent in a short span, it becomes very apparent what their purpose on the forum is. (This was particularly useful on forums lacking a reputation system.) Within AnimeSuki, I find it useful as a way to orient myself. I disappear for months at a time, during which new members join and take up positions within the community. Their join date allows me to know whether these are members who joined while I was absent, or if they've always been on the forum but just spent most of their time in areas that I didn't frequent. If they're brand new, I'll occasionally go out of my way to welcome them to the forum. Community feel and all, you know? It can also be a nice excuse to strike up conversation via the fancy visitor message system. That's my brief take on it (I can probably write up an essay on other uses and interpretations), but I doubt it will persuade anyone who believes that a forum should be 99% focused on the content of posts. I'll say again, scrubbing this information and/or hiding it away in the user profile would be depersonalizing the forum for a concern that doesn't seem to exist in reality. What's the point of it, and is it worth the potential drawback?
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