Improve the forum experience - Ditch the post count!

Feedback, Help and Testing Suggestions and Feedback
81

This is a forum, which is a community, which in turn is a social construct that provides benefits for members.

The utility gained from a given type of benefit differs across individuals. Some new members might be enticed with the expectation of Information, which is after all the premise of a modelling magazine to begin with. On the other hand, the existing members may derive majority of their utility from social interaction, modelling information a secondary concern. Such differences exist in any communities, afterall we are all different.

I do not think post count is relevant(my opinion) towards the objective of ‘improving’ the forum experience, which in itself is a subjective topic for each individual.

Personally I like to end any argument on a modelling forum with a grudge-match-build-off, winner takes all. But that’s only because I’m confident in beating the other side in this method, and cannot be bothered key mashing.

82

Having written literally THOUSANDS of posts on the modeling subjects in the last three years or so, to include info, techniques, tips, group builds, personal builds, and having spent coutless hours researching and getting answers to literally thousands of questions from other modelers (Nuggets AND “old-timers”), finding links, and hunting down and posting research and detail pictures, FOR FREE, I say keep the post counts…

Sure, I’ve written some frivilous posts too, hundereds of them… I’ve also written a few hundred *“Grumpy Old Man” posts, many of which were legit gripes about the modeling industy and also some about the direction I feel the hobby’s going…That’s what I do when the paint’s dryin’… I figure the post count I’ve EARNED by sitting at the keyboard for hours trying to find help for other members, allows me that little perk… This forum ani’t the only Window I have open on my screen… More often than not, I’ve got three or four windows open, looking for stuff for others with low post counts, medium post counts, and high post counts…

Is it a “badge of rank”… No… It’s a general measure of how much work one puts in here helping out others, directly or indirectly, IMNSHO…

As far as that little thing on the right side denoting those with high post counts, were anyone over on that that box to take a few days off from the forum, their name would disappear, high post count or not… It only tracks the “most active users” of the forum at the current time… My handle appears and disappears on a fairly regular basis over the course of a year when I take a few days off here & there…

So again, in closing, keep the counts…

Long Live the FSM Forum Commandos!

*And I’m gonna stay that way 'till I’m a DEAD Old Man, H&HT… We, the FORGOMs (FORum Grumpy Old Men), will remain… Deal with it… In fact, I’m of a mind to make a badge just FOR that group… And for the “FORCOM”, too…

83

How about we ration ourselves to one post per day? Or reset the the programming so that it deducts a post from your count if you post in certain threads, or in certain forums such as Odds and Ends? Or if you reach 10,000 posts your account becomes suspended? There’s all kinds of ways to limit the number of posts that get written…

Hmmmm…what else can you guys (and gals) come up with to knock down the traffic in here?

84

I think I can sum up this whole thread’s future in one word.

Men!.

You should already know how it was pronouced.

I’ve never bought the ‘not me’ or the ‘I dunno’ defense either.

85

You seem to have a real problem with us “little boys”, as you put it…I am frankly tired of your gender-bashing comments…

86

Knock it off…

87

An observation for anyone looking at an option other than keeping the post counts as-is… moving where the # is found, filtering out goofy posts, filtering out odds & ends posts, etc etc. Frankly, I’d rather FSM not waste resources on programming changes, and maybe the next issue has four more glossy pages of readers’ models for us to admire…

88

What he said.

This whole thing is basically “fly $hit in the pepper”.

89

6 pages in a day and a half.[^o)] Seems like this was a good place for some to bolster their posts counts.

90

Heh! [:D]

91

hey, you are not the only female on these forums. I for one have no problem with the “little boys” on this site. Mind over matter, HisNHer. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter! [:O]

92

Well said, Ms. Owl.

93

I gave my vote… YAY… to keep…[Y]

the rhetoric needs to relax.[angl]… really… we’re all modelers, and like the Forums( one way or the other )…[pi]

Ya can’t please 100% of the people… 100% of the time…[{][}]

Agree to disagree…[*-)]

Let’s build… and post…[cmra]

94

In my job, I am part of a team that maintains a private forum. Our forum is very much like this one, instead of discussing sprue and paint, our members discuss foliage and vases. It is a forum for professional florist (world wide). We have the exact type of discussions there as we do here with one major exception.

Very few complain about the forum itself, picture hosting, post count, ranking system, tags and so on. We even use the same forum software that FSM uses.

We average three-thousand , logged on, active users a day. Our total member count is just over 26,000. You would think since our forum is private and NOT free, they would complain more. They do not. Through discussions with our members over likes and dislikes about the forum, we discovered what we already knew.

All these little extras, like post counts, are just tools in a toolbox. No different than a tool at our workbench. Some of us find them useful other don’t. Nothing says you have to use it. However, If the mere presence of a free “tool” hinders your productivity then IMO the problem is not the tool but your ability to focus.

I rarely see more than 35 users logged on to FSM forums at one time. Discussions, [check that], public complaints, like these will surely affect traffic.

People like a variety of tools. Take them away or limit their use and you will lose them. I know because we see it here day in day out. My [2cnts]

95

“Frankly, I’d rather FSM not waste resources on programming changes, and maybe the next issue has four more glossy pages of readers’ models for us to admire…”

I likes it! [:)][snYea]

96

[dto:]

…though if programming changes are in the works…iPhone/iPad posting capabilities would be my vote!

97

Praise the Lord and pass the CA!! That’s the first thing I’ve read on this thread that’s made a darn bit of sense! [Y]

I second the motion! I hate not being able to post from my iPad. I’m on the train from Fort Worth to Dallas and back two hours a day every day (M-F). I love reading the RSS feeds from the forums; but hate that I have to wait until I get home and get on my laptop to respond! Fix that problem first!

Now back to our program already in progress…

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Actually, you can… I had a PM exchange with Aaron a while back and he explained how to do it… let me see if I still have that conversation and I’ll give you the info Aaron gave me…

100

Please keep them. ( 3 word post )