I'm curious to know as to why this rule has been imposed.

 

My Thoughts:

In hopes that people dont post just to:
A. subscribe to a thread instead of clicking a button
B. up their post count because they think the more posts you have the "cooler" you are - cut down on pointless posts.

 

To try to curb post-counter padding in a thread.

In theory, some folks would find a thread, and post a smiley in it just to be able to increase the number in the "posts" section of their user info. Some people see the number as an inidcator of "status" on the forum. A guy with 1,000 posts means that his posts should hold more water than someone with 33.


Personally... I think that's hogwash... There are clearly people with thousands of posts that I wouldn't let winch me out of my driveway, while I'd chuck the keys to my rig to someone with 30 posts.

 

What he said ^^^^^^

 

Mark hit the nail on the head.

 

Post counts *can* be useful, but there are so many who pad them that you can't help but take them with a grain of salt. I am a "noob" on another board right now and involved in a discussion where the folks with thousands of posts are "instructing" me in the finer points of airing down. Unfortunately, these veterans seem to have it through their heads that there is no gain to be had by doing so and one of them has now played the "who are you going to believe card" in reference to his 3700 posts and my 5. Well, consider me schooled.

The sword cuts both ways. A high post count can be a sign of seniority and knowledge or it can mean that someone likes to see their name up in lights. If Ivan Stewart were to join a desert racing board as "DesertDude04", would the fact that he has few posts make him less credible? On the flip side, there are those with thousands of posts whom I routinely scan past their handiwork because they don't have credibility with me.

Good call Mark

 

Aren't most members in this site full grown adults? I can't imagine one worrying about post count.

My post count could be cleared down to zero for all I could care. As a matter of fact, disabling the post count option would be something I'd be in favor for.

Sometimes an emoticon indicating an emotion or action is sufficient enough without the addition of characters.

 

Yeah, you would think...



I'm all for pulling it out, and maybe just replacing it with a "member since" date. It would still be a useless indicator of someone's knowledge, but it would stop people from trying to pad posts because they think the count means something.

 

but what does the emotion add to the thread? If you cant write 15 characters -> 3 words...then it isnt needed.

I go by Avatars/sigs over postcounts ...

 

Adding a laughing emotion icon is less foolish to me as oppossed to actually typing out: "I am laughing."

 

We did that on my forum...helped out tremendously. We also allowed people to creat their own User Titles (where you have Member, Contributing Member, etc.)...kept people happy. After a year of the post count being gone, we put it back. No one even noticed Mission accomplished.

 

I guess you are refering to Off-Topic posts...in which case I dont think post counts should really count and the 15 limit shoudlnt exist.

But if you are posting that you are laughing in a Tech thread....may I ask why that adds to the tech?

 

No, I wasn't referring to the OFF-TOPIC section only.

Although very unlikely, sometimes discussions move directions to where they can be amusing even in the TECH section, but that wasn't my point.

 

So what is your point then?? Still dont see what adding JUST an LOL emiticon does to a tread...

 

Someone should point Corey to this thread in case he misses it... It looks like we may end up suggesting a change (if possible).

I know! I think I'll PM Corey!

 

There's a link to it in our staff section.

 

I think the point of "posting a smiley into a thread" got a bit sideways.

My original point was that people would post just a "" into a thread in order to crank up their post count.

King's point (and I kinda' agree) is that sometimes you just want to show support for something that was said.. but in a short form, just "" to show that it made you smile, or of course "" when you hear about someone trashing their rig.

Now, to play both sides of the fence, I think that finding 1/5 of my screen loaded with a single message that just has a "" is silly.


Maybe there's an option to set the minimum message length on a forum-by-forum basis. So, allow single character responses in Off-Topic, but force something longer everywhere else.

On top of that, ditch the post count all together.

 

Does a [quote] count toward the 15 character minimum? The only ramification I see to this new rule is that more people will hit the "reply" button and we will find ourselves reading the same posts over and over again. In other words, someone may use someone else's quote just as a means to insert an emoticon.

 

no it doesnt...but I beleive I saw a post with 14 "." infront of a emoticon.

 

If people get around the 15 character rule by posting 10 "." 's in front of a smiley, I'm for deleting that person's post all together. But that turns in to a modding nightmare!