Petition to remove post counts.

Now I know making a petition is a silly idea, but I’m just trying to bring awareness to the amount of people spamming the forums just because they want to have a large amount of posts. This is getting out of hand! I’m not going to be collecting signatures or anything btw :P

All I’m saying is that I think the forums would be a much nicer place if the post counts were disabled. Opinions?

I agree.

I agree - I think we’re clearly seeing the effect of people spamming the forums so that they can drive up their number of posts.

I disagree. We had a discussion about this before I forgot where though…in any case removing post counts is going to stop spam, nor a large amount of spam.

If anyone thinks that post counts should be kept, would they please tell me why? Because I really see no use to them, and they defiantly attract spam. Maybe they are good for keeping people interested in the forums… But still, I think the outcome of removing the post count would be good for the forums.

Now that the post count links to a users recent posts, you could probably move the number to that page. I’m sure it would be easy to change “x posts” to “View Posts”, or something to that effect.

That is a great idea aC, but the spammers can still brag to everyone about their amount of posts… I thought removing the count entirely was a good idea because it efficiently allows to get rid of all those people who just post for the sake of raising their amount of posts.

How many people are there really?

edit: Nice and speedy at mock ups.

If they are going to do that, they’ll can still do it based on page count. It doesn’t contribute to spamming as much if its not immediately visible everywhere in the forums. When it’s visible everywhere it makes more of a difference. If they start going further and that actually became a problem, then I’d say remove it entirely.

I do see your point though.

It’s weird as to why people care about their post count. You should just not worry. People would do it either way.

Interesting discussion on another forum

EDIT:link fixed; sorry.

Phatcat, check your link. It goes to a “Greetings from Egypt” thread.

I’ve never seen anybody really care to “spam” up their post count, at least not on a large scale. The worst I think I ever saw was Darksimal replying to every single topic in the collaborations forum, and even then it seemed like he MIGHT of actually wanted to post. I think that aC’s idea is a decent one, but I definatly do not support removing post counts.

A good reason to keep them, or at least keep them visible like aC said, is the fact that it lets, at the very least, people running forum games (and people in SD topics where you expect somebody to justify their position) to know if the person is likely to be active/respond. For example, if somebody like Phatcat joined my forum game, I’d be pretty sure that he would stay. If somebody with the post count of malachai joined, I would be a little bit cautious about letting him join because he doesn’t seem as likely to be active (and no offense to either of you, just using examples).

You could still figure that out by clicking on their recent posts. I use post counts as well for determining similar things as well, but could do the same thing by choosing to view their posts; especially if it had the count there.

I use post counts as well for determining similar things as well…

is the fact that it lets, at the very least, people running forum games (and people in SD topics where you expect somebody to justify their position) to know if the person is likely to be active/respond.

Ok so I’m not the only one who does this, I don’t feel quite so shallow now.

I have many factors for determining likely(i?)ness to stay, but using post counts is my main one. Well, actually seeing them around a lot is my main one. Then post counts, and having a unique avatar tends to help. I know it may seem shallow, but I like to have information at my fingertips, and having all that stuff right there (or at least, a simple drop down window to “view post counts”) makes my life as a SDer and a forum game runner easier. Viewing recent posts still doesn’t help that much, because if a user only has 10 posts, but has them all in that day, there is no guarantee they will stay for the long haul.

The only thing I use post counts for is determining the person’s knowledgeableness (that’s a real word) and experience. However, on this forums, it seems to be a moot point ATM.

But this can be accomplished by simply looking at their recent posts. You can see exactly when did they last post, and how many posts they have by how many pages there are there. Anyway, I’ve been noticing the spam that those certain users generate for quite a while, but the thing that made me make this thread was the hijack of this thread: http://www.kongregate.com/forums/2/topics/10513

Of course it’s not the only thread to contain posts made by the post count users, but topic hijacking really gets on my nerves.

But Pereking, that’s the point! As long as you admit there is a good reason to see the post count, why bother to make it a hassle for users to use it? The only way to argue that we shouldn’t have it is if we totally remove recent posts (or make it only for the last week). As long as we hae a list of how many posts a person has, they can still figure out their Xth post, they can still brag, and the only difference is that the people who do care about that stuff will have to have more hassle (even if it is just a little bit, that adds up when you have 25+ users to go through every time you run a forum game).

Basically: As long as recent posts shows ALL your posts, there is no point to not let the total number of posts be, at the very least, a drop down reveal menu that is quicker to use than changing pages to somebodies recent posts.

i dont see the point of post counts. it really does just bring spamers i say we disabel it

What exactly is the point in being able to see the current post count? The only reason I saw seemed not terribly important. Maybe I’m missing something.

Too put it simply: I can judge a person fairly accuratly by their avatar, how the first post I see of them is, and their post count. The post count itself is an important tool in determining if somebody is likely to reply to your PMs, if they are likely to keep up with a mafia game, if they are likely to respond in the SD forums, etc. Without the post count, it would either be a hassle to check and post count spamming could still occur (simply say “Check my profile, dude. Look at all my posts” or we wouldn’t be able to look at people’s posts at all besides in the threads themselves by totally or almost totally disabling recent posts, which has implications of its own.

Basically, the post count is one of, if not the most important, part of everybody’s (or almost everybody’s, I’m assuming here) simple 3 step activity check for a user.

I agree with milskidasith. Post counts can be useful, and removing them would hardly do a thing to stop spam.

Can this even be done? Kongregate did not format/create these boards…

And I don’t think it creates spam. The only minor thing I see it create is “1000 POST PARTY!!!!!!” threads. Which personally I love.

Didn’t you have 999 posts before, Billyfred? Shouldn’t you have 1k now?