Message Count

Probably when Ken set it up not to show the game threads in the new posts, it also stopped it from showing in message counts. This is actually a discussion forum and not a game forum, but before, the people who were listed as making the most posts were the people who only played games, and many did not even participate in the discussions.
 
Personally, I always turned them off across the board. On PC Pitstop, many people were so hung up on the post count that they posted nothing but one word posts. First I tried adding to the Forum Rules that one word posts would be deleted without notice. But the vast majority of people either don't read the rules, even though they had to check the box indicating that they had read them during the Registration process, or even if they did read the rules, they ignored rules they didn't like. So since that was about post counts, I just turned them off.

The forum owner noticed I had done that and asked me why. When I explained my reasons to him, he said ok, and that it given him an idea. He was writing a EULA (that's an End User License Agreement, in case you're unfamiliar with the acronym) for some software he wrote, and deep in the fine print he was explaining rights and responsibilities, and out of the blue he inserted a sentence something like this:

"If you read this, send me an email at the following address, you may be compensated."

About a year and 20,000 plus sales later he got an email about it, so he sent the guy a check for $1,000. He said that was conclusive proof that most people do not read EULAs... 😁
 
Heh ya its amazing how many dont even glance at the guidelines before registering on a site....

I guess there isnt really a way of forcing it I dont think..
 
Yep. All you can do is require them to click the box that says they read the rules, but like they say, "You can lead a horse to water...". Unless you get creative and put a unique word in them, and then require them to find it. That is also a good Captcha trick.
 
Its so nice seeing Kenny and everyone else again!

I love you all so much..... I dont have many friends so being accepted here is Beautiful to me..

Is there anyway Kenny of getting the threads I make on the game section to show in my NEW THREADS? (When I click NEW THREADS) (easy to find them then)

Peace and love to you all!!!
 
April Vee said:
Its so nice seeing Kenny and everyone else again!

I love you all so much..... I dont have many friends so being accepted here is Beautiful to me..

Is there anyway Kenny of getting the threads I make on the game section to show in my NEW THREADS? (When I click NEW THREADS) (easy to find them then)

Peace and love to you all!!!
Click to expand...

Hi and peace back at you. Was April Vee your name on the other site?
 
Paul Sparky said:
I've just realised, I joined the first site in 2015,..10 years ago. I know there's a time difference for me in the UK, but that went by quick. 😮
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How is Patsy doing ? We were really sad when she left, but her health was preventing her from using her computer enough to be on the forum.
 
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On one forum I dropped into occasionally, some of the posters were obsessed with high post counts.

One poster in particular would make up to 300 posts a day. Curious, I checked how she was able to do that.

Yep, the games thread. She'd start a thread called "Post a letter" and then post "A". Next post would be "B" and so on. Not hard to get 200 posts a day at that rate.

So the moderator dropped post counts altogether. Oh, the screams......
 
I just used my name (Donny) on the other site.... My friend Joyce told me about this place and said it was wonderful..

You guys remember Jaminhealth?

She has had alot of problems with her eyes. I have tried to get a hold of her but so far havent...

I hope she is ok...
 
April Vee said:
I just used my name (Donny) on the other site.... My friend Joyce told me about this place and said it was wonderful..

You guys remember Jaminhealth?

She has had alot of problems with her eyes. I have tried to get a hold of her but so far havent...

I hope she is ok...
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I don't think she used that nickname on SOC; she was "Joy Martin" or something similar. I hope she's doing OK.
 
Mary Robi said:
So the moderator dropped post counts altogether. Oh, the screams......
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Hi Mary, I'm one the recent recruits here. (Literally, I was recruited by Yvonne.)

That's one solution, but as you indicated it was not a very popular one. A better way is to set a minimum post character count. This tells people quietly, if you want a higher post count, you need to participate in the discussions on the forum. That eliminated short, typically meaningless posts, and makes discussions more in depth. I used to run the PC Pitstop Forum, aka "The Pit." (Now Closed.) It was a PC Help forum, that from the time I installed it in 2001 until I quit my job in 2005, over 50,000 people went there for help doing something on their PC, then after getting assistance, and many people never came back unless they had more problems. There were a lot of regular visitors though.

That forum was a real handful to manage alone. But since it was a job and I was paid moderately well, I dealt with it. The most common problem I had running that forum was unqualified people giving bad advice to other people. We had a lot of people who were daily visitors that were very helpful to other people solving problems, and they alerted me to posts containing bad advice. I installed a Kudos mod for the forum, so that after someone gets advice, they could rate it by giving the person kudos or not. Sort of a Reputation mod, before that sort of thing was available in some forum software. That helped a lot...

Anyway, setting a minimum post character count too low defeats the purpose, as does setting it too high. I set them to 60 characters.

This sentence with 65 characters passes: "If you have a forum, I would set minimum character count options."
This one with 57 characters does not: "If you have a forum, set minimum character count options."

I also blocked this sort of thing to bypass those settings:
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

:cool:
 
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