Koko, you may have pointed the way to a solution.

The question is, what it this FlyerTalk site? Why does it exist?

When I joined, it was to talk about miles (and later hotel points) and frequent flyer programs, and how to maximize the amenities of flying/traveling -- it was travel and travel-related, but with a focus on the frequent flyer programs, and thus on earning miles and points. Oh, there were some posts that weren't directly related to that, little jibes or side comments, but for the most part, that was the purpose for the site, and for the posts.

People with numerous posts (Rudi, PremEx, Merry) were looked to as active contributors of information, although there were some folks who were known to occasionally make posts that didn't really add much -- e.g., just smilies -- but so long as this wasn't done as a regular practice, post count was still a reasonably accurate barometer of contribution.

Then we began seeing more and more "off-topic" posts, and ultimately to keep the off-topic posts (or "noise") from interfering with or masking the substantive posts on flying/travel (the "signal"), OMNI was created. And later, in an attempt to keep post count as an indicator of contribution, posts on that forum didn't count toward post count.

(This all was before the days of the "counting posts", "penalty box", "lounge" posts that did nothing but pump up post count and otherwise waste bandwidth.)

There is still value, it seems to me, in separating the signal from the noise, and in clearing out the underbrush so that "useful" posts (posts that further the original purpose of FlyerTalk) can be located and read.

However, I concede that some participants who do provide useful content also enjoy making and reading the non-substantive posts. And there are probably some people here who come for those posts and really aren’t that interested in miles and points.

So, essentially, there is a "substantive" interest of exchanging information on flying/travel/programs and an "entertainment" (for lack of a better word) interest of non-travel-related posting -- either posting unrelated but interesting matters or simple posting-for-the-sake-of-posting. The question is how each interest can legitimately be furthered without interfering with the other interest.

And what if any meaning “post count” conveys.

And maybe the answer is to divide the site into a "substantive" side and a "non-substantive" side. Each side can have subdivisions (e.g., on the substantive side you could have subdivisions devoted to airlines, hotels, travel, dining, etc., while on the non-substantive site you could have the post-padding counting games, as well as politics, religion, sports, farming, swimming, fishing, mathematics, plumbing, whatever). So, that way people could go to what they were looking for without having to wade through stuff they weren't looking for.

And -- here's the point -- each of the two sides -- substantive and non-substantive -- would have its own separate post count! That way, when you found someone on the substantive side with a high post count there, it would give some indication that the person had posted frequently on subjects that were related to flying/travel miles/points, etc.

And for the folks who like to spend time (and bandwidth) counting backwards from 123,456 or randomly posting random numbers, or saying "Good Morning", there would be a place for them, too, and a count as to their participation in those pursuits.

This would help everyone, and every post would "count". And more importantly, the post count would reflect the activity on that particular side; it would indicate whether the poster's activity was in furtherance of travel-related matters like miles and points or whether it was in the "non-substantive" realm. As such, post count would be more meaningful than just a simple tally of the number of times the individual had pressed the "enter" key.

Great idea! Probably needs some fine-tuning, though.

In the interim, I’m philosophically opposed to including OMNI posts in the post count.