Thanks for the comments.

Yes, I purposely authored a New Thread with a specific and single solution in mind to suggest and to discuss, so as not to get lost in the "general ideas" topic. As a moderator at another site, I certainly know the reasons why we do not encourage duplicate threads and the challenges for moderators to keep the boards free of clutter. That is why I carefully authored a single idea to stand out for it's merits or demise, according to the wishes of the owner.

Mentioned here also was that other programs of this kind may have not worked. Perhaps the map to it's success was not formulated:

1) Modify the current Forum Rules to include the new provision of "padding posts does not escalate User Titles".

2) Modify the Forum Rules to include that Moderators have the right to edit, limit, or suspend a member's account if the forum rules are infracted by the member. (Notice we use "infraction" rather than "violation".

With the above set up, then the tool to enforcing the rules is something I failed to mention:

1) In the Control Panel each member is assigned to a User Group, such as "Registered". But a duplicate User Group with the same privileges can be installed in 60 seconds, such as "Registered-Moderated" with one difference: That is, the Registered-Moderated members can author posts but their posts are manually approved or edited or deleted by a moderator.

2) Therefore, if a member begins padding posts in the forums where post counts escalate User Titles, a moderator can change that members User Group from Registered to Registered-Moderated until the member stops the padding.

3) Moderators can still edit padded posts that have nothing to do with the SUBJECT CONTENT of the topic. And they can use little items to gently pursuade members, such as the following image:



Again, the tools are here to help members refrain from padding in the wrong forums where posts escalate User Titles, and allow those who want to chit chat in forums where the posts do not escalate User Titles. And the tools are here to enforce (gently) those rules.

But in the end, the owner needs trusted and qualified moderators to make this happen.

In the other site where I have been a moderator for 5 years, our moderator training became quite intense because of the tens of thousands of members we manage. It typically takes 3 months to train our moderators.

I hope what I have written is seen as a suggestion with deep respect for the mission of this site,

Allen