eliminating post counts in OMNI
 

I know I'm just a college student, but Randy please hear me out as a long time listener and thoughtful observer of Flyertalk.

Is there any way we could eliminate post counts in OMNI? I have understood it that post counts are one way to evaluate reputations of other members. Unfortunately, in the past, I have noticed that there are many members out there with unusually high post counts and all their posts have been in OMNI. A newbie like I may trust these users and respect them, when really they do not contribute anything to the miles and points section of flyertalk. I love this website over the past few months of use and I truly feel that this would be a good move to make OMNI enjoyable and not an egotistic competition for higher post counts.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

-vandy

^ Good Idea ^

We have several posters on the AC forum who have lower post counts, but their posts are of a high quality and informative. They are true frequent fliers, have many experiences they can share, but only share when they can provide concise input.

I have learn't to not judge anyone here by their high or low post count.

I've got an idea: Spend more time focusing on points, miles, and travel. Spend less time focusing on who has what or who's doing what.

Just an idea....

You trust people based on post counts :eek:

There are some people here with very high numbers that I wouldn't trust them with the time of day ;)

Trust is earned, and should based on the contributions that person gives to this community.

What's next? People wanting to implement some sort of reputation system?

It will never work :D


Look I have 5 green chiclets █ █ █ █ █

and a good one. ^

I agree with skofarrell and jfe on this matter. Besides, I have 8 green chiclets! █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ :D

In all seriousness, I could care less about post count but content of a person's posts. I know who offers good information and who offers little useful information. I have am able to discern valuable information as I have been on FT for over 1 1/2 years. If a person cannot discern posters that offer good information from those who do not then ask questions regarding a subject, sit back and read the posts that will follow. I have a higher post count and many of those posts are due to Omni. However, I also have many posts on travel related forums as well. How people regard me is their business. All I can try to do is post factual information and assist those needing help. When I have a question, I create a new topic or read a relevant topic. For many of us, Omni allows us a forum to relieve stress. In my case, the stress is caused by business travel and work on the road.

Then you won't have any problem if I use your post and this thread to celebrate my 1000th post :D :D :D :D

Yippee

Now back to intelligent, high IQ posts

Hey, there's nothing wrong with being a college student, i was one myself (trivia: my first business experience was in college. i bought a refridgerator and smuggled it into the laundry room in my dorm and sold keys to the padlock i put on it so that my fellow students could have local brew and snacks quite handy. The name: Fat City Cold Storage)

I think you'll go far here on FT and elsewhere because of the way you start this. "A long time listener." We need many more like you. As for the post count. As you know, the display of post count is universal among almost all bulletin boards in existance. It's a standard feature of the technology that many of us use. Post count can be misleading and I usually don't even notice it. For instance, I was truly caught in on this post because of the way you introduced the topic. I only noticed later on your post count and by then it didn't matter because i was engaged with reading what you have to say. I'm not sure what we can do within the current limitations of our technology to add or substract post counts by forum structure. I think i was asked something similar before and it was can we discount OMNI posts toward the post total, whereas i am reading that you'd like to see no post count at all viewable when visiting the OMNI forum. This and many other suggestions are how we get better - some will warrant implementation and others will not, but we still need the comments and ideas coming. We're still trying to come to a resolution on this signature line issue. I kind of like them but when it comes to members using them in intents less than the mission statement of FlyerTalk, then it's not much fun.

Bottomline: let me see what the tech guys can come up in research. Now, i warn you in advance (guess i'm feeling a little picked on today....) there is a great chance that i will not answer back on this. It doesn't mean anything personal, it simply means i got tangled up with something else. However, once i hand it off to the tech guys, at least it will be looked in to.

I've got to tell you - as i was writimg this response i got a good feeling about FlyerTalk. My thoughts were along the lines that it's a pretty long distance between where i am in life right now and you as a college student. But that gap in education, work experience and simply years on this earth don't stop at all our ability to share FlyerTalk for what it is. Thanks for making that all so clear for me.

Go 'Dores.....

Randy

Thank you, Randy, for your courteous reply. I look forward to seeing what we can come up with. Of course, I understand if you don't get back to me on this issue. You have a large corporation to run, and I have classes to attend. So let's get cracking. :)

-vandy

See:
http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=345655

Thank you, Randy, for making Flyertalk a better place. ^

-vandy

thank you for this decision.

I wonder, OMNI not counting anymore, if the minimum 100 posts limit to qualify as an OMNI poster will still be automatic 'in the system' (did they/you think of that?)?

I don't think it will affect anything, because you can't have any OMNI post before reaching the 100 mark. So the counting isn't modified by the removing of OMNI post count.

BTW, could the change be retroactive? I feel guilty with a third of my posts in the WWBTNFTMTP thread...

5 am thinking of those who aleady qualified before with > posts (including OMNI post), when that level was introduced, but todaystill have less than 100 posts outside OMNI.

But you are right (and my worries were wrong), I just noticed, that former OMNI posts are not (yet) deleted in the overall count.

Good move Randy. ^

Good suggestion vanderbilt. ^

Randy, Thank you very much for the change.

I also echo Richelieu in hoping the count can be decreased to retroactively strip out the previous OMNI posts. That would be a cardinal improvement in my opinion. (Sorry, couldn't pass up the opportunity for a triple pun.)

Would the software allow that kind of precise targeting?

I fully agree. It makes a lot of sense for Randy to use his IT department's time to work on adjusting FT post counts. Much more important than say, something that makes the board work better, generates cost savings for his business, or god forbid, makes money. :rolleyes:

I have to agree with skofarrell, yet again, on this subject. To single handedly target a single forum to eliminate post count seems like more work than the overall benefit. Yes, Omni posters have high post counts. I certainly have added a great many posts on Omni but I do post on travel related topics. I look for post content rather than someone's post count when reading and valuing a topic or post.

As Randy said, " ... Post count can be misleading and I usually don't even notice it. For instance, I was truly caught in on this post because of the way you introduced the topic. I only noticed later on your post count and by then it didn't matter because i was engaged with reading what you have to say. ..."

People should read the remarks in posts instead of being caught up with post count totals. I have read many posts from people with very low post count totals that I appreciated and valued to insightful information contained in the post. I have also read post content from people with a high post count that were insignificant regarding helpful information (my posts included :D ). Omni is part of FlyerTalk and as long as it is, I believe that Omni post counts should be include post count totals. I believe all FT forums should count in post count totals. If people want to eliminate post count for Omni posts, then make the petition to remove Omni from FlyerTalk.

skofarrell sounds kind of bitter :(.

Good lord.

Why stop there.

Let's see, I say we remove all the posts from the following, that don't have anything to do with travel, miles and points ;)

• Only Randy Petersen
• Suggestions
• Technical Issues
• Community
• Talkboard Topics

I think we have better things to do than be worrying about that.

:rolleyes:

I wonder why, could it be that we have spent countless hours trying to help moderate that forum :confused:

And besides, I don't think he is ;)

I did not read that into his post. I think skofarrell is being practical here. FlyerTalk is a free board for us and there are those who want Randy to sink additional resources into modifying this board. While some of the requests add value, I fail to see what value is added here. It appears to me this is more of a vanity issue than anything else. This community is not that large when broken down into the segments that each member travels to. I generally scan 6 to 10 forums regularly and know who are the significant contributers and those who offer little. I do this by reading posts, not by looking at a post count total. I do contribute to Omni and can say that a great many of my posts there, maybe all of them (probably 1/2 of my total posts) contribute little to travel and programs. However, approximately 1/2 of my posts are in travel related forums but not all of those add specific information regarding programs and travel assistance.

What is next, eliminate any post that contains only a smiley, then remove the rants that we all have posted, then what else? I think that FlyerTalk is fine just the way it is. :)

It should be trivial to program for it. The counts are already being kept; it isn't as though a person would have to go through each of the half-million posts individually.

<Aside: One-half million! That means fully one in six posts to FlyerTalk are OMNI - not related to points or miles or travel or community or even gripes to Randy! Wow!! That in itself says something.>

It would seem one could program a bot to check each thread, cumulate the totals against individual posters and after summing the totals over all threads, deduct from the individuals' total posts. That's the sort of mindless mechanical repetition that bots are great at. Launch it and forget it. Don't even need to give it a beer break.

If I were the cynical sort, I might wonder whether some of the folks objecting to the idea were motivated more by the potential effect on their totals than by the "cost" involved in doing it, but because I'm not the cynical sort that thought didn't even cross my mind. :D

I think it's a great idea. I enjoy Omni, but that's not what FT is about. Maybe some of the poeple who post on Omni 50 times per day will find something else to do!

I know you are being sarcastic, but if I really thought that the post count meant anything, I would be seriously putting forth exactly that suggestion.

Then, we should remove your jokes in the Delta forum.

They are not related to miles, points or travel ;)

You people take this way too seriously :rolleyes:

---

"You people..."

Who are "you people?"

-Mark

Wise words from Randy:

If the shoe fits ;)

Thank you, Randy. Excellent decision. ^

The reason I came back to this forum for the first time since the "Reputation" contretemps is that I was wondering why my post count seemed to be "stuck" over the past two days. :o What can I say, it was the Feast of the Assumption (15 August), and I had a few things I wanted to get off my chest about a putative denial of Communion. :)

It is the nature of Flyer Talkers to "game" the system, whether as to Points, Miles, reputation points, or post counts. It is human nature, and particularly attention-to-detail frequent-flyer nature. :cool:

Your fix "solves" one part of that loophole, a loophole taken advantage of, actually, by some of our best participants and most helpful members.

The remaining question is whether to allow the intellectual elite (or creative ones, computer experts, or simply obsessed) among us -- I plead guilty to the latter as to reputation (!) -- to keep their ill-gotten gains.

I'm sure adjusting our point totals to exclude OMNI retroactively would not be a major, costly project, but could be done simply with relatively few programming keystrokes.

To promote the essential mission and focus of Flyer Talk, namely Points and Miles, and to further fundamental fairness amongst all participants, I recommend -- even at the possible loss of 20% or more of my own posts -- that prior OMNI posts be eliminated from the postcount.
Whatever you decide, Randy, thanks for listening, and thanks for all the blessings you provide to so many of us.

Peace.

:confused:

^^^

This assumes that people post on OMNI not for the enjoyment, but to inflate their post counts. After all, post counts do actually mean something, right?

No, they don't.

That is why I was surprised when jfe quoted my post and said "you people take this way too seriously."

I specifically said I would have made that suggestion "if I really thought that the post count meant anything."

Oh, well. I guess jfe's shoe is just fitting too well.

I wish the post restriction was removed from SPAM. It was my favorite place. I am a person who values MyPoints, easy United miles and a random free samples/magazines. I also posted things I found and helped someone get an iPod and Flat Screen.

Tonight was the first time I ventured out of the Miles & Points section. Omni seemed like a cool place where you do not know what the next topic was going to be about.

Welcome to the dark side, Amanda. :D

Help a bitter man understand post counts
 

With all due respect to the OP, focus on post counts is puzzling to me. I've seen people on FT with very high posts counts act in a derisive manner a lot of the time, and I've seen people with very low post counts operate in the same manner. So can someone help me understand the fixation on "post count"?

My preference for judging someone's "value" to the community is to focus on what the person posts, not how many times they've posted.

So again, what's to gain by tinkering with a number?

Randy agrees with the OP, and feels there is something to gain it seems.

Clearly. I'm not questioning the decision. My question focuses more on why people put so much value into the number.

Again, I think what you post is much more important that how many times you've posted. Hence my puzzlement (and bitterness, I guess)...