Hello Randy !

I have a question / concern regarding threads that do not really benefit the FT Community and whose primary purpose it seems to be to somehow push the individuals post count as much as possible.

I cant really see much use in a thread where only single icons or letters are posted and the respective post counts jump in the sky, following by a lufty title for the posters.

Not that I care about the particular titles but they suggerate for example to a new member high experience and knowledge, especially if someone asks for advise. That a majority of these posts do not result from constructive discussions but rather a waste of bandwith is nowhere visible. There are certainly very active & knowledgeble members from other forums as well but that doesnt eliminate my concerns.

Dont want to be the party pooper for OMNI but thats how I feel give the current situation.

What do you think about this ?

Cheers,
S.

OMNI posts do not increment post count, and haven't for some time.

I'm too lazy to dig up all of the haranguing over this from last year, but I'm sure somebody will come along with a link.

OMNI posts do not count, but wait around: I'm sure there will be some contest where you can get 10K posts in a week if you never leave your computer.

You must be referring to the recent "free Amsterdam tickets" thread in CommunityBuzz.

The list of posters to that thread, with their post counts on it, looks like this. (For the sake of brevity, I have limited it to those who posted more than 100 times to that thread. And there were a huge number of people who posted exactly once to it.)

Who Posted?
Total Posts: 67,080
User Name Posts
colpuck 5,002
Anglo Large Clawed Otter 4,045
Sam - DFW 4,007
rolov 3,754
JayhawkCO 3,652
primusux 3,546
CO 1E 2,658
szg 2,647
masonp123 2,533
jrzyshawn 2,460
planeluvr 2,394
AvalancheZ71 2,112
MatthewLAX 1,824
Clincher 1,627
ssullivan 1,604
RxCapt 1,487
sbm12 1,276
Gaucho100K 1,188
sdm1130 1,001
luvsbucks 1,001
m60521 981
MKEbound 835
fozz 619
MileageAddict 602
Gargoyle 545
OPFlyer 480
BiziBB 456
Brian_1 423
BondAir007 420
itsaboutthejourney 405
prefer_2_fly 398
General_Flyer 384
gil123 371
belynch 362
GivenRandy 341
jfe 327
zitsky 322
Hartmann 314
CDG1 288
briantoronto 235
Blank Sheet 226
Shuttle-Bored 225
patalan 219
Mike1625 219
gbryan84 197
Lori_Q 194
Olton Hall 188
Peetyrd 187
Mary2e 166
mrgender 150
SFOTerry 145
jason8612 132
EasternTraveler 131
CObigtimefan 126
cfbrtr 121
Brobbel 115
dmatorin 103
COFan 102

This might be resolved by asking you to answer this truthfully. The 12 times you posted on the recent thread to win free business-class style tickets to AMS - was that because (like all the others) did actually hope to enjoy the generosity of FlyerTalk and go to AMS or were you the only one there that was thinking the entry was actually a post pad and you were hoping to be 12 posts smarter than the next member?

I've chatted with the three winners and they are all extremely happy to be going and seem to have nothing but great things to say about the chance they had to gain even more things from FlyerTalk than just increasing the knowledge of their travels and as well make positive new friends out there in the skies.

So, was it AMS or was it the vanity of just trying to have more posts than the next guy/gal. Just wondering ...

I've been to AMS 4 times and would love to go back again. I don't enter contests I don't want to win.

The way you drew the winners rewarded post-padding and encourages it in the future. Congratulations, I guess.

And I gotta say that if you think that 12 posts constitutes "post-padding" then, well, I think you need to examine your thinking just a little bit closer. You couldn't be any more off base.

I'm somewhat surprised someone running for TB was unaware OMNI posts do not count towards a member's total post count given the huge debate on the subject.

A couple of major threads on the topic of this thread (i.e., OMNI posts counting or not)

In this forum (Only Randy Petersen):

www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=790240


In the Talkboard Topics forum:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=790993

Who says that they dont count? Wouldnt be the first IT bug that ever occured...

Then what kind of posts bump someone into the 35K region within 2 years ?

I can say I post quiet a bit and made it to about 5K within 3,5 years. Something seems to be wrong here.

Specifically talking about the Rolleyes Thread etc

I've long wondered why some members spend so much time worrying about other members post counts , shouldn't the focus be the information, learning new things, exchanging ideas and having some good natured fun at the same time? @:-)

Too bad you didn't get a chance to read what was posted. Last minute, not planned on and use or lose situation for the tickets. Other model before while not intended cheating to get an extra entry in, did lead to much more monitoring than I had time for with the urgency of this change in another members plans. Didn't have time to go back and ask everyone if they were still interested (we'd still be getting replies...). Because of the extended time from the originating offer there were many more members now interested because their schedules changed. Only on FlyerTalk when you try to do good for others will some find fault. As for your 12 entries in the AMS giveaway? Gee, what else could have it been? After all, you only needed a single entry to be eligible.

But here's the rub. Rather than suffer the analysis paralysis of these types of opportunities, I'll make the best decision I can in the moment - it's called "Blink." And if it leads to the occasional misunderstanding, so be it. You know, there's still time to have Clincher, Anglo and JayhawkCO send you a post card from AMS if you hurry up and contact them - they really are on their way ... while others might have still been trying to devise the absolute perfect system to gauge interest in something very cool and rewarding from FlyerTalk. Some walk, others talk.

And the practice of "Ready, Fire, Aim" continues. I can't express it any better than you just have. It would've taken a very short amount of time to engage the TalkBoard for a recommendation on how to distribute the tickets, but you really aren't interested in the TB's advice it appears. Or anyone's.

Actually, I can't express it any better than this post: Here.

Sorry I'm losing the line here

What does the AMS contest has to do with all of this ?

Well yes, people posted x times on there but did these count on the total ?

I'm basically opting for eliminating counts completely but thats just my opinion... what kind of indicator is that anyhow.

Randy does. For further reading on the topic see the links posted by KathyWdrf.

What's the mystery? Posts count everywhere on FT except OMNI and OMNI/PR. Some have said that padding your post count on Community or Contest forums is still possible. FWIW I'm against eliminating post counts altogether.

I don't often wade into OMNI land or most of the areas I didn't have questions/information about. What concerns me is that I often judge the quality of a response to a question based on a few things:

1) Do I know the member/does the board
2) What's their post count (i.e. a low post count often = less experienced)
3) How long they've been here (longer = better in my mind)

Eliminating post counts would be a foolish thing in my mind. However eliminating the posts that happened on OMNI / other non points/travel areas doesn't concern me...