For the last 2 days, mainly sick with the flu, I've spent about 4-6 hours on the site.

From what I can see there is alot of post padding (posting no information, Thanks I agree, good place etc etc) in response to the original question, some of these posts come from mod's or people with 2K+ post counts.

Is this acceptable?

Personally I find it a waste of space, and really kills the flow when you have people asking stupid questions.

Quick example: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=636211

I have many more.....

I have given my response to this in the linked thread.

(I also think this particular example is an unfair one)

Are there unnecessary responses to posts? Yes.

But I'm baffled by the thread given as an example. I found it absolutely fascinating, and learned a lot. The 2 main contributors put a lot of thought and effort into what they wrote. There are other active contributors to the Japan forum who have posted as well.

There is a community in certain forums. Sometimes folks post succinctly, yet it is a signal to others who participate in that community that they are reading and enjoying.

I suggested the thread for Talkmail last night, because I found it so intriguing.

In some cases what you call post padding I call being polite.

If someone spends time assisting me, the least I could do is say thank you and vise versa. I do it in the thread.

What you may think is a stupid question just may be important to a new person to the points game. Eventually (hopefully) they become contributing members and start answering their fair share of "stupid" questions.

That's what a real community is all about.

As a regular poster to the Japan forum, I do not see any annoying padding in the example cited.

Incidentally, I am saying this to lend additional support to the views expressed by the other responders to this thread, which IMO is a perfectly valid reason to post.

one of the soon to be implemented addtions to FlyerTalk will be a Thank You button that will allow members to say thanks without inpeeding the flow of a thread. Look for this over the next few weeks. We want our members to feel free to be courteous at all times and always as well be able to say "Thanks."

Among many other new things coming to FlyerTalk.

I found it pretty amusing someone with ~60 posts posts "talk about padding" to someone also with few posts,and then starts a new thread about this alleged padding - none of which I saw in there except the post from the OP.

As others have said, that is an interesting and civil thread.

interesting thread, highly amusing that OP had 2 fairly off topic posts (Japan = cheap & a karaoke joke) before accusing others of "padding," especially when there are plenty of examples of people spamming, nearly randomly, in various threads while contributing nothing (not even humor) to a discussion. (but no examples to be found in the thread the OP linked..)

and the REAL padding would be the unending OMNI threads

that thanks feature sounds great randy, thanks! ^

Wow, who would have thought that my simple telling of "date" plans with my Japanese partner would draw so much attention. I was trying to add to the very succinct posts by Laplap and her husband about "in between" places to find time alone. Japan as you know is a crowded place, I believe Laplap , her husband (a Japanese national) and the others gave a viewpoint from the "city". I wanted to add that I often find it wonderful to have private time with my partner in the countryside. Where I live "Hot Springs" are everywhere and they are a great place to relax and talk in relative private especially with one's mate. I was also trying to say that much of what goes on here is never spoken but just done.....and was trying to impress this to Sunnyhere. Thanks for listening, and a Happy Chanukah to all!
QSG

Why do you suspect these folks of padding their post count? Except to accumulate enough posts for coupon connection and/or OMNI eligibility, exactly what purpose is served by this alleged padding?

^Thanks, Randy.

What does it matter how often people post? It isn't like we are paid to post and thus get more money by posting as often as possible!

That sounds like a nice addition.

The common thing that I've seen when people complain about post padding is that the person complaining usually forgets that there are two criteria that must be met for the activity to be considered post padding, not one:

1) The post must not contain any information; and
2) The purpose of making that post is solely to increase the post count. (It's this second one that is generally forgotten.)

Once a person hits 180 posts (and gets OMNI access, with the requisite number of days of membership), I don't see the second criteria as coming into play nearly as often. While it's not out of the realm of possibility for someone with 9900 posts to start padding to get to "Evangelist," I think it would be really hard to prove. With FTers with lower post counts, it's a little more obvious.

Mike

Exactly. It's always nice to hear that what you post is helpful or funny to someone else.

THANKS Randy!

This sounds like a cool new feature!^

Can we get a "No Thanks" button in OMNI while we're at it?

Seriously, this sounds like a great feature; thanks!

Actually we do have a "No Thanks" button for OPMNI. It's when I click a button and say "No thanks for any more of your off-topic contributions in OMNI." It seems to work for me. Actually you do have a "No Thanks" button - it's called "Ignore User."