Post Padding
 

Sorry to put this thread in this forum as it would have been more fitting for the now closed and removed ORP thread (and feel free to find a new home for it) but if I may.....

It may be me :), but I have noticed a lot of posts/replies with simply a "+1" or "^" or a combination of those (or blank spaces after a single "+1" or "^" to allow the post to be posted with such minimal characters ;)) and I thought those types of posts were not allowed.

Like I said, it may be me but just wondering....

We're waiting patiently for the "Like" button like the other forum has.

+1 :D

what is the other forum? is thattheomni I no longer can reach for some bizarrereason?

You now need 180 posts and 180 days on FT to access OMNI..


http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/town-...i-omni-pr.html

I think it's like sitting in a classroom. There are only so many answers to some questions before a teacher will start to hit a wall of "That's what I was going to say" responses. To some extent I'd rather see a +1 to show agreement or support as opposed to reading x number of responses rehashing the same exact information.

Its' gone already. Sorry, Guys and I can't help you.

Or 179 more +1's. :D

Instead of worrying about post number, I think a better idea would be to rank or grade them. Because while some of you have over 100,000 posts, others will never reach 50 posts. But if we had an independent judging board, we might be able to decide who is trustworthy and who is not.

Nah.

I don't think 179 +1's would pass OMNI MODs' 180/180 inspection. :D

I'm not sure I'd want to be on such a board, nor would I wish that upon anybody to need to do.

It's another site, similar in concept to FT, and also devoted to frequent flyer programs. Has nothing to do with any part of FT.

http://www.milepoint.com

More information in the (apparent) gap.

Which is exactly what I'm getting at

For me, if a person wants to post something, then let them actually post something (even it is a re-hash or a re-hash of a re-hash)

I'm not a +1 kind of guy. If I don't have anything new to add to the discussion, I do not post.

What is your concern with post padding? From my observations the +1 crowd tends to be established flyertalkers. Is it a matter of comparing the size of your post counts?

I understand that posting +1s could be a way to meet minimum post requirements for some, but I don't see that to be a widespread issue, or is it?

so perhaps in place of a post count FT could switch to a character count so as to assess the true value of a post?

I do wish there was a way to access a post's value thus to weight it. Using "like"s to weight a post is a start though still rather imperfect. A point well made, goalie.

And who would weigh this value? There's the rub.

No "reputation" system is perfect and I'd rather see FT not adopt any rather than jumping at some half measure. Just MHo and YMMV.

I'm a lawyer. I can use millions of characters and STILL stay nothing.

ROTFLMAO (and yes, that is post padding ;))

I am non-padders the post count. I am post a several time on FTs and I always be more respectable to others. I don't have any problems at all. Sometimes that I post on airlines, TravelBuzz, Travel Safety & Security, Destinations, Newsstands, CommunityBuzz and DiningBuzz and Trip Reports, too. However, I am not interests to posts in OMNI/PR very often.

I think that a character count might be a good idea. But sometimes a simple answer of "no" may be good enough. Maybe they should add a mod or two that delete the padded posts. Or, is there a way for the software to alert someone if they post under a certain number of characters? Then the mods can just delete the posts without searching every thread or relying on us to alert them to padded posts. My 2¢


Delta747

The software already prohibits posts of three characters or less.

One way around that is to quote a previous post. The software is not smart enough to count only the non-quoted characters.

There are a lot of good ideas in here, but ultimately we're limited to the capabilities of the software, which means that most of these ideas are not likely to be implemented.

People would just post matter and color it white (like I did to section of the quote above for example). :D