+2. I am completely agree with you. ^^

I completely agree with this. ^ In fact, why not have an entire forum of lounges, with sticky posts in each substantive forum pointing to the respective lounge forum?

The slippery slope argument doesn't hold water here. Wishing FTers a happy birthday can only ever account for so many posts. +1 posts are routinely deleted. Lounge threads, on the other hand, can -- and apparently do -- go on forever. I did a bit of poking around at some of these threads, and let's just say that there are a handful of people for whom more than half of their 20,000+ posts on FT can be found in lounge threads alone.

To the extent FT determines which posts will count based on substance, then these lounge threads need to find a home where posts don't count.

Is counting allowed in the lounge threads? Why or why not?

You should ask the moderator(s) of the forum(s) in question. What's permitted in lounge threads is not a TalkBoard matter.

:confused:

I thought the entire point of this thread was to raise the issue of whether not one's posts in lounge threads should count in one's total. Is that not a TB issue?

And I completely and categorically disagree with that POV as it draws a distinction between two of what I see as the same kind of post. You can't IMHO say non-travel related posts on Community count because members may make fewer while they won't count on lounge threads on airline forums since some posters make more. They are all they same to me and FT already has enough lines drawn about access and post count and I wouldn't favor seeing more.

And I posted that per IB, within the same forum, there cannot be some threads where some posts count and others don't. The software is not able to handle such distinctions at this point in time.

Furthermore, kokonutz refers (I believe) to the counting "game" threads in Omni.

Were one to start playing such games within a lounge thread outside of Omni, such posts would count. However, whether one is permitted to play such games in lounge threads is not the purview of TalkBoard, rather it is that of the moderator(s )of the forum(s) in question.

I don’t get what the problem is, Posts don’t mean anything, so why discriminate aginst one group of posters manily in Omni? Who cares if they want to post a 1000 times, when their post counts mean nothing..

Also I think it should be noted, that posters in Omni still continue to post in the counting/waste of time threads, as well as in PR, without the privilege of post counts at a good rate even still.. Flip the switch back on for post counts in Omni since threads of no meaning counts elsewhere.

This is ridiculous. It's been clearly demonstrated that post counts *do* mean something to users on this board, thus the post-count based restrictions on certain parts of this board. I have no idea why you keep trying to pretend otherwise.

Further, if they *really* didn't mean anything, the clear position to advocate would be for their removal in entirety. Clearly no one thinks they're that meaningless.

The advocacy to remove post counts in entirety (or in part) also shows that some think the post counts are not meaningless.

That's very generous of you to permit the lounge threads to continue. Thank you.

Of course they mean something. Obscenely large post counts (like mine) and the resulting titles like "Evangelist" mean that the poster is in severe need of getting a life.

Here I am, for example, on my last night in Prague -- one of the most fascinatng cities in Europe and unquestionably home to literally hundreds of thousands of beautiful women -- and what am I doing? Sitting alone in my hotel room posting about post counts.

If that isn't proof that I need a life (as evidenced by my post count) I don't know what is.

If there is a off switch to disable post count by user, you should request it, as you won’t feel all that bad posting about post count ;) Plus You have already reached Evangelist status so it shouldn't matter to you if post count or not.. :p

I have a question. What's is a penalty box?

While some posts are easy to identify as off-topic, others are less obvious. Trying to define an "OT" post is going to take up valuable time of the moderators. I would rather they spend their time on more useful, important things than worrying about whether a post is "OT" and, therefore, shouldn't add to one's post count.

I don't think one's "status" as an Evangelist and such is important, but I think post counts matter in terms of being able to identify folks who have made numerous, important contributions to the travel aspect of FT.