The inconsistency is that lounge threads, some of which have a substantial number of posts that essentially say nothing, count, while posts that actually say something in Omni don't count. Ditto for the contest threads for seats to the mega dos, plus all the forums that are marginally related to travel. Right now, I could post pad my heart away in any one of the lounge threads.

The motion could not address allowing them to remain or continue because that is a moderation issue and not the purview of the talk board - as has been said many times. The TB decides whether or not to set up a forum, but once it is set, then it's up to the mods what is allowed within them.

Keep in mind that at the time all the counting threads were started and existed Omni did count. Randy was the only moderator. He got fed up and rather than delete the threads or not allow them to continue, he just put Omni in a whole other section of FT and made that section not count.

That's why I'm all for deleting them if this motion passes.

1. I voted for RichMSN.

2. I do not favor allowing Omni posts to be counted.

3. I knew, when I voted for Rich, that he favored this.

4. I want Rich (and all other TB members) to vote on what they, themselves, feel is best for the membership, not what they feel is the most popular thing to do.

And, for the record, I knew about 2 and 4 and had a feeling about 1 and 3.

In fact, both this quoted post and this post I am typing now count. Neither of them build much community.

But getting feedback about a college my daughter was accepted to do not. And that is community-building at its finest.

It's a stupid, stupid, stupid inconsistency that should simply end.

I just made an informal proposal in a PM that I'll probably bring up to the whole TB and that is to create a new OMNI known as OMNI/Games. So we'd have regular OMNI, OMNI/PR and OMNI/Games.

The posts in OMNI and OMNI/PR could count and the posts in OMNI/Games might not count depending on how everybody felt about it.

Or the posts in all three forums could count or not count. I'm not really hung-up on the counting/not counting thing.

But OMNI/Games would break the games away from regular OMNI and wouldn't "clutter" up the main page of OMNI as some folks seem to feel they do.

I think that some posts in Omni belong in other forums. I haven't seen one about the college your daughter is interested in, but from the sounds of it, one of the US Regional Forums may be a good fit...and you'd get post counts for it too :p
(a PM request to the Omni mods with the intended destination forum may get it moved)

But I don't 'know' the folks in the regional forum. I do 'know' the folks in OMNI. In fact, I now have a long and very helpful PM from an OMNIite! ^

Most of the stuff talked about in OMNI could also be talked about in Lounge or Box threads. But that's not as familiar a community to me as OMNI is.

Here are my 2 posts in the private TB forum on that proposal:

Then, after some posts by others:

Long overdue. Thank you for stepping up and putting that on the table. It's like someone finally listened to what I've been advocating for at least a year in various TB threads.

Tom at ORD

At least the two of us, kokonutz, are in agreement about a third sub forum for OMNI and that whether or not the posts for that sub forum, if it gets created, should or should not count.

I suspect that there are other TB'ers who are probably in general agreement with this as well.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

For those of you who think I don't listen here at all, this all started with my PM to a group of TB members.

So naturally, I would support this as well, *provided* the original motion passes first.

I am certain that I have posted my opinion elsewhere, but it really does not matter to me either way.

I am neither for nor against this motion.

deleted

On this, I have to disagree. On many forums, it is acceptable to take "senior" posters much more seriously than those who have just joined. In this instance, post count does matter.

Sigh - ok, stepping back in again as I've been offline.

The last 2 times this issue was brought up before TB for a vote, it lost by one vote, so clearly there was interest in making post counts consistent. When it was polled before in both the Omnis before the last vote, it was equal 50-50 in terms of for/against. It was also the same close 50/50 in prior discussion threads. So the folk are more against it in this discussion thread than the previous 2 isn't holding overwhelming weight for me. I'm certainly taking this thread into consideration, but I'm also taking the prior threads into consideration as well, especially since the last one was only 6 months ago.

Of course if everyone likes, I can go PM everyone who posted in the 2 prior discussion threads pro/con who hasn't yet posted in this thread & give them a heads up. Odds are their thoughts won't change & we'll see the same 50/50, but perhaps we'd have a more representative number for those who are angsting about that.

On a different note, on December 15th in the private TB forum, I posted the following:

"So my suggestion/possible proposal:

We create a games sub-forum* in Omni, and that sub-forum be made a non-post counting sub-forum. People who like to post in the count backwards or whatever games can post away to their hearts content, but it doesn't up their post count/get them evangelist/legend title.

And then we change Omni to a post-counting forum. I'd make the Omni posts counting & games sub-forum in a single proposal just to simplify things.

Whether Omni posts counting should include Omni PR or not is possibly up for debate. I don't really spend much time there. I doubt someone will get evangelist that way (or in Omni lite either), so my inclination is to make both count. But I'm flexible on that part.

* I doubt game-counting threads require much moderation by the Omni mods, so don't think we're adding to their workload."

When I returned from holiday last week I PM'd cholula & told him I was going to bring up the Omni/CC posts counting in a motion the following day, but wanted his thoughts first on whether to make it all posts counting or do a split games into a sub-forum & make that non-counting. He said he could go either way, but didn't think that games threads were really an issue (since he's posted that publicly in this forum I'm ok w/ mentioning it) & was inclined to support all posts counting.

So on that note I was going to do the motion the following day, and because he mentioned games weren't an issue I probably was going to go w/ that, but figured I'd ask one more time publicly in the private forum before making the motion. However, when I logged on RichMSN had already made the motion with it being all posts counting & no separate sub-forum.

Since most of us had no problem w/ the all posts counting in ALL FT forums for consistency's sake & because cholula said there was no discernable difference with the games forum posts before/after Randy flipped the switch, I was ok with Rich's motion & it might not have been different from mine had I made it.

I'm supportive of posts counting in ALL forums because I believe it should be consistent. I have enough faith in FTers & even newbies for them to realize if someone has 100,000 posts in a short period of time they weren't all gotten in the Marriott forum. And I'm sorry, but I think I give more credit to newbies than a lot of you. I think they read the posts in any forum & figure out if they have value, and most don't look to the left to see someone's post count. I'm also deferring to cholula in thinking that games aren't going to suddenly skyrocket in the Omni forums.

However, if there is a time where games become a problem, then it would be quite easy - at that time - to create a games, not-counting sub-forum. However, if they're not a problem, then let them be.

Cheers.