I wouldn't jump to the same question on the above basis.

At least over 208k miles year-to-date. Probably up at 218k as of this week and 233k by end of month (at a minimum). The more I travel, the more I post.

Not really. The principal time when I find myself unable to post is if I am being pushed or dragged to the real backwaters by others. Even posting from planes is getting easier.

[QUOTE=Cholula]Seriously, I DO like showing post counts as it helps me put statements from posters in perspective. If I'm not familiar with a particular poster, his/her post total gives me an idea how experienced they are with FT. Since we can't "see" or "hear" each other on an IBB such facts as post total, join date, etc. help me understand where a poster is coming from.
And speaking as a moderator, single digit post counts are important as they indicate a newbie who should be welcomed and given an extra degree of help. I might not always notice the join date but a post count of 2 or 3 jumps right out. Plus single digit post counts help us recognize folks who have registered another handle for the sole purpose of trolling. Not that that would ever happen on FlyerTalk......
QUOTE]


Back to the subject at hand. I usually agree with mikey1003, but in this case I am on the other side of the tracks.

Cholula points out some obvious examples why post counts are useful. ^

Kiwi Flyer is spot on, and I would add the TS/S board to this list as many of the posts there are political in nature.

Post counts do add to a member's credibility and is similar to ebay and the number of transactions a member there has participated in. Virtually every BB I have been on has post counts and I really see no reason to discontinue them here. IMHO, the change that needs to be made is to eliminate posts from the boards that really don't deal with Miles & Points.

My point exactly - I understand logging on from hotels rooms, airport lounges, your own office as a brain break, etc. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, at times has to disconnect in order for the little grey cells to remain active, creative and useful.

But to me as high level of PPD certainly calls into question how much value-added business travel/work is being done. I realize of course that not all travel is for business. I realize that more travel means more postings - I do it myself. Also, more experience means (hopefully) more postings in aid of those with questions or requesting help.

IMHO, if I'm running a business, or even a meeting where people are not engaged, and some people are bored enough to wander of into the ether with a high degree of regularity, then I (me, myself & I, nobody else at fault) did a poor job managing and am not doing my job to make sure everybody is actually adding value. If that is the case in a meeting in particular, then the particular topic probably would have been better discussed in the hallway rather than sucking up peoples valuable time. Productivity is the name of the game, not just in manufacturing but also in the white-collar/services world.

Please realize that there are posters with what I perceive to be high PPD whose postings I value and enjoy. Others seem more frivolous. Haven't fully fleshed out fully what PPD would most generally indicate.

Now what would really be interesting is to post not only the average PPD but also the standard deviation, or σ, of PPD. The smaller the σ, the more people would seem to be on "all the time" vs. opportunistic participation as would be suggested by a larger σ.

That would be an interesting new statistic!

A key indicator of good management is that the disappearance of a single individual or few persons does not lead to collapse or (more apparent) stagnation/delay. Things run fine with me or without me. That they run well without me is a positive indicator.

The name of the game should be engineering yourself out of a job as quickly (and well) as possible.

A statistical analysis would be interesting. The posting patterns may mean different things.

Being stuck in boring meetings, I either leave, or discretely work on other work stuff. Usually email, data analysis, a report, etc.

Now if it is MY boring meeting, then I've really screwed up!

BTW, not sure why people are being so sensitive - I never revealed what I consider a high PPD? Do those being sensitive think they themselves have a high PPD? I passed no such judgement.

Think I'll run some stats on myself over the weekend. Max, min (zero obviously), standard deviation, etc. I'm sure I'll be wrong, but I'll be close to accurate. My guess is I'll skew greatly toward 0-1 posts per day, and have a standard deviation significantly higher than my PPD. Of course both average and standard deviation are problematic since one cannot have less than zero posts in a given day. Have to really dust off my stats to recall proper mathematics on that. Frankly, I predict I'll grab a beer and make the executive decision to simplify by assuming a normal distribution.


Stat results - undoubtedly wrong but close. Posts through Friday, 9/2/05. Skew on median is interesting. Difficulty formating columns in FT?

- All Days/Workdays Only
Days able to post: 204/143
Days posted: 86/82
Total Posts: 260/249
Avg Posts/day: 1.27/1.74
Median Posts/day: 1/5
Min Posts/day: 0/0
Max Posts/day: 11/11
Standard Deviation : 2.05/2.25

Days with 0 posts: 118/61
Days with 1 posts: 27/27
Days with 2 posts: 18/16
Days with 3 posts: 11/10
Days with 4 posts: 11/10
Days with 5 posts: 9/9
Days with 6 posts: 3/3
Days with 7 posts: 4/4
Days with 8 posts: 0/0
Days with 9 posts: 2/2
Days with 10 posts: 0/0
Days with 11 posts :1/1

The name of the game should be ensuring your people are capable and confident. I've actually told my people a number of times - "I don't actually DO anything, you folks are the ones who make it happen!" Also, ensuring they can continue of you get hit by the proverbial turnip truck, or if any of them do.

Finally, once the machine is humming along nicely, and I am thankfully not overseeing some crisis, then my duty is turn start turning over new rocks to generate either more revenue or reduce costs. It never stops.

A CEO I admire greatly managed by the concept that if you are not involved in either selling more, making more, making it better, or making/doing it cheaper than you are not value added. He cut out vast swathes of people who fit that description. Most of the time, the organization didn't miss a beat in their absence. If there was a problem, he quickly put them (or their function) back. Took a boring crappy business from -$300MM/year to +$200MM/year by doing that, and by doing what we were supposed to do better. And no, he's nobody you've heard of. Operates very successfully under the radar screen.

Just need to take a mental vacation ocassionally. We all do. FT is a nice place to do that.

Suggestion:

-- keep the date when joined
-- ditch the post count
-- have some kind of newbie designator that disappears after 500 or so posts.

Like a trainee badge?

My suggestion is to keep thing exactly as they are. What's wrong with the system the way it is?

Don't forget "exponential smoothing"!

Yes, like a trainee badge. Presently, when I see a FTer with few posts, my guard is up. Is this someone creating an alias in order to do some flaming? Is it spam? It's also an indication that someone is unfamiliar with the FT culture and might need a little help.

Hilarity - I rounded over 90 and no CC appearing for me. Maybe after a day or so the system refreshes? Or maybe 90 isn't the major #. Been a member for about a year

OT - One thing that I just noticed was that I am unable to ignore myself.

When I try to ignore myself, I get the following message:

Sorry, you can not add yourself to your own ignore list.

I searched using "ignore" and "yourself" but was retruned with 500+ responses b/c "yourself" was not included.

OT Again - There is no way to report myself for a bad post. The little triangle with the exclamation point is strangely absent from my own posts. I brought this up the other day while playing "Who Will Be The Next FlyerTalk Member To Post? An OMNI Game," but no one took me seriously. Although the situation has not presented itself yet, I wanted to be prepared when the time comes.

Thanks for addressing these REAL deficiencies in FT.

Sam

You can't ignore moderators either.