Please also see...
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...=555158&page=3

LOL! That could keep some of us occupied for a very long time... :D

Cross posting to other threads is VERBOTEN. Randy gets all your miles if you keep doing that. :)

<YAWNNNN>

Darn Oz, I was happy without having to come to this forum in a while until he pointed me out to this thread

<scratching eyes>

I see nothing new, same thing that has been discussed time, and time again.

Randy made the decision to keep the post counts in OMNI

Here was my prior proposal
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showp...&postcount=124

Well, the Who Will Be The Next FlyerTalk Member To Post? An OMNI Game thread was bound to come up once again as an example sooner or later, especially when a topic such as this is brought up.

Yes, there is a fair share of nonsense posted in that thread, tazi — but have you ever actually read any of it? Have you read the discussions in that thread pertaining to miles, points, travel, advice, recipes, stories, jokes, rants, personal tragedies and personal triumphs, among other things? Do the many friendships and FlyerTalk gatherings which have been generated as a direct result of that thread matter at all?

For the record, FlyerTalk members who have never posted to that thread either have attended or plan to attend gatherings created as a result of that thread, such as in El Paso.

If you take a look at the list of who posted in that thread, it is a virtual Who’s Who of FlyerTalk. Frankly, I am proud of that. I am also proud of the fact that with greater than 70,000 mileposts and the number of unique FlyerTalk members that have posted to it, that thread (or any of its earlier variations) has never required any official moderator action, as it has always been peaceful and friendly.

It has also been proven that when post counts from the OMNI forum — including that thread — did not count towards one’s post count, the amount of posting traffic in that thread remained unaffected.

Regardless, I maintain my opinion on this issue.

Finally, the Who Will Be The Next FlyerTalk Member To Post? An OMNI Game is open to anyone who has access to the OMNI forum, and is welcome to all. Any FlyerTalk member who wants to post in that thread is cordially invited to do so. Anyone who does not want to post in that thread may simply ignore it. It is as simple as that.

I'm a FT member now for over 5 years and frankly I still don't understand why anyone would care about post counts. I wouldn't mind if the counter were eliminated from public view. It isn't like you get greater perks if you have the insane # of posts that I have, for example. :D 1/2 of them are there probably because of baseball. :p

Have any of you ever watched "Who's Line is it Anyway"? Whether the English version with Clive Anderson or the California version with Drew Carey, the message remains the same: the points given out just don't matter. :p Same thing with post count in FT; it means nothing.

Back to the topic, the proposal is to not count non-travel related forum posts in the count. I don't see the reason for this to be an issue.

The only situation where there is a real benefit from a higher count is getting access to OMNI and Coupon Connection.

It is OMNI posts that are the ones that wouldn't be counted.

You can't post in OMNI before you have access.

All of the posts that got you the higher post count that gave you access to OMNI must have been in travel-related forums.

There is no benefit to removing the non-travel-related forum posts from the post count.

Q.E.D.

You obviously haven't seen the Lounge Forum on Air Canada where this exact problem occured without recourse to the member other than he/she taking a personal timeout after becoming drunk with FT exposure.

If post counts do count in OMNI, then the policy as written in the sticky in that forum needs to be updated to reflect the same.

What "obvious" connotations? Don't you think people are smart enough to understand that these types of labels are simply hokey features of the BB software?

Do you have some evidence of this? Again, people here are savvy enough to not give credence to a post based on simply the number of posts.

I don't. I think it silly that people get their panties in knot over post counts. Good grief.

Another problem in those lounge threads is that sometimes they are used by certain cliques to berate other FT'ers.......
Also how does one quantify what "blatant" post padding is? On some of those large lounge threads some of the participants have over a 1000 posts........would that be called post padding?

Actually there are at least a few of them who have done just that. Take away the posts that consist only of "wrong" or :rolleyes: or the like, and you'd see a significant postcount drop in those cases.

You really don't get the connotations of a label like "Evangelist"? No, I certainly don't think everyone understands that this is just a "hokey feature." What makes you think they do? And if it's a hokey feature, why have it?

No, I don't have "evidence of this," just as you don't that this is not the case. But my points are logical ones, and more common-sense than yours.

Fine. Thanks for sharing your opinion.

In order to discuss whether or not posts in OMNI should count towards post stats, I think we need to understand why we have posts displayed at all.

If it is to connote some kind of knowledge, then OMNI posting should be a liability :).

If it is to stroke egos, as is the goal of frequent flyer programs in general (in my opinion), then we should keep them and allow OMNI to count.

If it is to merely keep track of how big of a loser one is for posting all day on an internet forum, then they should be kept.

So the question is, what do the post counts do for us? Once we answer this, we will have a better idea of whether or not OMNI should count towards them.

It varies person by person. For me, I just like having the number there. Not for others to see, but just for me to realize how much I have posted at FT.

Cheers

Plan on taking out the CC posts too, while the TB is at it.

True. Sometimes with a willing victim, sometimes without. :D

Agree entirely! So how about something like:

- Every post in a travel, miles & points related forums adds one to the post count.
- Every post in OMNI subracts one from the above post count.


I can just picture certain posters going around with negative post counts now. :D

Great suggestion. I might suggest Talkboard votes on that one. :D

I propose that posts about post counts do not count towards ones post count.

:D

I propose that any post with a % sign, any bolding or a post with colors not count either!

Except you're still giving post count credit for those posts in the travel, miles & points related when someone who doesn't bother to post anything more than just " :rolleyes: " of "you are wrong" (without bothering to explain why or correct the misinformation) which as we all know is an oh-so-helpful post to a thread. ;)

Not to mention that I don't think post count is a good indication of anything except time on FT. I know far less about UA and some of the other forums I visit than folks with < 1000 posts.

I say leave the system as it is or don't display post counts at all. Trying to restrict this forum and that forum is just going to make a weird system.

Oh so true! So we need a more complicated formula than. I quite like Camera Guy's suggestion too though! :D

Are you trying to post a post with the most counts of the words "count" and "post" in a single post? If so does this post count? Hmm seems to have added one to the counter of post counts.

:p

I agree :)

I guess not. The term doesn't mean anything more to me than an indication that the member posts alot.

The high probability that FT is populated by people of above average intellegence, education, and experience who are smart enough to judge posts by their content and not some hokey label.

I don't think it serves any purpose, so maybe it shouldn't be used

No, actually your points are not logical and are based on nothing more than your unsubstantiated opinion. I at least have some reasoning behind my opinion.

You're quite welcome.

I agree.

Should they not count pre-post or only post-post? Answer this question, man, as you are subject to accountability for what you previously posted!

No because if they are "pre-post" then you haven't posted so they don't count. If they are "post post" then it means it is a duplicate post, thus two posts count even if you delete one.

Well, you have certainly made toast out of my post argument. :(

I guess this makes me Post Toasties.

Do the posts in this thread count towards count of the posts?

Can I suggest that we get back to constructive comments on this issue?

I have made a motion to the Talkboard on this issue... but would like to see more constructive comments from the membership.

William

My constructive comment is that if TB decides to disallow OMNI posts in the post-total you'd have a lot of unhappy campers. Posts are taken as a source of pride around here, and regardless of those merits, that sentiment exists.

I agree totally. I've even seen members who's post counts have somehow mysteriously dropped, add signatures to their name asking where they have gone. There is one such member in the AC forum now.

(emphasis mine)

This is precisely the reason I brought up this proposal. I agree with many posters on this thread that post counts have little or no bearing on MY opinion and that the content of posts is what really matters.

However, as the previous poster just pointed out, there are many who view post counts as a source of pride. The message to them is that post counts can be incremented by making a contribution to the underlying purpose of this board - travel. Post in travel related forums and your post count will naturally increase.

Lately, FT has attracted a lot of attention, as is evident by the number of new members signing up and posting on many forums across the board. A classic response to a newbie post is "Another newbie with less than 10 posts unhappy with MyFavorite Airline". The intrinsic message in such posts is obvious.

Another reason to discontinue Omni post-counts is the remote probability that Omni might be dropped. I recall a time last year, or the year before when Omni was dropped/disabled because of page load speeds. Until it became clear that Omni was not responsible for slow page loads, there was no talk of restoring Omni. Clearly, Omni is dispensable.

The bottomline is that the purpose of FlyerTalk is a place to exchange travel related ideas and questions. Obviously, Omni is NOT a travel related forum. While some have argued for the exclusion of other posts (smilies, CommunityBuzz, etc.), we have to start somewhere.

I propose that somewhere be Omni.

Until OMNI is discontinued, I don't agree. OMNI is part of FT and as a part of FT it should count.

The notion that post counts are a measure of "travel" related discussion is false. Even outside of OMNI there is a ton of chat that is not travel related at all. This forum is a good start.

My feeling is that as long as OMNI is a part of this community, it should be treated as such.

Perhaps a better solution is to have a blurb in the welcoming literature that there is not a significant positive relationship between post-count and knowledge :).



---

Note: I have no dog in this fight. I think post counts are stupid and should be gone entirely, but I'm arguing principles here.

Not an ideal solution in my book, but better than keeping things as they are.

Agree that's another better solution than maintaining the status quo.

And yet a third solution, proposed in the first post in this thread, which is admittedly not perfect but better than the current approach--keep post counts, but have them mean something (or at least more than they do now) and actually be a more accurate way to gauge a poster's contributions to FT, by not having OMNI posts count. :)

You pose three solutions. Let's back up a second. What's the problem again?

I'm repeating myself, but, in a nutshell, that post counts can be misleadingly indicative (to some) of a poster's knowledge and travel-related contributions to FT, supported by the idea that they are somehow "valuable" (if they aren't, why make such a big deal by zeroing people's post counts when they are caught padding?).

Also, why not enhance the usefulness of post counts by actually making them reflect something more useful than they currently do?