I think here that would increase the posting, as people want to get to the next level. We would have "posting runs" to get to the next elite level *smile*

It seems like we have some hyper-activist agendas on TB. I didn't realize FT was as broken as some TB members see it.

VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY well said!!!!!!! (and a few more !!!!!!!!!!!! for Dov *smile*)

If TB members in support of this position cared to be consistent, we'd not only have select forum posts eliminated from counts, we'd also have select threads eliminated from counts and we'd also have select posts eliminated from counts. Are we now going to now have an automated filtering for which posts count and not count at the post-level or a "report non-travel post to be removed from FTer post count" feature that creates even more work for moderators (or another group)? The agenda of some is far more expansive than this limited motion. With this passing, the next step will be more of this kind of micromanagement to fix "problems", "problems" that haven't inhibited my benefitting from FT.

I totally agree, and I think I mentioned that on page 2 or something! :)

Then why not axe the title?

#3, the perceived reputation that titles carry with them.

Bingo. Well said.

Then Community needs to be abolished, along with a few others. All of the do threads need to be abolished. If you want a clean wikipedia of travel, make it clean.

and I thought this was about credibility of the posters and the reliability of information that is assumed to coincide with the post count associated with the poster?

Just an aside, but has anyone considered the fact that post counts and titles, while not conveying travel knowledge or travel savvy, do reflect experience and knowledge of the community itself? This is immensely important when it comes to things like Coupon Connection.

That was the reason originally Dov gave himself. Now it seems to have changed. :confused:

Dovster et al, please take note of this!! Please take good note.

I'd like the TB proponents of this to please take into account that by limiting the scope of this motion to "OMNI" posts, you give the appearance to *some* of us (who otherwise wouldn't care about titles or post counts) that you're acting to advance a different agenda then the one given.

I can't see how that will help the long-term health of FlyerTalk. :td:
<LINK>
...The TalkBoard consists of volunteers who are elected by the FlyerTalk populace. The TalkBoard serves as a User Advisory Council representing the general FlyerTalk population and addresses issues that serve the long-term interests of the FlyerTalk community. Issues that are under consideration by the TalkBoard, and actions that the Board has taken are displayed for the public in this Town Hall...

This is an important issue... more than most posters may at first recognize, and it isnt really about simple and silly threads on Omni that exist solely for padding post counts. It also really isn't primarily about post count being a substitutional metric for trust.

This core issue is behavioral, and concerned with behavioral motivation in a realtively large community. Most behavior is, at one level or another, driven by reward, or lack thereof, based on metrics that include status and renumeration, or currency. The only measurable currency on FT is post count and title, and right now, it is earned without regard to "quality" of the behavior relative to the core purpose of the board.

If the core purpose of this board is travel related conversation, then any currency on this website should be structured to reward travel related discussion, and issue no reward for other discussion. The Omni section of the board exists solely for this other discussion, and participation in it should confer no "currency" or reward in the board status system. The analogy here is to cut back a plant that grows tall and thin, because by doing so it grows much fuller and more vibrantly.

Status is real, and everyone here knows it, because it is avidly pursued in a hundred different proxies for "real life" status, including FF programs, etc. Status is just as real on FT, and is conferred by post count, titles, elected office, etc. It is no more and no less than a proxy for "real life."

So again, the issue here is to whether status is to be granted for noncore activities on this board. The lengths to which people will go to obtain this status is evident by the lengths to which they argue against their own dimunition of status in this thread, often without making reference to that as being their motivation. That alone acts as validation of the core theory.

I applaud the TB for willingness to adjust board status in the "coin of the realm" by making it aligned with behaviors that increase the total value of the community. Cut back the plant to allow it to grow fuller and with more and larger flowers.

It's a powerful motion, one more powerful than it at first appears, and deserving of support by all those who wish for a more vibrant and informative travel based community.

This motion won't improve the quality of posts about travel, nor will it improve the quantity of quality posts on FT either. If anything this motion will reward/encourage bad behavior -- posting large quantities of posts with less regard to the quality of a given one.

I think you are the third or fourth poster who has told me I have some ulterior agenda.

Please be the first to tell me what it is.

I'm not saying you do or you don't, but lesson #1 with ulterior motives: you don't say what they are. @:-)

Procedural question:

I am unfamiliar with the mechanics of the system TB uses for voting. Can votes be changed after they are cast but before the end of the polling period?