Post counts

[PragueBlue]

I'm very much for the idea, and I'll give reasons why so hopefully people can understand my support:

• Post counts in the eyes of some as they have admitted in this thread, has created a tiered user system in terms of how people read the post of the person. They treat the same opinion extremely differently based on a number by the side of a name. It's better to treat people on the content of their post and debate them on it than it is to agree or dismiss based on a number
• The forum and especially the transfer part of it has become a paranoid place where many of our posters believe anybody and everybody is there purely to irritate them. The Reds Under The Bed paranoia has interfered with discussion to the point that legit new users are getting pilloried from all sides if they don't start off proclaiming City as the biggest and best club in the world who can do no wrong. Their card is then marked by users. The forum is supposed to be a laugh, most people don't find going online to a place to discuss a football team and being called a **** and a liar constantly a fun thing to do.
  
• This is a bigger problem than post counts but over the last 12 months this forum has just become plain nasty and it's driven away many, many users. Removing post counts won't immediately fix this but if we can remove some of it and force people to actually read posts instead of skim reading them then we might improve it a little. Anger and impotent rage of the type felt on forums is like a virus that spreads; people get annoyed in a thread in the main forum then go into Off Topic and explode at somebody over a different topic. Cutting down any of that stuff is a net positive for the forum. We don't want a sanitised and clean forum where people can't show their passion but on the other side we're seriously creating a place where only one opinion is correct and if you're not part of that opinion then you get constantly barracked. This goes for everything from transfers to politics on here.
• They serve no actual purpose. The purpose they have been serving for people are a purpose that they aren't designed for and aren't wanted for.

Spot on. That people are judging posters by the number of their posts, rather than their contributions is a pretty good reason to get rid of the post count.

 

[Rascal]

They stick out like sore fucking thumbs mate as well as previous banned users or folk just on the wum.

Why shouldn't they get the stick they deserve?

Not my site or my decision but its a bollox decision, pandering to a few.

More banned user paranoia. You really want too give it up. Moderators can find them. Thats stick you deserve and i dont know and dont care what your post count is.

I applaud the decision wholeheartedly and i called for it years ago as i previously said. It stops idiotic spamming for a start and it helps people integrate as no "[post count" hierarchy exists. Posts carry a more equal weight as people will look at what is written rather than be impressed by the fact some daft fucker has acquired a zillion posts.

 

[Cheesy]

Good move.

Frankly, the arguments put forward in this thread in favour of keeping post counts visible are exactly the reasons why they shouldn't be.

Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't the majority who seem to be against this move those with very high post counts (Rascal excepted)?

I wonder why this, because it could be construed as wanting to keep this hierarchy that most posters think isn't the best thing for the board as a whole.

 

[PragueBlue]

Personally I think the forum has already become really disjointed and a less pleasurable read since the beginning of June. And this is just another nail in the coffin for me as reader and poster.

Why do you think it is going be a less pleasurable read if there are no post counts?

Personally I have found the forums more pleasurable since the change over from the old layout and I can't see having no post count displayed affecting it negatively at all. In fact it might give some people on low post counts, more confidence to join in and contribute to the forum without having their views disparaged based on the number of posts they have made.

 

[BillyShears]

More banned user paranoia. You really want too give it up. Moderators can find them. Thats stick you deserve and i dont know and dont care what your post count is.

I applaud the decision wholeheartedly and i called for it years ago as i previously said. It stops idiotic spamming for a start and it helps people integrate as no "[post count" hierarchy exists. Posts carry a more equal weight as people will look at what is written rather than be impressed by the fact some daft fucker has acquired a zillion posts.

Nobody is impressed by peoples post counts. That's as much a myth as the idea that every new user is a rag. To me it seems more than a little odd to not acknowledge that post counts do serve a purpose in terms of knowing how to react to a posters POV. It's neither controversial nor problematic IMO.

 

[Damocles]

Regarding what @blueinsa said, it will actually HELP in terms of finding problematic users.

Many times people get away with stuff because they've stuck a few posts in off topic so are seen as legit. In fact all of the known "invasions" we've had from Red Issue and places in the past have come from users who build up by posting shit in off topic or general football then all "invade" at once with a larger post count. Yes, people are genuinely that pathetic.

One of the good things about removing post counts is that it will hopefully boost reports based on content of posts rather than post counts, which really is an issue and 99% of reports are about people with low post counts. This means that people will be judged on what they say regardless if they have 10 or 10,000 posts which will allow us to clean out the wums much more efficiently

 

[BillyShears]

Regarding what @blueinsa said, it will actually HELP in terms of finding problematic users.

Many times people get away with stuff because they've stuck a few posts in off topic so are seen as legit. In fact all of the known "invasions" we've had from Red Issue and places in the past have come from users who build up by posting shit in off topic or general football then all "invade" at once with a larger post count. Yes, people are genuinely that pathetic.

One of the good things about removing post counts is that it will hopefully boost reports based on content of posts rather than post counts, which really is an issue and 99% of reports are about people with low post counts. This means that people will be judged on what they say regardless if they have 10 or 10,000 posts which will allow us to clean out the wums much more efficiently

Does this imply that the decision is final and that post counts won't be coming back? My understanding based on what Ric has posted was that the situation was more fluid than that.

 

[SWP's back]

Changing my location after every post is a pain in the arse.

 

[Gaylord du Bois]

What's happened?

 

[Damocles]

Does this imply that the decision is final and that post counts won't be coming back? My understanding based on what Ric has posted was that the situation was more fluid than that.

No, just an opinion. It's been banded about as a discussion in the mod forum before but I didn't even know it was happening until I logged on this morning and saw they'd gone. Thought I'd broke the forum!