# What Happened to Nightfall's Post Count?



## Olaf the Stout (Apr 30, 2007)

I was reading a random thread and happened to notice that Nightfall's post count was listed as 0.  Any reason for it?

To stop him from continually posting 3 or 4 word posts multiple times in a thread in order to jack up his post count maybe?

Just curious more than anything.

Olaf the Stout


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## Dog Moon (Apr 30, 2007)

Wow, 0 posts.  Guess he has to start over, eh?  He'll catch up in no time, I'm sure.


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## Steve Jung (Apr 30, 2007)

I think he was banned recently.


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## Graf (Apr 30, 2007)

Personally I'd be keen on dropping post counts entirely. It could be replaced by some sort of simple system (either a range like 0-100, 100-1000, 1000+) or some sort of neutral statement like Visitor, Experienced, Frequent Poster.

Allowing "view printable version" to accept blocks would be a good solution too.


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## Angel Tarragon (Apr 30, 2007)

Graf said:
			
		

> Personally I'd be keen on dropping post counts entirely. It could be replaced by some sort of simple system (either a range like 0-100, 100-1000, 1000+) or some sort of neutral statement like Visitor, Experienced, Frequent Poster.



I'll be the first to say that I don't like this idea. Keep the Post Count.


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## Piratecat (Apr 30, 2007)

When we see signs of people posting to increase post count, we may address it. One of those methods is randomly changing the post count so that the numbers quickly become meaningless. We like our posters -- but we don't want folks posting for the wrong reasons when that affects others.


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## Arnwyn (Apr 30, 2007)

That's a great policy. Thanks for that!


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## bento (Apr 30, 2007)

I always thought the "Hivemind" thread over in non-game topics was the proper outlet for serious post-count competitors. 

Is Nightfall's PC reset due to a moderator conspiracy?  I read the "Ignore NF" thread started on CM this past weekend.


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## Umbran (Apr 30, 2007)

bento said:
			
		

> Is Nightfall's PC reset due to a moderator conspiracy?




If it were a conspiracy, we'd either keep our mouths shut, or deny it was, and you'd continue to believe what you wished.  If it weren't a conspiracy, we'd deny it was, or keep our moths shut, and you'd continue to believe what you wished.

The fact of the matter is that it is not your business.  It is unseemly and rude to try to have fun at another poster's expense in this manner.  Please stop.


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## Piratecat (Apr 30, 2007)

Bento, as judged by the smiley, you're just being funny -- but we don't generally discuss moderation with folks, and this does fall into that category. So we're not going to go into detail on it. My apologies for any confusion.


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## LightPhoenix (May 1, 2007)

I agree with everyone who has said to get rid of post count, and this is why:

Firstly, there's the inevitable problem of people posting just to increase their post count.  There will always be meaningless posting, and inevitably there will be people that will post a lot of garbage.  However, displaying a post count provides one more excuse for that.

Second, I don't think post count serves any real utility.  It's not an accurate gauge of... well, anything escept for who is a prolific poster and who isn't.  That is readily obvious once you spend a little time on the boards.

Third, I think that it diminishes the impact that less prolific board members have.  In part because posts are drowned out, so to speak, but more because people will naturally pay more attention to the people who have a higher post count.  However, I feel that in many cases everyone has something worthwhile to say, and that can tend to be masked by post count (aka the "newb" syndrome").  I think that it's less an impact here, because our hobby is older than the internet, and I think we probably skew higher age-wise than the average message board posters.

Fourth, I don't really think it adds anything to the boards to balance out what it subtracts.

For the same general reasons, I'm all for masking the join date as well, though I think that's less of an issue.


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## Nifft (May 1, 2007)

LightPhoenix said:
			
		

> Third, I think that it diminishes the impact that less prolific board members have.  In part because posts are drowned out, so to speak, but more because people will naturally pay more attention to the people who have a higher post count.




Whatever man. *Piratecat* likes it, and he's worth 5.53 of you.

Feh, -- N


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## Piratecat (May 1, 2007)

To give credit where credit is due, I'm alternatively worth 2.099 Niffts but only a fraction of a Crothian - so you may want to take anything he or I say with a grain of salt.


Seriously, I don't particularly care about post count one way or another, but we have no plans - or real reason - to dump it entirely.


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## Olgar Shiverstone (May 1, 2007)

Either Nightfall got caught tilting the board ... or he ran up a high score and flipped the counter.  I suspect the former.


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## Rystil Arden (May 1, 2007)

LightPhoenix said:
			
		

> Fourth, I don't really think it adds anything to the boards to balance out what it subtracts.




It is generally a useful guage in PbP of whether or not a poster might vanish in the middle of the game.  I like to have it around for that purpose.


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## Dog Moon (May 1, 2007)

I like postcount because I enjoy posting on the threads where someone is like 'yay, reached 5k posts'.  It's like a mini celebration of sorts and makes me happy.

And sometimes it's fun talking about it.  Like now.

And wasn't there a time when the postcount was like 'Your postcount is Crothian's minus x'? or something like that.  Was funny.  Or when Spoony gave himself a postcount of like 400k temporarily.


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## LightPhoenix (May 2, 2007)

Rystil Arden said:
			
		

> It is generally a useful guage in PbP of whether or not a poster might vanish in the middle of the game.  I like to have it around for that purpose.




Good point.  I don't play PbP, so I didn't think of that.


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## Nightfall (May 23, 2007)

If anyone cares, I'm back and I'm ready to answer IN PRIVATE via email or PM any questions you have about...stuff.


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## jonesy (May 23, 2007)

LightPhoenix said:
			
		

> ...people will naturally pay more attention to the people who have a higher post count...



I somewhat doubt that. And the same goes for join date. The only thing they provide is a rough estimate of how long someone has been visiting the forum. And that doesn't really say anything about them.

Personally I pay more attention to people who make interesting posts.

Hmm. The only way to make postcount any sort of indicator of how "valuable" someone is would be to have people rank posts. But that would be horribly elitist and much more vulnerable to misuse. "I don't like that guy, so I'm going to rank every post he's made a 1 even though he makes good points". "And that one I consider a friend so he gets a 5 everytime even when it's just useless drivel."

And no matter which system you use someone is always going think it's the wrong one.


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## Nightfall (May 23, 2007)

Yeah which is why I prefer people rank me without that kind of a system.


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## hong (May 23, 2007)

I rank people as follows:

< 0 posts: not worth reading
0 posts: possibly worth reading
1-10 posts: intriguing new flesh
11-10000 posts: one of the crowd
10001+ posts: SHUT UP SHUT UP ALREADY


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## Nightfall (May 23, 2007)

So do you tell yourself to shut up then Hong?


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## Crothian (May 23, 2007)

I tell myself to shut up all the time iykwimaityd


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## hong (May 23, 2007)

Nightfall said:
			
		

> So do you tell yourself to shut up then Hong?



 All the time.

http://www.enworld.org/showpost.php?p=3539904&postcount=12


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## Michael Morris (May 23, 2007)

Who here remembers the April fool's prank where I set everyone's post count to read "X less than Crothian"?


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## Gulla (May 23, 2007)

Michael Morris said:
			
		

> Who here remembers the April fool's prank where I set everyone's post count to read "X less than Crothian"?



*Waves hand*


H


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## Nightfall (May 23, 2007)

Crothian,

Really? Huh. Well I guess since you're the top guy you can do that.


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## Dog Moon (May 23, 2007)

Michael Morris said:
			
		

> Who here remembers the April fool's prank where I set everyone's post count to read "X less than Crothian"?




I do!


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## LightPhoenix (May 23, 2007)

jonesy said:
			
		

> I somewhat doubt that. And the same goes for join date. The only thing they provide is a rough estimate of how long someone has been visiting the forum. And that doesn't really say anything about them.
> 
> Personally I pay more attention to people who make interesting posts.
> 
> Hmm. The only way to make postcount any sort of indicator of how "valuable" someone is would be to have people rank posts. But that would be horribly elitist and much more vulnerable to misuse. "I don't like that guy, so I'm going to rank every post he's made a 1 even though he makes good points". "And that one I consider a friend so he gets a 5 everytime even when it's just useless drivel."




The psychology of how people assign authority is pretty interesting.  One way they do that is "authority through experience."  That is to say, people that have done more, know more.  In theory, sounds completely logical, but people don't always recognize experience as opposed to simple time.

There's the phrase, "Respect your elders."  That's an example authority from experience.  Are all older people smart or wise?  Definitely not.  Conversely, not all younger people are dumb and stupid either.  However, paying respect to older people is highly ingrained in most societies in the world.

Now, translate that to the internet.  Unfortunately, on the internet, age is generally obfuscated.  I could be twenty-seven, or I could be fifty-seven, and without physically meeting me, no one would really know (the former is true).  So, experience is derived from time, and time is generally calculated two ways - the date someone joins a community, and how often they participate in that community.  In this context, join date and post count.

Now, I'm not saying that _everyone_ will equate join date/post count with experience or knowledge, nor do those dictate a degree of experience, or lack thereof.  A large percentage do though, because that's how societies work, and have worked, for a long time.  Hence, the whole "f-ing newb" mentality.


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## Angel Tarragon (May 24, 2007)

Michael Morris said:
			
		

> Who here remembers the April fool's prank where I set everyone's post count to read "X less than Crothian"?



I remeber. Loved it!


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## Ankh-Morpork Guard (May 24, 2007)

LightPhoenix said:
			
		

> The psychology of how people assign authority is pretty interesting.  One way they do that is "authority through experience."  That is to say, people that have done more, know more.  In theory, sounds completely logical, but people don't always recognize experience as opposed to simple time.
> 
> There's the phrase, "Respect your elders."  That's an example authority from experience.  Are all older people smart or wise?  Definitely not.  Conversely, not all younger people are dumb and stupid either.  However, paying respect to older people is highly ingrained in most societies in the world.
> 
> ...



 Wow. Deep.

Now explain why no one listens to me.


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## Bacris (May 24, 2007)

Crothian said:
			
		

> I tell myself to shut up all the time iykwimaityd




Crothian, that post count is... disturbing.  Congrats!


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## LightPhoenix (May 24, 2007)

Ankh-Morpork Guard said:
			
		

> Wow. Deep.
> 
> Now explain why no one listens to me.




Did you say something?


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## Nonlethal Force (May 25, 2007)

LightPhoenix said:
			
		

> There's the phrase, "Respect your elders."  That's an example authority from experience.  Are all older people smart or wise?  Definitely not.  Conversely, not all younger people are dumb and stupid either.  However, paying respect to older people is highly ingrained in most societies in the world.




To nitpik - and I admit nitpik, because I agree in principle with the post that you are making ...

The phrase respect your elders has nothing to do with listening to them.  It has everything to do with acknowledging the fact that they've made it more years in life than you without killing themselves!  I can respect someone without having to listen to them.  I respect just about everyone who makes it through a Ph.D. program.  But many of the professors I had when earning my masters I did not listen to!  [And am doing fine without listening to them, fwiw].

Heck, even my own grandma, who is 91 1/2, I don't listen to!  Her frame of reference is so antiquated that most of her advice really isn't sound in this century.  It would have been really good in the 70s and 80s, though!  But in spite of not listening to her advice, I still respect her enough to let her give me all the advice she feels necessary to give.

Anyways, ending the nitpik now.


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## Dog Moon (May 25, 2007)

Nightfall's posts have apparently been returned to normal.


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## Nonlethal Force (May 25, 2007)

Dog Moon said:
			
		

> Nightfall's posts have apparently been returned to normal.




No, Nightfall's just been really happy to be allowed back!


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## Nightfall (May 25, 2007)

That and I got an UPGRADE back to where I should have been..erhm sort.


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