Diminishing Post Counts

[Norm48327]

tree68

Norm48327

My profile shows I have made only one post. Rather skimpy for all the years I've been posting here.

Now Norm, you're not living up to your avatar... 

You're right, but I notice you don't have any stars either and you've mad many more posts than I.

[samfp1943]

BaltACD

What is going on?  I am noticing a number of signifigant contributors to this forum are now displaying the single badge of a Newbie - Are we too intimidating to the Newbie?

Checking my profile indicates I am at well over 4600 posts - and now I am shown in double digits?

 

I have noticed this has occured to several other long term forum regulars!

First they came for our stars.. They were gone..

.Counts were of no consequence, they said.

Then they gave us little medal looking thingys.

With no explanations. 

Then those started disappearing, and numbers were meaningless, and intimidating?   

And along the way there have been enhancements to the FORUMS!  

Everywhere, these days it seems like someone is wanting to tell others when to row or to bail.

                                                                                           

MY JOB

It's not my job to run the train, the whistle I can't blow.

It's not for me to say how far the train's allowed to go.

I'm not allowed to blow off steam, nor even clang the bell.

But let the damn thing jump the tracks....and see who catches hell!

• 
  
  

[blownout cylinder]

Norm48327

My profile shows I have made only one post. Rather skimpy for all the years I've been posting here.

I seen one poster have only -2 posts...how does one get -2 posts?

[richhotrain]

LOL

I lost 32 more posts overnight.

Can you imagine if your bank kept on losing track of your money so that after a year of making additional deposits to your account, you bank account would be substantially lower than a year before?

I know that the counter argument is that our host is doing us a favor by hosting the forums, but at the same time we are ignored and debased on something so basic as post count.

They say it is a software glitch, but as a former programmer I ask, how hard is it to maintain a simple counter and how long does it take to fix it?  A year?   Look, if I have a post count of 100 and I post another reply to a thread, guess what, my post count is now 101, not 96. 

If the forum were a bank, it would no longer have any customers and it would be facing a mountain of lawsuits.

My guess is that no one is listening, and nothing is being done about it.   Ask yourself this, how did it go wrong in the first place?   Ridiculous.

Rich

[BaltACD]

My Stars - lost last week - have returned.

[NorthWest]

The problem appears to be fixed! Thanks guys!

[schlimm]

Why does the forum keep track of and post the number of posts by each member?  What difference does it make if you have 8000 posts or 8?

[Semper Vaporo]

schlimm

Why does the forum keep track of and post the number of posts by each member?  What difference does it make if you have 8000 posts or 8?

 

It does help a wee bit to know if someone is a newbie or an old-timer.  Low post counts do not necessarily mean the person is not knowledgeable about RR's, but it can reduce the "what kind of idiot are you... oh, I see you are a newbie" responses to an inane question.  And I guess that high post counts do not necessarily mean the person is even intelligent, but at least it shows they have been around a while.

 

A few years ago it helped to detect a fool that created a user account with a name very similar to another member and began to post comments that put the other member in a bad light.  I detected the phony name because I noticed the lack of stars/medals under the name... well, actually I was fairly certain that the "real" person would not make the oddball statements that were appearing... which were quite confusing and that is what caused me to go back and look at the user name at the top of the postings and noted the lack of medals and then could see that the user name was "not quite right".

[schlimm]

Semper Vaporo

schlimm

Why does the forum keep track of and post the number of posts by each member?  What difference does it make if you have 8000 posts or 8?

 

It does help a wee bit to know if someone is a newbie or an old-timer.  Low post counts do not necessarily mean the person is not knowledgeable about RR's, but it can reduce the "what kind of idiot are you... oh, I see you are a newbie" responses to an inane question.  And I guess that high post counts do not necessarily mean the person is even intelligent, but at least it shows they have been around a while.

 

A few years ago it helped to detect a fool that created a user account with a name very similar to another member and began to post comments that put the other member in a bad light.  I detected the phony name because I noticed the lack of stars/medals under the name... well, actually I was fairly certain that the "real" person would not make the oddball statements that were appearing... which were quite confusing and that is what caused me to go back and look at the user name at the top of the postings and noted the lack of medals and then could see that the user name was "not quite right".

I see your point.  As far as "oddball statements" go, they are pretty easy to spot and probably best to ignore. Any attempt to use a screen name almost like that of an established member should be rejected by the moderators, etc.