Wolfies computer broke. maybe.....

This is the July report. We still haven't seen the August report, yet!

I believe everyone is flying in intentional "jest" mode.

Only a 2,5 million posts, that's not that much.

Soooo...does the mega post announcment mean that there will be no LWT August??

Personally I see no reason to keep posts any longer than 12 to 18 months as most are abandoned after just a few days or weeks any way. Shows and conventions do not need to go back to 2002 (except for maybe picture threads) 12 months tops. News and Rumors and General Card Discussion should have an 18 month shelf life. It seems that a lot of stuff is being retained so that on the occasional instance it can be referred to later. With the release of the Non Sports Enclyclopedia and great websites such as Jeff Allender's I dont think we need it so much. If a question or topic should get asked again...then it will just get answered again with a current perspective.

Thats my two cents worth anyway.

P.S. I dont think the announcements need to go back to 2001 either.

quote:

Originally posted by Peter cloet:
Only a 2,5 million posts, that's not that much.

I agree Peter.

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:
Soooo...does the mega post announcment mean that there will be no LWT August??

Personally I see no reason to keep posts any longer than 12 to 18 months as most are abandoned after just a few days or weeks any way. Shows and conventions do not need to go back to 2002 (except for maybe picture threads) 12 months tops. News and Rumors and General Card Discussion should have an 18 month shelf life. It seems that a lot of stuff is being retained so that on the occasional instance it can be referred to later. With the release of the Non Sports Enclyclopedia and great websites such as Jeff Allender's I dont think we need it so much. If a question or topic should get asked again...then it will just get answered again with a current perspective.

Thats my two cents worth anyway.

P.S. I dont think the announcements need to go back to 2001 either.

Thanks a lot for the input mykdude! I appreciate it.

As for the LWT report, yes, to be honest, I am still debating whether to keep posting them or not. I feel it's a bit hypocritical of me on one hand to say 'be conservative with your posting' and on the other, say 'here's the community report. Look at all the posts by members x, y, and z.'

On the other hand, getting some of the larger topics deleted and restarted, deleting trade posts, and maybe deleting some of the older discussion posts will probably get us down in the count a good bit without having to worry too much about our posting actions.

Aaaahhh, the internal struggles!

the Look Who's Talking I think, is a pretty good community activity tool, but not sure it needs to be displayed to the community. Like this particular one shows that user activity is up for the 3rd straight month, percentage wise. This comes after a 2 year long decline in active posters and percentages. Interesting to those of us who track this kind of stuff, but does it need to be broadcasted?

Plus, for the "Mega Post" thing: I have said it many times before Harris, in public and in private - get rid of post counts and you will see a drastic decline in frivilous posting.

I would disagree that it shouldn't be broadcast that activity is up, surely that's a good thing and means more people are getting involved. I would agree however, that who is posting the most does not necessarily have to be displayed, but am unsure whether it will stop frivolous posting. Having a graded card talk member system means that if people who are posting for the sake of it, will just switch their attention to getting a silver, gold, platinum, whatever. I agree that this does take longer so interest may disipate. But as with all things like this I'm sure people will find their own levels in time. If you have a group discussion, like this forum is, you will have those who have a lot to say, those who make the occasional comment, voice their approval/diapproval, laugh & so on, and those who are content just to listen/read. Surely people shouldn't feel discouraged from making any contribution. Don't let's push people out or stop those new to the hobby from asking questions because their post might be deemed frivolous. We all have to start somewhere, let those new to non-sport card collecting feel that this is a safe haven.

I think much of the rise in activity these last 2 months is due to particularly anticipated products appearing or being due for release, particularly the emotive Star Wars 30th. The names of the biggest posters & topic starters is just a bit of fun and an excuse for the rest of us to congratulate or make sarcastic comments. If it's felt that this is being abused aren't we big enough in this community to police ourselves. Do moderators have the power to delete posts that they feel inappropriate? If they do, then they can take away what they feel is unnecessary, but it should not be totally their responsibility. Sometimes a newcommer might not know their way around the board. A gentle nudge in the right direction is much appreciated - I know it was to me when I first took the plunge a few months ago after being a casual viewer for a few years. Let's embrace everyone and make this a community where we can all feel at home sometime.

I thought I'd put my oar in, and now I've said my piece.

justm:

By removing post counts, I would also remove the whole Gold/Silver thing too, everyone would just be members.

And as far as frivilous posts. I am not talking about someone answering a question, I am talking about the people responding to every post on the bard with a smile, or a silly quip. Most of them are unwarranted, and it has been going on for years.

Thanks for the clarification mtlhddoc2.

In that case I'd have to agree with you on the whole. Those with the experience would soon make themselves known under this system, it would certainly be more egalitarian. But sometimes the silly quip is the very reason that people like this site. Life's serious enough.

The fact that the current system has worked for years though does lead to an 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' argument. I'm sure other members will make their feelings known.

quote:

Originally posted by mtlhddoc2:
justm:

By removing post counts, I would also remove the whole Gold/Silver thing too, everyone would just be members.

And as far as frivilous posts. I am not talking about someone answering a question, I am talking about the people responding to every post on the bard with a smile, or a silly quip. Most of them are unwarranted, and it has been going on for years.

Why not just shut the board down and stop everyone from having any fun at all.

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:

quote:

Originally posted by mtlhddoc2:
justm:

By removing post counts, I would also remove the whole Gold/Silver thing too, everyone would just be members.

And as far as frivilous posts. I am not talking about someone answering a question, I am talking about the people responding to every post on the bard with a smile, or a silly quip. Most of them are unwarranted, and it has been going on for years.

Why not just shut the board down and stop everyone from having any fun at all.

Thats what I am trying to prevent.

I think everything should carry on exactly as it is now. Everyone should have fun and post whatever they want to post.

We should have a community report every month where we can cheer for the people who had the most posts and then slap them down for posting so much, once again all good fun.

The problem of course is that to achieve this we have to get the overall post total down and we can do this by deleting virtually everything on the board that is more than three months old.
Nobody would even notice it had gone and if in the future someone asks about something that was there the question can be answered again. The important thing is that a thread consisting of 400 posts was not left on the board for 3 years on the off chance that someone might want to refer to it.

Phrases like Take away peoples post count, Take away their gold / silver status, Have a community report but only let the mods look at it make the board seem more like a prison camp than somewhere you would want to come to in order to relax and enjoy yourself.

its a prison camp because there is no post count? I do not get that.

If Harris chooses to explain the price scale of the board then so be it, I wont do it. But rest assured, I know the scales (not the exact amounts, just how they charge) and it is not just "total number of posts" but also "posts per month" plus a number of other things. This board is 100% not free. Do you really think NSU will continue to foot the bill if the number of frivilous posts starts to outweigh the actual newsworthy posts? It all comes down to a cost-benefit analysis. At some point, the costs will outweigh the benefits (if they have not already) and NSU will have to do something, possibly something drastic. we are not talking about a billion dollar a year industry, but a small mom-and-pop franchise.

quote:

Originally posted by mtlhddoc2:

its a prison camp because there is no post count? I do not get that.

I did not say that. I said phrases like that combined with an underlying tone of stopping all the fun things of the board.

I am well aware of the types of costs associated with running a board like this and am , along with most people here, very grateful to Harris and NSU for providing it.

I am not trying to start an argument with you here Dan so please don't think i am but i don't think that taking away the things that make the board a fun community is the answer to the problem.

I say again that i think the first thing we can do is delete virtually all of the past threads that are still on the board and then take it from there.

It is also very important that the members of the board are made aware of how this is helping so that they know how much their own contribution is helping, or not helping , the cause which is why i advocate that the community report should be shown so that people can see how things are improving.

I do not see how an "underlying tone" was read into my original posts at all. The post count and a million smilies have nothing to do with "fun" I would think. Interacting with others who share similar interests would be considered fun for me.

Hey, let's not get too heated, ok?

I don't want to take anything away from the forum and am leaning towards whacking a bunch of the older posts in the discussion areas. I have been loathe to do so before because of searches. But maybe that's not really a concern and like mykdude says, "If a question or topic should get asked again...then it will just get answered again with a current perspective."

The main reason I posted my message above was to see what the input would be.

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:

quote:

Originally posted by mtlhddoc2:

its a prison camp because there is no post count? I do not get that.

I did not say that. I said phrases like that combined with an underlying tone of stopping all the fun things of the board.

I am well aware of the types of costs associated with running a board like this and am , along with most people here, very grateful to Harris and NSU for providing it.

I am not trying to start an argument with you here Dan so please don't think i am but i don't think that taking away the things that make the board a fun community is the answer to the problem.

I say again that i think the first thing we can do is delete virtually all of the past threads that are still on the board and then take it from there.

It is also very important that the members of the board are made aware of how this is helping so that they know how much their own contribution is helping, or not helping , the cause which is why i advocate that the community report should be shown so that people can see how things are improving.

I go to other boards without a community report and everyone is perfectly happy and having fun.

The only people who cares about them are the people whose only goal is to be the "post leader".

I know of so many of my fellow cardtalkers who have left this board because they feel it is a waste of time here because of certain cardtalkers feel they must post a or a statement like, "yeah, what he said", after every single post. It takes too much time to get to the information that they are after. Most of us(I know I have) have bonded more offboard through e-mails and trading that what has been said on site.

I think the removal of titles except moderators would be great. Some people actually think that being a golden diamond member means something other then number of post. It doesn't make you smarter, a better trader, or a better person.

Harris is doing the RIGHT thing for all of us. If it means no more community report or changing up the site, so be it! It is his playground and he has given us a free pass to play in it. If you want to spit on your pass and shove it in his face because he changes something up that will save him some grief and money, then that is sad.

i'll go withh mykdude on this one.

most post are abandoned after just a few days, and on the rare occasion someone needs info from a previous age, there are a lot of memebers here to answer any question that comes up.

maybe a once a year "spring" cleaning up of the message board, and anything from the previous year is deleated.

as for LWT and member status/post count, i think it helps more then hurts.

in the LWT we all get to see how many posts wolfie has made this month and then we all get the opportunity to make fun of him

i kid wolfie

as for the post counts, i see nothing wrong with it......
as long as you actually have something to say/contribute to the thread....even if it is just a or

after all, we're all here to learn, communicate, and share our love of collecting with others of a like mind.