dont get me wrong- I think you guys did a great job. but I liked seeing people's # of posts. why did that change? Just curious . . . I guess its just growing pains- nobody likes change.
I was starting to like seeing my post count as high as it was. I know it's petty, but I felt a slight twinge of pride seeing the count displayed. Oh well.
Not to stir up controversy, but I don't think the post count issue was ever really resolved. It was decided, but I don't think it was resolved--there's a huge difference there.
From: buttcrack of the midwest Insane since: Oct 2000
posted 04-23-2004 16:30
Geez...walk it off you guys. Get a sticky note and put some hash marks on it.
It`s been said that it shows longevity, but we also had some inmates that ran up a few thousand in a very short time. So it doesn`t matter
It`s been said that it shows time spent , level of ability. See above.
It`s been said that it makes one worthy of an actual answer to a posted question. If you want to answer, do. If not, don`t. So, it doesn`t matter.
If it`s that important to you, keep track and mail all your friends. When someone celebrates a post count landmark, many say it doesn`t matter. It`s not important. Means nothing..
Post content will tell you all those things. It`s all that matters.
But there are many of use who find a very useful and valid feature. That's doesn't mean it is the means by which we measure a person - but it helps add context in many ways.
And as Suho said - the issue was never resolved, by any means.
I'm not jumping back into the middle of this...I made the mistake of doing that once already, but I will say that Suho and DL are correct...the issue was not resolved. We were simply told how it was going to be, and that's where it ended...last time.
If it is considered an unacceptable strain on the server then we could (at the very least) put it in the user's profile - there is an option in vB to not display post count in the thread but in the profile and I know some boards have it enabled. It seems a reasonable compromise.
spamming and egos aside, the post count identifies new inmates. last night,
reading through the forum, i encountered a name i'd not seen before. was this a new inmate? had he/she been given a *welcome*? a strait jacket? crayons? pills?
have we become so large, that new inmates tossed into the asylum (by fate? relatives? friends?) must find their way without a friendly "howdy"?
renaming profile to cell number is also a source of confusion. if profile is too normal a word for us, then imho, call our profile our case file or some such.
these changes may be a royal pain in the neck, but imho are required for our mental health.
[edit again.. why doesn't my first edit show here? i wanted to edit my edit. the change i was going to make was that i'd rather have my profile/case file identify me than a cell number. having an identifiable cell has always been our choice. we have celebrated birthdays (ours, our newborns) and post counts in our cells w/o having elaborate definitions of them.
[3rd edit - recalling some of my first edit after posting the above edit, i realized i had to copy it and then paste it into the new window to have it show in the post! very annoying.
some of my first edit that disappeared - mental health may be overstating the case, but imho these few changes would help smooth the transition to our newly renovated quarters.
Tyberius Prime
Paranoid (IV) Mad Scientist with Finglongers
From: Germany Insane since: Sep 2001
posted 04-25-2004 08:55
the new ranking system also identifies new inmates, and does, on average, just as well a job of showing how active an inmate has been.
We could add a numerical rank to it, so that people don't have to learn the order of ->our ranking system.
I *know* that when I see a neurotic, he's *certainly* new around here, and when I see a bipolar or paranoid, that he is likely to be an old timer. The one in 117649 inmates that get's to bipolar in 4 posts is... rare
I think that putting the post count in the profile is an excellent idea. It's a good compromise for those of us who would like to be able to see it and for those who say it's an extra server process.
I also agree with those people who have said that the issue was never resolved, it was just decided. To me this seems to go against the very heart of what the Asylum is all about.
Tyberius Prime
Paranoid (IV) Mad Scientist with Finglongers
From: Germany Insane since: Sep 2001
posted 04-25-2004 20:12
well... putting it into the profiles isn't that easy. How about if we add them to the 'backlink' of a user's cell/profile - It has to look up his posts anyhow and could count the posts just as well.
I have been waiting for Emps to hit 10000 posts... How will we ever now know??? Also, the sort by highest posters was a nice function for the member list.
but at the moment all i really care about is getting some dinner.
Well, though I understand it's interresting to know if somebody just arrived, I remember an ancient speech : "You are not your post count."
When I see a post from someone who is Insance since : this month, I click on her/his nick to check precisely her/his date of arrival and if it's not enough I click on the title to see the list of backlinks to that cell. A simple solution could be to display the exact date of arrival in the table cell with the nick on the left of the posts.
But it helps. It's one more piece of information that helps give the bigger picture of a person.
If someone has been here 3 weeks, and has 1,000 posts, that tells you something too. It's not like anyone here is desiring a post count so that they can use that as the sole basis for judging a person...as if a high post count signifies their worth.
It's something that (seems to me) very simple to implement, and simple to dsiplay, and will be helpful to users. There seem to be a pretty wide array of people who agree with that sentiment as well...
There was a rather large FAQ at the grail dev site with a whole lot of discussion on this issue - can't seem to locate it though.....
this reminds me of a study i once read about a small group of pre-schoolers/kindergardners - say 15 - were assigned to a particular classroom with different toys all around.. after a time, another 15 students were added, but now the classroom had 1/3 of it fenced off.
what happened was that the new students were content in their new surroundings, but the earlier students who'd had the run of the place, spent most of their time looking into the closed off space and the toys they were now denied.
we have been denied the toys we are used to. the toys that the doc provided us with when he created the asylum and we miss them. it's human nature, not just some arbitrary need to annoy anyone. it's more than convenience and curiosity and ego that makes us miss our toys! it's part of our nature as human beings!
if you tell some bikers they will have to share their trails with hikers, they won't be ecstatic. if you reduce the parking spaces around a school, there will be more than grumbling. it's not just a childhood phenomenon, it's human nature!
(why was i reading the study you ask? because i majored in early childhood education and don't laugh, much of what we are is demonstrated early on in our lifetimes)