Sections where post count doesn't count

[Shortie]

When I used to run my general chat forum I used to have a section on the forum where post counts didn't count and that was the forum games section. This was because I felt that it wouldn't reflect their post count for valid activity and more for just using the forum games section so I made a decision to just not allow it to increase in that forum. I have in the past been part of other forums where sometimes they make it so that the general chat area of the forum doesn't increase the post count, especially if their forum is of a specific niche.

What are your thoughts on having sections where post count doesn't count? Is it something you have done in the past or would you consider it?

 

[Xilia]

I can understand it for game areas on the board. Esp if you have some areas basically locked behind a "you need X number of posts to write here in this section". It's also a way to help avoid people spamming for the sake of spamming short, choppy messages.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I used to disable post count on general/off-topic section quite a few years ago. I did it mainly because I thought people were trying to raise their post count and not use the main boards.

In the end, I reverted back to normal and no longer think it's a good idea.

If anything, it almost discourages people from posting.

If they want a high post count - let them have a high post count.

Let members be loyal

 

[Cory]

Yes, I too have done so with my Forum Games forum. Short posts that you can post at a significant rate don't count as actively engaging in conversations and whatnot, IMO. If I had another forum that required little to no effort to post, I'd probably turn off the post count in that forum too. For example, a "what is your favorite" forum.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I never liked disabling post count.

If member want to have high post counts, that means they want to be active on the forum. Posting gibberish is against the rules but you can post as many posts as you want. I disable flood controls.

 

[Bluezone777]

I never got why people did this. These are the types who will swear up and own that post count doesn't count for anything then proceed to restrict what does or doesn't raise your post count. They will then go into their advertising threads and give a stats update as to their board's member and post count knowing full well that number reflects the total posts made on the entire board. My thought process on this was if post count truly doesn't count for anything that you would let it go up everywhere because it wouldn't matter to you nor influence any decision you might make in regards to your members especially when making decisions on elite member or staff promotions.

 

[Arantor]

The only time I can see it of use is on support/hub boards where you unlock specialist privileges (e.g. something advertising related) after 10 posts but you want to ensure that the 10 posts are good posts and not just the usual 'spam games' type posts.

Other than that, it's not really that useful and mostly a by-product of an older time.

(Then again I have a post count of 75,000 on one forum, excluding the 'chit chat' area... so... y'know, take with a pinch of salt)

 

[SpookyZalost]

For a while we had forum games be like this. Basically too many people were posting in forum games and not posting anywhere else so we had to make it not count.
It made sense at the time since our focus was creative project journals, sharing ideas, and creating guides and tutorials.
but with activity having died down quite a bit since that's been rescinded. May return though later.

 

[Kale]

I turned it off for Forum Games mainly. I think that's smart to have post count turned off in that forum anyway for the above reasons.

 

[Heatman]

Mostly posts made on forum's game's sections shouldn't count. This is because they don't add any much content value to the community. Just counting up or down isn't really much to worth as a post count.