11-02-2001 04:02									#1
	Let's Democratize Post Counts! Tired of ads?

Who wants Deity, Emperor, King, Prince, Warlord, or Chieftain in this day and age?

FORUM ELECTIONS 2001
It's time we put aside our differences and forge together a Democratic Forum.

We'll elect a President (Mark) and some Mods, and the rest of us can become Citizens.

	11-02-2001 04:39									#2
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

That is for his majesty to decide... Visigoth!

No, really...

The benefit that I see for keeping the current ranking system is that it instantly allows newbies (like me) to evaluate the relative merits of any given message in the forums. I'm not saying that someone with a settler or chieftain rating doesn't have anything to add, but before you learn who everybody is, it is helpful to know whether a response to a question or strategic advice comes from someone who had been around Apolyton for a while, or someone who is newer.

Just my $.02

-Bob

	11-02-2001 05:37									#3
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

Heh. Some people have been known to make nearly 1,000 posts in one week in the OT, most of them utterly meaningless. So post count has absolutely nothing to do with seniority in terms of the usefulness of posts.

I've been saying this all along: Why not scrap post counts altogether, thereby ensuring that people will make a post because they have something to add, not to raise their post count?

You know, post count-envy is a very common phenomenon among young men lacking selfconfidence...

	11-02-2001 06:09									#4
	Remove this text

We should be civers all. Down with spamers. Down with post count status.

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Gaius Mucius Scaevola Sinistra
Pontificator Pendanticus
older richer & wiser than you
Did I mention that I like spellcheckers?

	11-02-2001 06:24									#5
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

(thinks: let's throw a bomb.... )

what if each poster could rate other posters?

	11-02-2001 06:51									#6
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

Well, in that case we can have fewer categories... such as Visitor (less than 50 posts), Immigrant (less than 100), Permanent Resident (less than 300), and citizenship at 301. That ought to keep out the drift-in type, but stop the "emperor wars". That's right, emperor wars, there's just no limit to how big some of them want their empires to be.

	11-02-2001 07:58									#7
	Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

Granted, putting deity level at (for example) 1000 instead of 10000 would probably stop a lot of the spamming that's now going on. Then again, since this is apolyton after all, maybe not

	11-02-2001 10:20									#8
	Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

What if we did away with the current system and instead allowed users to choose which one of the various Civ units best represented their personality?

Instead of Settler, Cheiftain, Prince, etc. we would have Diplomat, Marine, AEGIS Cruiser, whatever....

Perhaps we could still tie in the # of posts (maybe not OT posts...) to limit the choices to the various ages (Ancient, Medieval, Modern) for those who care about such things...

-Bob

	11-02-2001 19:54									#9
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

I like MarkGs idea, actually, have a feature like the ratings of a map or scenario for each poster, which would show up in their profile. Cruel, but fun, fun, fun.

	11-02-2001 21:48									#10
	Tired of ads?

Yes, it would be so much fun. (watches trolls take it out on Ming with votes of -10)

	12-02-2001 10:23									#11
	Full PM-box? Change here!

<center><table width=80%><tr><td><font color=000080 face="Verdana" size=2><font size="1">quote:
<img src=/forums/"/images/blue1.gif" width=100% height=1>
</font><font size=1>Originally posted by winston on 02-10-2001 07:37 PM</font>
Heh. Some people have been known to make nearly 1,000 posts in one week in the OT, most of them utterly meaningless. So post count has absolutely nothing to do with seniority in terms of the usefulness of posts.
<img src=/forums/"/images/blue1.gif" width=100% height=1></font></td></tr></table></center>

I think Comrade Dan made 600 in one week. I doubt there have ever been more in that short time. But they were al meaningless, indeed.

	13-02-2001 00:19									#12
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

<center><table width=80%><tr><td><font color=000080 face="Verdana" size=2><font size="1">quote:
<img src=/forums/"/images/blue1.gif" width=100% height=1>
</font><font size=1>Originally posted by MarkG on 02-10-2001 08:24 PM</font>
(thinks: let's throw a bomb.... )

what if each poster could rate other posters?

<img src=/forums/"/images/blue1.gif" width=100% height=1></font></td></tr></table></center>

Brilliant idea, although it might require titles considered unacceptable in polite company.

	13-02-2001 01:06									#13
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

If you want to change it, then make the posts on the on-topic forums count and not off-topic. The off-topic forum is great, but there are so many other people on this site.

edit: If you are serious about post count reform ™ Then this is the only way to do it. Or you could come up with a separate system for the off-topic.
<font size=1 face=Arial color=444444>[This message has been edited by Sprayber (edited February 12, 2001).]</font>

	13-02-2001 01:56									#14
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

<center><table width=80%><tr><td><font color=000080 face="Verdana" size=2><font size="1">quote:
<img src=/forums/"/images/blue1.gif" width=100% height=1>
</font><font size=1>Originally posted by Sprayber on 02-12-2001 03:06 PM</font>
If you want to change it, then make the posts on the on-topic forums count and not off-topic. The off-topic forum is great, but there are so many other people on this site.
If you are serious about post count reform ™ Then this is the only way to do it. Or you could come up with a separate system for the off-topic.

<img src=/forums/"/images/blue1.gif" width=100% height=1></font></td></tr></table></center>

It was tried...
AND YOU WOULD HAVE THOUGHT IT WAS THE END OF THE WORLD!
The complaining just got louder and louder until posts in OTF counted again. Plus, people started spamming the on topic forums
So that didn't work

------------------
Ming
CivII & Off-Topic Forum Moderator
Ming@Apolyton.net

	13-02-2001 02:48									#15
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

Of course that didn't work. The people who care most about their postcounts are posting mostly at the OT. And those are also the people with the highest postcounts.

I think that the people who post mostly in the on-topic forums couldn't care less about postcounts. But I may be completely wrong about this.

	13-02-2001 02:54									#16
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization III: Complete

I don't know the answer to that one Paul... Plus polls like the one in this forum won't really answer it, since most of the people that post here are OTF'ers...

But I will say that I do see the "I MADE A NEW LEVEL" posts or threads in the On Topics forums as well... from people who I never see in the OTF. So some people must care

	13-02-2001 03:01									#17
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

Well, perhaps they care a bit, but not much. Otherwise they'd be spamming the OTF to become deities instead of celebrating that they became princes in the game forums.

	13-02-2001 14:21									#18
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization III: Complete

I think the on-topic types are showing their surprise more than anything else. "Hey! I just became a King! Ain't that a hoot!" Hell, I was surprised myself to see I now have over 4,000 posts. At this rate I'll be a deity in 2004! Yee haw!

	15-02-2001 08:21									#19
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

To be honest, I don't think that this is a viable solution.

----------------
Dan; Apolyton CS

	17-02-2001 07:45									#20
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Post should be considered like income, the more you make the more the government should take from you and redistribute to the post poor. In the end then everyone should end up with exactly the same amount.

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The poster formerly known as Xenia and Xev Worshiper.

	27-02-2001 04:02									#21
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

Clearly, there are a number of problems to this system. But think about the benefits, they clearly exceed those of the problems.

The most vocal opponents to title stripping or OTF no-count are those who spam OTF or those who for some reason really like their titles.
Now as long as the moderators agree, well, what can they do. No point to spamming on-topic if that doesn't make a difference either.

I say we put this up to a plebiscite. Hundreds of responses are made to Civ-related questions. How about having the forumers themselves vote on whether or not we should drop the titles, cut post count, etc.

Here's my suggestion for choices in the survey:

1. Keep current system.
2. Keep current system, but do not count, or count for less, posts made in the Off Topic Forum
3. Keep post counts but drop the titles.
4. Lower the cap for Deity level to 1,000.
5. Do away with titles and post counts completely.

After running this plebiscite, the mods can hold a second one with the two highest-voted choices.