Forum redesign question - post and thanks counts

Dimey

Yes

I suppose post count does show how active someone is.

I like the thanks count as I like to see who has thanked me. I don't read it so much as a thank you but more of an acknowledgement they've read me.I like to thank others for the same reason.

meher

No

may be give the option for those who want it to keep it/hide it or something else, so that those who want could sport it as we would with the signature

forgotmyname

Im a miserable sod and rarely thank anyone.

Same group of friends thanking each others posts. Rather pointless.

The new icons i dislike also. Someone with the debtfree icon asking about a loan they cannot afford looks stupid.

meher

No

if you look at Quasar's badge, it says that she has made x number of posts - if we have a badge that is reflective of the time and presence on the board, then may be post count is not needed

Likewise a badge for x number of thanks and i think it would be more official as well if some regular good contributers have a badge. Don't know how this would work out but it might. i think some regulars who contribute a lot, deserve it - one poster i can think of is dunstonh. Or probably a badge specific to the boards they post on. Make posters stealthily responsible for the board. You know, you can tame some posters.

Old_Wrinkly

Dimey wrote: »

I like the thanks count as I like to see who has thanked me. I don't read it so much as a thank you but more of an acknowledgement they've read me.I like to thank others for the same reason.

I think those who were talking about ditching the 'thanks count' were responding to the question posted by MSE Andrea, i.e. do you need to see it "next to every post you make on the forum".

I am certainly not against the thanks button, nor the 'Show me (who thanked this post)' listing.
I am not even against the 'thanks count' per se - I'm just against having it displayed against every post.
It is already displayed on the User Profile under 'Statistics'. That seems sufficient to me.

meher

No

forgotmyname wrote: »

Someone with the debtfree icon asking about a loan they cannot afford looks stupid.

not to me ...

whitewing

Post yes, thanks no. (I therefore didn't vote)

Post count is a useful indicator that the poster has survived the ravages of the board for a while. (And keep join date too for that reason).

dunstonh

Yes

I think it would be good if it could be turned off in some sections. Debate/discussion forums where particular political views or personal opinions are thanked (and in volume) by those sharing those same views. They are not actually helping anyone but they are being thanked for having the same view. Whereas thanks in specific subject sections where people post to get help should stay. The thanks side shows appreciation for work done and gives the poster an indicator of what others have thought. It also allows others to effectively agree with that response without having to post to say they agree or repeat the response in a different way to reinforce it.

The thanks can be abused at times. We see it in some sections which have discrete troublemakers (the type that wind me up and get me in trouble with Andrea). They often go around thanking each other. Although what you tend to find is that the regulars do counterbalance that by thanking posts that they may not normally have thanked had the trolls not posted. So, a small number of thanks could be misleading as even the troublemakers and misinformation posters will have thanks. However, over time the real balance should show through.

Post count and join date is useful as someone with handful of posts asking questions about some obscure scheme or scam is very frequently part of that scam. Or responding as a fake satisfied consumer. Someone that has been around a while and has a larger post count will be taken more seriously than a one post wonder recommending a scheme/scam.

jamesd

Yes

I use post count, thanked and thanked post counts as part of my assessing of a poster. Helps me to determine what amount of reliability might be expected from them or what amount of time I might want to spend replying when I can choose between detailed or not so detailed views.

The count posts in which thanks were given is a useful indicator. A high ratio of thanks to posts in which thanks were given is a fairly solid indicator that it's thanking for agreeing with opinions rather than long term consistent replying. In such cases I tend to dramatically lower the significance I place on the thanks count.

However, adjustments to the presentation would be useful and I don't think that three full lines is really a good idea for this information. Free flowing text as a sentence would probably reduce it to two in many cases.

All three of these things are of more value to me than text like "Mega Magnificent Maxi-Meticulous Uber-MoneySaving Magnate" and medal icons that I can surmise from the post count. Thanks in the pure money and many of the business sections tell me significantly more than this, since humans had to actually express an opinion about posts to get those counts.

meher wrote: »

may be give the option for those who want it to keep it/hide it or something else, so that those who want could sport it as we would with the signature

It's for the benefit of the readers, not the poster, so giving the poster control wouldn't be appropriate.

meher

No

jamesd wrote: »

It's for the benefit of the readers, not the poster, so giving the poster control wouldn't be appropriate.

Fair point but MSE Andrea's question is "post and thanks counts next to every post you make on the forum." She is asking about counts next to my post, so i will speak about what i like or don't like to be seen on my post or any options i'd like to have, thank you.

Also the post is each poster's own though and we should, imo, be offered a choice to control what is being viewed. A bit like wearing the scarf and veil. Sorry for this sort of an association that's what i spontaneously thought about, i've just returned home after buying lovely collection of scarves from our york outlet teehee