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I recently noticed a lot of the troublemakers in YMDC seems to have a disproportionate amount of post in that forum alone. By troublemaker, I mean those people who keeps on arguing with other people and usually drag out a thread to a few dozen pages repeating the same words over and over again, or just in general adds nothing new to the thread in terms of rules (you know the kind, the ones who usually fights a crusade against five other people and ignores posts that contradict their viewpoint, even when it presents actual evidence). I don't mean all YMDC people are like this, as Ghaz and CrownAxe does add towards the discussion (usually by bringing up an obscure and/or forgotten piece of rule that people generally overlook), but I'm willing to bet 99% of this forum will know the people I'm talking about (those that have anywhere from 70% to almost 90% of their posts in there and barely contribute to other sections).

I use to joke that these people seem to be doing it just for post padding but after viewing their stats, I think it might not actually be a joke. I remember on another forum we had a similar incident on the Off Topics forum where people would set up "RP" threads and make the absolute minimal amount of effort into their posts (like the people would take their "turn" one action at a time, so one turn would generate almost a page worth of post counts for that person). Once the post count for that forum was disabled, the pointless RP threads started to disappear and other types of discussion started to pop up. I believe that if the post count for YMDC is disabled, it might be less of an incentive for people to keep wasting their time there going in circles.

That depends on people posting for the count alone.
And given arguments and I doubt that foe numbers alone.

My post count is I just enjoy posting on dakka and use it more than fb on my mobile as low data .

Generally post inflation is against forum rules, so they always have to find some "legit" way of making posts that technically counts as contributing, but either find ways to help generate more posts or are simply very easy posts to make. Otherwise the post padding probably won't matter since the person would likely swiftly get the boot for flooding threads with spam (and thus kill the entire point of padding out posts to achieve new forum ranks). Considering that a lot of the more useless posts in YMDC are always two people in a vicious back and forth and tiptoeing just outside actual insults, it seems like a lot of them are made just to incite a reaction from someone else so they can continue the response. Also simply ignoring them doesn't work since they also pick fights with each other (although I have set a number of them to my Ignore list to try and avoid being dragged into it, it still happens from time to time).

Whenever a thread is in agreement or civil, it usually ends in a page or two in that forum. Anything that extends beyond usually is because someone refused to see the other side, and it is always basically a shouting match between two or three people (and often the same offenders), which I rarely see in other forums despite such similarly heated topics coming up there as well (usually in the form of "which army is better" or anything concerning ITC rules or rankings).

It is true that sub forum is particularly heated one and prone to arguments even worse than off topic.

Though from my experience, off topic, fiction, forum games and such also have some impressive non war gaming related post counts.

Post inflation is a strange one I admit. I do not understand why, and ranks give you no real benefits bar maybe the turbo voter and ability to add tags to some images.

Its not like you unlock.exctra forums or discount dcm over 17,000 !

From my experiences across the web, a lot of people are strangely attached to their post counts even when there's no other types of incentive. The example I listed was from a minor site (not really obscure, but also nowhere near as huge as Dakka. Like I remember we had about half as many registered users in total than Dakka has online at any one moment) that provided no bonuses for post count, yet it still became enough of an issue that we ended up disabling it for two more forums. It's like a badge of honor for some people.

Incidentally I was kinda hoping my own post count would be largely concentrated in Painting and Modelling, and was actually surprised to learn I contributed most to 40k General Discussions.

True. Posts counts interesting.

And yes i mean its kinda like hoarding x items on a game but still. Dakka seems to have less people posting just to get numbers than others.
Unlike others we gain nothing and not like you get badges, just a number.

This is largely based on my theory that the people intentionally inciting those nonsensical "debates" are trying for post count, as they often seem to argue against general consensus for no clear reason other than for the sake of arguing (sometimes even after others have long since admitted defeat, which should be the logical end to arguments) and they seem to have barely a presence in other sections of Dakka, so it seemed to me that they were posting for the sake of posting. The only logical conclusion to me was that it was post inflating.

The other conclusion is that these people are just that petty or feel a compulsive need to argue, and I am desperately hoping such people don't exist (which would be true if this was implemented and the shenanigans didn't stop).

Forum games (that section is basically only what your second paragraph is about) and I feel if any should have post counts disabled it should be that. Introductions tend to have inane posts too which easily add up. But, then thing is post count doesn't even matter, sometimes the title is even a downgrade ("Prescient Daemon Prince of Tzeentch" sounds better than "Reading a Book In The Tower of Prospero").

By the way, if you see a thread in ymdc going in circles for pages as well, you should probably alert a mod to it since it's very likely finished at that point. I'm guessing this is about a certain recent thread over the interpretation of what "together" means? I know it took that to finally get me to use the ignore function for the first time since I've been here.

That was the thread that sort of became the catalyst for me to actually post this suggestion, but it has been something on the back of my mind for years now (literally, look at when I joined) since as the years passed it looked less and less like a joke and more like this might actually be the reason.

Well join date is nothing to go by, I've really been fortunate not to go into ymdc often at all.

It's been an unwritten rule for a while that we close threads in YMDC that run past 5 pages or so unless there's still some sort of appreciable progress being made in the discussion, as generally by that point everything that is going to be said has been and it's just getting circular.

We do miss some sometimes, as most of the mods who used to be fairly active in YMDC tend to not be so much any more for a number of reasons... so if you see a thread that appears to have gone past its use by date, feel free to hit the alert button on it.


So far as post count goes... it's really not a big deal. The number of posts a user has is ultimately far less important than the content of those posts, and how the user has contributed to the forum and thus to the community.

 n0t_u wrote:
Forum games (that section is basically only what your second paragraph is about) and I feel if any should have post counts disabled it should be that. Introductions tend to have inane posts too which easily add up. But, then thing is post count doesn't even matter, sometimes the title is even a downgrade ("Prescient Daemon Prince of Tzeentch" sounds better than "Reading a Book In The Tower of Prospero").

By the way, if you see a thread in ymdc going in circles for pages as well, you should probably alert a mod to it since it's very likely finished at that point. I'm guessing this is about a certain recent thread over the interpretation of what "together" means? I know it took that to finally get me to use the ignore function for the first time since I've been here.

I admit forum games has some pretty legendry post counts.
I mean 100-300 or even a 3000 page thread. Quite a few regular posters in first to second page of dakka list.
However high post counts. Ita just a number at the end of a day. You gain nothing for having 1000, 10,000 or 100,000.

The only other forum I post even semi-regularly on has a rep system, so you have a post count, but if a lot of people 'like' what you've written, that boosts your separate, but equally public, rep score.

Might be a use for exalts, and implicitly let's other people get a handle on whether someone generally makes positive contributions or not?

 insaniak wrote:
It's been an unwritten rule for a while that we close threads in YMDC that run past 5 pages or so unless there's still some sort of appreciable progress being made in the discussion, as generally by that point everything that is going to be said has been and it's just getting circular.

We do miss some sometimes, as most of the mods who used to be fairly active in YMDC tend to not be so much any more for a number of reasons... so if you see a thread that appears to have gone past its use by date, feel free to hit the alert button on it.


So far as post count goes... it's really not a big deal. The number of posts a user has is ultimately far less important than the content of those posts, and how the user has contributed to the forum and thus to the community.

I can understand why mods would be less active there. I'm just a normal poster and I get migraines just thinking about these people, I can't imagine how it would be if I actually had to responsibly talk them down each and every time.

 jhe90 wrote:

 n0t_u wrote:
Forum games (that section is basically only what your second paragraph is about) and I feel if any should have post counts disabled it should be that. Introductions tend to have inane posts too which easily add up. But, then thing is post count doesn't even matter, sometimes the title is even a downgrade ("Prescient Daemon Prince of Tzeentch" sounds better than "Reading a Book In The Tower of Prospero").

By the way, if you see a thread in ymdc going in circles for pages as well, you should probably alert a mod to it since it's very likely finished at that point. I'm guessing this is about a certain recent thread over the interpretation of what "together" means? I know it took that to finally get me to use the ignore function for the first time since I've been here.

I admit forum games has some pretty legendry post counts.
I mean 100-300 or even a 3000 page thread. Quite a few regular posters in first to second page of dakka list.
However high post counts. Ita just a number at the end of a day. You gain nothing for having 1000, 10,000 or 100,000.

This is pretty much why no one cares about post count too.

Honestly the place that should have its post count disabled the most is off-topic.

 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:


I use to joke that these people seem to be doing it just for post padding but after viewing their stats, I think it might not actually be a joke.

That might be Forum Games you are thinking of...

I love my post count. For some weird reason it seems that I find watching a number go up extremely satisfying.
While I'd never do it (all of my posts are hard earned ) I do not see the issue with other people posting just to increase their post count. It is not like you get any bonuses for having a high post count, so why does it matter? Why would you bother wasting effor making an issue out of something that has absolutely no impact on anything at all?

On the other hand, it'd be really nice to see an exalt counter or something like that that tracks how many exalts your posts have received. Yay for more numbers going up!

And yeah, if there is any place that should have post count disabled, it'd be forum games That place is crazy.

We could just not disable post counts and call it a day...

Alternatively, do we need post counts at all?

Factor it in for funny titles, and call it a day.