Post Count Requirment for WIP, Active Game, and Beta Testing

[zombie0hour]

A post count requirement say 20 might help stop the spam posts in those boards such as games with little or no info all they do if say im working on it or give the website or forums and never post again.

[sir zach]

I like this idea :)

[kender the great]

i second this idea actually. i think it really needs to go into action.

[Godlord]

I don't really agree.

Why not?

  - Spammers may just go to other sections and get easily over the requirement limit.
  - People who read instead of writing can't make their W.I.P. while they're very serious about it.
  - Post count doesn't tell anything about the poster, except that he has a lot of posts on this forum. Does it mean (s)he's a good person? No, his/her posts may be so worthless and bad that his/her post count should actually be 0\. Does it mean, he's active? Not really, it might just be a bot instead.

Are there alternatives to this idea?

  Too simply answer that, yes, there are alternatives. The best one, in my opinion, is post moderation, why is that so? Because moderators can view the topics before they're even published. Moderators become c[k]ensors, who can censor abusive stuff and who can just decline the acceptance of the topic itself, if it fails to meet the requirements. Who wouldn't really need moderation? Veterans, moderators and administrators mainly. The veteran group consists out of selected members who are entrusted to not do this, the same with the moderators and the administrators.

Another rule system should go in for boards such as this, which I call the rewarded report rule or just the R3-rule. What is this thing? For each good report you make, you'll get rewarded with some points (perhaps points to get perhaps a seat as moderator, or perhaps something else). So why this? This encourages people to report every post they find, which doesn't meet the requirements, this will make the work of moderators much easier as this is also a problem, a moderator doesn't see **everything**. But, wait, this may not work as many people won't get encouraged by just some points. I see that problem too actually, that's why I said perhaps, the reward is something you must define yourself. But I am not really done yet, this will also make work easier for the administrators, why is that? They are the people behind the scenes who select the moderators, if you want to become a moderator you can talk with them, oh and God please don't go PM them now as that will lower your changes to become one.

The last system would be to base yourself on activity but it has the same flaws as the post count basing.

Regards,
  The Nameless One.

[Tyr]

well the idea itself is kwl, but the first alernative of godlord suits better, it might gives the moderators a bit more work but i guess it would be less work then deleting & locking all useless topics posted in theses sections.

the 3th alternative of godlord is that some peoples are really going to search bout topics who doesn't meet the reqs, maby even dead topics i dunno.

So to conclude it would be great to use the first alternative. but thats only my opinion.

[Godlord]

> the 3th alternative of godlord is that some peoples are really going to search bout topics who doesn't meet the reqs, maby even dead topics i dunno.

I think you meant 2nd because I don't really see this fitting as the 3rd one. They may do whatever they like to do, if you do that, then you do meet one of the optional requirements to be a moderator, in my opinion. The 2nd method can better be used in combination with the 1st one, as it mainly checks if moderators do their work correctly, the question which remains is who doesn't do his/her work correctly then? Well the only thing I can hope for, in that case, is that approval is logged for post moderation.

If the administrators or moderators are thinking of accepting the first alternative as new rule for the W.I.P. section and such, it would be wise to do a pre-check first, if the boards don't contain really out-dated topics (but think before you remove as it may be inactive, but a burst of replies and such of the author(s) may come later on.) and invalid topics, these are topics which don't follow the rules, meet the requirements, posted at the wrong board, etc.

Regards,
  The Nameless One.

[Marsh]

Ill look into either the post count restriction or the approving of posts. I like the approving better, but i believe it is broken in some themes.

[Godlord]

@Marsh:

> Ill look into either the post count restriction or the approving of posts. I like the approving better, but i believe it is broken in some themes.

Yea, I think it was broken in some cases, when I was a moderator. Is that why the state "Moderated" also got removed?

Regards,
  The Nameless One.

[Marsh]

Yea, some topics wouldn't show up as moderated, and other didn't have the button to approve the messages. It was a pretty big pain.

[Godlord]

@Marsh:

> Yea, some topics wouldn't show up as moderated, and other didn't have the button to approve the messages. It was a pretty big pain.

I think SMF fails with themes and plug-ins together, which I can understand. You can't really force moderators to use the default SMF theme, but you can't use your plug-ins either as they only work properly on the default SMF theme (if I am right). Wow, I hate dilemmas.

Regards,
  The Nameless One.

[Anna Comnena]

I agree with the post moderation for those boards, but right now we have very few moderators.

[Tyr]

it looks like this is comming to a point :) a good point ^^
and i guess that there are a bunch of ppl around here who would like to moderator, the problem is of course picking the right ppl's (for the right place)

to goldlord, well ya i meant the 2nd one but i just counted further orig = 1, your first = 2 etc dunno y :)

[Marsh]

@The:

> I think SMF fails with themes and plug-ins together, which I can understand. You can't really force moderators to use the default SMF theme, but you can't use your plug-ins either as they only work properly on the default SMF theme (if I am right). Wow, I hate dilemmas.
>
> Regards,
>   The Nameless One.

Actaully the mods build right into the smf in every theme now. Thats what the new beta is about.

[demon xxx x]

I only don't like this idea, because they may be new comers, who have had a game in development for months to years, might want to post a WIP.

It would suck for them.

[Godlord]

@Marsh:

> Actaully the mods build right into the smf in every theme now. Thats what the new beta is about.

Oh, I didn't knew that, not a huge fan of SMF. Would be awesome if they get that fixed.

@Anna:

> I agree with the post moderation for those boards, but right now we have very few moderators.

Perhaps request some of the older people who are still active, who were once a moderator, and if that falls out, the veterans perhaps. I think if you count that up that you'll get a hand full of moderators, who are active.

@DezireSoft:

> I only don't like this idea, because they may be new comers, who have had a game in development for months to years, might want to post a WIP.
>
> It would suck for them.

I made up some alternatives, if you didn't read them yet, this is one of the reasons why I didn't like the post count limit. Unless you meant something else…

Regards,
  The Nameless One.