Please note that "Me too" posts are not welcome here.  I encourage you all to add your thoughts and feelings - and particularly your suggestions and insights - in response to posts made here.  These can be positive or negative, but they must at least be constructive - a post which simply agrees or disagrees will be deleted.

We seem to have sunk to an all-time low in terms of posting quality since the move to these new forums.  I cannot speak for the other forums, as I only moderate here and Legal Issues.  However I'm going to try and pull the two forums that I moderate out of the "mud" (pun intended) and try to get us back to a decent signal/noise ratio.

As before, I also ask you not to advertise within the body of your post.  Your signatures are not affected by this rule, however.

I would have to concur. As I mentioned in another thread, these boards are designed for the MUD community, and those who simply view them as a personal playground do not add to the ethos of TMS. Moreover, for the forums that are designed to advertise for new staff or players, it is discurteous and unfair to other who do obey netiquette to repeatedly bump your MUD to the front page. In my 2 years here, the netiquette is most certainly at an all-time low. Something needs to be done, otherwise serious MUDders will leave for a more peaceful and productive forum.

It is my opinion that the reason for the inordinate amount of "me too" posts is that people are "star farming." They are posting tons of useless messages just to get their post totals up.

Perhaps Synozzer could hide the post totals for a few months or announce that he intends to wipe the totals at some point in the future to discourage this behavior.

Ugh.

Ditto to this entire thread, and add this for food for thought - On a daily basis, they post more then my entire post count. On many days, they will post more then even KaVir's entire post count, and he is probably the most prolific poster we've got - of quality posts, at least.

Ponder that. Worst of all, the twinks won't even admit they are spamming. They flame you for saying that they spam. Irritating, but -shrug-.

I say just delete the accounts. Post counts get reset, they learn to not spam as they are doing.

-D

I second the removal of the post counts.

Aside from the inane spam, any one reading the forums for two-three weeks will find out who the worthwile contributors are anyway.

Funny, though, that none of them has yet broken the 50-post count. Or rather than funny, a tell-tale.

It's like Bizzaro World, where everything is opposite.

The folks with the highest post counts are the ones with the least of value to say. Odd, that.

Well, technically, the only thing I am guilty of is having a high postcount. I know that's the results of allot of posting, but I'm having spring holidays here (everyone currently has here in the Netherlands) so I have ALLOT of free time to kill untill I find my RTCW CD again...

Still tho, even I have some uses. Now I won't make a defensive stand on other "spammers" here, but I think I can safely say that I sometimes do add something usefull when it concern webmastering/hosting/building. (In fact, I'm currently trying out Apache 2.0 and PHP 4.2 together, so I'll give you people an assesment of it in a week)

But removal of post counts would do the trick you guys want, I suppose. However, I can't see any reason why it would make me stop having fun in the "General" section of the forum. After all, you can say allot about me, but I only post serious stuff in the more serious forums.

Perhaps not including the very spammy sections in the 'Most recent posts' section of TMS. I realise I've posted a bit to these as well, but I don't believe I would call myself spammy. Also, I do agree with the idea of removing polls from certain forums: I dn't believe I'll ever want to know my popularity on the 'Introduce Myself' forum. Actaully, I go without polls altogether. I perfer information provided by this community, not feeling as though I'm a cat toy for somebody's lunchtime break.

What exactly is ...

-- Astin

Well, to sound slightly flaming, that would be what N'syncfanatic meets 'I have too much time on my hands and a computer' would look like.

Merely my opintion. Another one of my opinions: Ugh.

Cax, by NO MEANS have you spammed at all. I, hell, even KaVir have "spammed" more than you.

We are speaking about these inane 1-line posts or even 1-word posts to just get people's post counts up.

-D

*nodnod* I know, my whole 1.6 (probably now a whole 2.0) posts a day wouldn't be spamming. I was agreeing with the gist of this thread. I know I at first was interested in replying to some of the more amusing ones(my perception, at least), such as the word association and on the last set of boards, the Our Story line. I found those entertaining, if spammy. I do not enjoy... angst and the requirement for one to broadcast every detail of their day. Should I need that, I'll watch E!.

Please explain why do you think its about bumping up post counts? does posts counts mean that much to you?

maybe some people don't like typing more then 10 words to state there opoin... you don't need to write a 4 paragraph page to state a simple idea,

When your opinion is "heh" then, now I know you won't understand it, but take my word for it, NOBODY WANTS TO HEAR IT.

When your simple opinion is "Me Too! lolz dude kavir j00 are s0 cool!!" Nobody want's to waste their time downloading your message if that's the amount of thought that goes into it.

so i spammed my own thread in the old forums, and i dont like typeing a huge message to explain a yes or no question, thats pretty lame if you need to type a huge messgae to say Yes, to me thats wasting my time. and if you dont like the messages dont read them , i mean the topics give you a clue on what the message will most likly be. so why bother reading that topic?

Actually, as of yesterday, I started avoiding threads. I don't look at the names-- I don't know anybody well enough to remember who's who.  But if it's something that is obvious to me that I don't need to get into.. then I don't.

Now, on the Other Hand: Gents, I'm sure Kavir had no intention of watching this particular thread get so large and wordy.  I can admit that I am actaully wary in continuing it since I feel like I am contributing to the very action of which I am saying I do not approve of.  If you have to quibble, please take it to the General Boards. Or, even better, take advantage of the nifty ikonboard messenger.:D

<No cows were harmed in the creation of this post, but a glass of Dooleys was horribly digested.>

222 posts. When the most active older posters haven't even broken 50 yet.

I think that says enough right there, Xanferious.

-D

so thjat means? im on alot more then you, i speak my mind more then you and im more active then you... anything else o wise man?

Not at all, it could also means that when he wishes to contribute his opinion to a discussion, he does so in a (opinion) tasteful and intelligent manner.

I look to these boards for discussions, or topics that fuel intelligent discussions. If I see anything that I don't wish to reply to, I don't. If I see something I do wish to reply to, but someone has said something that I wished to add, then I refrain and wait for an addition to that posting that will allow me to add my words in a manner that would build the conversation or shed light on something that I had posted before.

Why would "Me too!" add to a conversation? Who would even try to argue that "lol" is productive in any sort of way. Yes, they are thoughts that you may or may not wish to share with other people. But on a message board these are not the best way to do so. Why not? Because message boards are created for conversation and discussion. Not talk and chatter. Yes there are specific boards for the latter, but the main group of these boards even say "for discussion" in their descriptions. Talk and chatter has it's appropriate place, it's easy to see why people who come "for discussion"
get aggravated when they see spam.

If you are posting these "Me too"'s and "lol"'s in the appropriate place than cheers for you. But when it degrades the ability for multiple people to converse on a topic in a logical fashion without skipping muck or without worrying whether their topic was abandoned by someone hopping in and changing the flow of messaging to stupidity then it needs to stop.

If you must insist on popping out every word that comes into your mind, why not use notepad, then reply after so many thoughts? Take too long? Can't get quick enough conversation that way? Why not just go to a chat room if you find that regular discussions aren't heated or fast enough for you.

Beyond that, I have seen people posting a message, then posting a message again, not two minutes later, then again not two minutes after that. If no one has posted after you then there is an EDIT command you can use to modify your posts to better suit your needs. Otherwise it is just pure
spam, a waste of time, a waste of resources, a waste of bandwidth.

If you aren't doing it, don't worry about all these posts but if you are doing it, it's annoying and stupid in my opinion.

Kaylus@Solice

Amen, and not to mention a waste of creativity, imagination, and personality. Spammers will post on any topic anywhere, its kind of hard to find a post in here that doesnt have one of Xanferious's or a few others little short pointless posts. I may have made a couple short posts, but atleast I had reason behind them besides trying to get my total up (either that or because it was when the forums were first opened and I got a little excited). Lets see, when this new forum first opened I was the fourth or fifth person to post on it. <sarcasm>And look how high my total is now.</sarcasm> Why because I only post on topics that interest me, or I have something important to say. What percentage of those 230+ posts have you made Xanferious that actually had meaning behind them? If you feel like chatting, why not make a freakin IRC room for you and your little spam buddies. I agree, get rid of the post counters <span style='color:red'>PLEASE</span>!!!

1st. what part of "I dont Spam" dont you understand
2nd. yes please take off the counters and stars because for most of twinks, its all they care about.
3rd i would say 120 of my posts came from the story and word topic thread
4th it seems that all you people realy care about points to the counter and stars, thats not everything
5th you dont need to write a huge statement to explain simple things.
6th will you just grow up and stop crying like babies?

Good GOD Xanferious, you are part of those twinks you berate. You spam as surely as I'll insult you in this freaking post. Are you textually blind? Are you unable to see other people's points? Are you completely and utterly without conscience, so that you cannot even think of other people?

ARGH. You seem to be completely without a brain. Utterly without common courtesy. As if you were not taught simple lessons....

You spam. Period. No matter what you say. Half the forums have stated that you spam. Even MODERATORS have said that. And you deny it. Then more people say you spam.

For GODS SAKES, admit you spam already.

-D

damn dulan stop being such an anal commando and look 3 people think I Spam 3 people dot think I Spam and 4 people reframe from saying who spams and who doesn't.
to you and your ideological ideas that define Spam as anything less the a freaking book, and trying to force people to write a freaking book to answer a simple question or topic is upsurd. you talked about net ettique which obviously you dont have. maybe I dont ethier but then again IM starting not to care now, if I was a spammer I would flood EVERY THREAD in all the forums, thats a spammer some people even listed what spam and spammers are but with your high tripping ego there you ignore those posts to suite your on agenda on this jyhad against a few people that you .
either disagree with or seem to be more active then yourself.
you have to get it through that thick and empty skull of your that other people have there own idea's and beliefs and that how did you use that term, o yes... "this isn't your personal playground" How about you get off that high horse and stop trying to force YOUR ideas onto other people.
So next time get your facts straight before you open that mouth of yours.

When 50% or more of the story thread or word topic are your posts, it doesnt make it a cute little group effort anymore and people tend to drop the topics. Except for the few who try to drag it on so they can get as many posts out of it as they can.
<span id='ME'><center>SyNo Points at YOU!!!</center></span>
After that the topic tends to lose all humor. Is it really worth kicking dead horses just to get a few more posts? Xan you also average 16.20 posts a day <sarcasm>thats something to be proud of </sarcasm>, man every time I log in you are on here. Do you ever eat or sleep, do you even have a life?

I would be interested in getting Synozeer's input into whether he sees this as a problem, as all we're doing is kicking dirt in each other's eyes right now. If Syn doesn't see this as a major issue, then I can grudgingly live with it. If he does, I would like people like Xanferious (There, said the name. Add me to your tally) dealt with.

Maybe we can have a Kiddie Pool version of TMS to house all the spam. Or have those forums not show up on the 5 most recent posts from the main page, so as to not keep the real posters from seeing what real content there is to look at. This didn't use to be a problem. Why did you guys change this?

But back to my question: Synozeer, you out there?

So its a crime to be active allot in the forums? IM sorry if you cannot deal with someone who likes TMS and posts often here. and as it for being Spam, sorry buts its not, maybe you should read some of my posts, probably the only thing that comes close to Spam is in the tavern, but you should learn what Spam is, maybe just maybe you *might* learn that other people are entitled to use these forums that dont share the same I will always make a letter out of a simple question, you keep harassing and slamming on me why? because im more active then you? you refer to the old poster not being past 50? so to me the only thing you are concerned about besides post count's is your ego. stop bashing other people if you dont like them, god *I* never forced you to read my 3 word replies, that choice is yours... if you dont like maybe you should leave or just Ignore the post, but wait! theirs more... you dont know how.. you like to drag this issue intil the admin steps in which is fine with me. anyway you need to grow up, stop acting like a kid and learn some basic net ettique

Wow, Xanferious, you're making progress on capitalization! Way to go. I suggest you learn how to break your text into paragraphs next. It makes it easier to follow.

Besides, it is certainly encouraging to note that you can actually manage to respond in more then two words when you do lower yourself to add something to the discussion. As you do here - even if I disagree with what you're saying.

The point you keep missing is that people have to download the pointless spam when reading a thread, and that this is a major inconvenience when you're on modem dialup.
Got that one already?
Nobody would care about the spam if it was possible to truly ignore it, but some people have to wait for long times for a thread to download. Just try, for a second, to walk a few threads in their shoes.
You wait, and wait, and the thread comes up. You think, "Oh, golly, lots of new replies!" and then find out most of the posts are "heh", "me too", "yes" or "i agree".
Perhaps it would also help you if you realized that outside the USA, local phone calls to the ISP are not free of charge. The one-liners cost money to the people they **** off.

Oh, and it's "netiquette", not "net ettique". The mangled term is nice, though.

WTF is net ettique? I didn't even think 'ettique' is a freaking word!

As for this thread: Xanferious, as I have stated repeatedly before, you evidently never learned basic consideration of others. Consider that our most prolific posters that people here appreciate and want to post have less than 50 posts - at least, most of them do - right now. You have over 200, and are probably going to break 250 today. That will probably be over 5 times what type of posting we want here.

Now, that means 5 of those people have to step up and post once each to give a 1 to 1 signal/noise ratio. Combined with Seth, you guys create a terribly low signal/noise ratio. A large part of the forums, even Moderators, are asking you guys to stop this spamming of the forums. You yourself, and Ingham, both admitted to it in earlier threads. I can bust out my caches of them even if you both deleted them, so you can't go that route. Take your medicine. You are acting somewhat like Vryce did when TMC threatened to take down Medievia, or Micheal Mihaely with his false advertisement - like a small child with his hand in the cookie jar, insisting that he was putting a cookie BACK, not taking one out!

-D

I would like to take a moment to point out that post counts can be upped rather quickly in one of the storyteller's threads.  I remember something that started with an elf and ended up with Mickey Mouse beating the crap out of a pink elephant in a crowded bar... one line responses and such.

In another, I went from 12 posts to 62 in 48 hours on the old system when we had a long discussion on the legal board about Diku and IMC... and I didn't respond a quarter as much as some of the people in that thread.

Its not all that particularly difficult to up your count in a legit way, and I am sure some of those 200+ posters did so.  I believe the issue is the 'lol' and 'me too' posts that are cropping up in normal threads.

Darrik Vequir

sorry to burst ure bubble no admin asked me to stop spamming, cuz I dont spam maybe if you also read other people's replies they agree that I dont Spam! and would you quite B******* about post counts, your one of the few people that is totally concern about the freaking count. you talk about consideration , you also have none, I hardly flamed anyone until now. and I have never admitted to spamming so go re read those threads. I admit I rant rave and flame, so do us all a favor stop crying over spilt milk change that diaper that your wearing and suck on your bottle.

Well, he has a point. The big guys who post, the ones that I allways look for their opinions, namely Thoric, Neranz Leveranai, and the like, dont post that often anyway. Perhaps the lesson to be learned is that just because you have a mouth doesnt mean you need to use it. Or...just because you have a keyboard... It isnt what comes out of your mouth, its what you hold in your brain that counts.