Request: Report LB for abuse

[LB]

Thankyou Disch, that very clearly explains things.

[BHX]

Disch wrote:

This forum does not have an issue with people spamming pointless posts to boost their post count... with the exception of maybe the lounge (which is LB's point). But even in that case, they're posting to post... they're not posting solely to boost their post count.

And very clearly shows that you are worrying about a hypothetical issue yourself as he just pointed out they aren't posting to up their counts, but rather posting just to post. Also hypothetical because I have not seen a person post a question specifically asking for high post count users only reply or PM high post count members with questions or only pay attention to high post count member.

Disch wrote:

He's trying to suggest a realistic solution to what he perceives as a real problem.

It is unfounded though as there is nothing that has happened on the site to warrant it. When spammers really do hit (spoonlicker grade spammers) twicker takes care of blocking their accounts. What he calls spam (minus devon's post of just '.') is usually what a user calls a normal post (recall when lumpkin first came here he didn't see any problem with post a reply with less than ten words to answer a comment or thank a person for their help). Everyone has a different definition of spam and what constitutes spam, for example the Dark Matter/Dark Energy topic I felt was spam because it held no interest to me.

If this site is adjusted and tweaked every time someone's perception of what is or isn't appropriate then it would have 50+ forums for every language, tutorials for other languages, forums that don't add to post counts (Lounge and Jobs), etc. Also, wanting things changed makes it look like you don't trust twicker to do what is right on the site or for the site and at that point he might as well close it down or sell it because he would no longer be the admin but just a middleman waiting to update the site according to popular vote.

[Disch]

Also hypothetical because I have not seen a person post a question specifically asking for high post count users only reply or PM high post count members with questions or only pay attention to high post count member.

I semi-regularly get PMs asking me questions, though I always tell them to post publicly on the boards.

Admittedly, whether I get those PMs because of my post count... or because they saw and liked one of my existing answers is questionable. I personally like to think it's a mixture of both.

Though you make a fair point. I don't really see a lot of evidence to suggest high post count really means anything to people on this site. In fact everyone in the thread seems to keep saying the same thing: "post count doesn't matter". So maybe you're right?


But if post count doesn't matter to you, why would you be so adamantly opposed to LB's suggestion? Clearly post count carries some significance to him or he wouldn't be suggesting this.

If this site is adjusted and tweaked every time someone's perception of what is or isn't appropriate then it would have 50+ forums for every language, tutorials for other languages, forums that don't add to post counts (Lounge and Jobs), etc.

I'm not sure I can buy the "slippery slope" argument here. We're talking about a trivial (possibly one line of code) change to the forum.

A small change is not necessarily a prelude to a complete overhaul. Sometimes it's just a small change.

Also, wanting things changed makes it look like you don't trust twicker to do what is right on the site or for the site and at that point he might as well close it down or sell it because he would no longer be the admin but just a middleman waiting to update the site according to popular vote.

I think that's a little absurdly paranoid. There have been several requests for changes made to the forums before. Twicker has implemented some of them, and he has disregarded others.

He's not likely to flip out and shut down the site just because LB doesn't want Lounge posts counted towards a user's post count. I mean really.

[BHX]

Disch wrote:

But if post count doesn't matter to you, why would you be so adamantly opposed to LB's suggestion? Clearly post count carries some significance to him or he wouldn't be suggesting this.

You are misunderstanding. They don't mean anything to me, but I'm not arguing keeping them, but rather to just remove it altogether. The point of this site is to help teach, learn, and inform future hopeful programmers. The post count in no way shows the user's participation, experience, or knowledge. Any misstated knowledge will be corrected by other users that know more. Therefore, since post count serves no significance to the site, remove them period and not just from one or two forums. If the post count means so much to a user they can make it so you can go to your account page and see how many you have otherwise do away with them. So I'm not arguing against LB's request, I'm saying to either keep them or completely remove them and keep the focus of the site on the Q&A in the Programming boards and remove the chance of users being bugged because of high post count.

[cire]

They don't mean anything to me, but I'm not arguing keeping them, but rather to just remove it altogether.

While high post counts don't correlate to credibility, very low post counts are helpful in identifying trolls/spammers and knowing when you're dealing with someone new to the site (and the inverse.) Of course you may be able to ascertain that from a join date, but not as reliably as from a combination of the two.

[Catfish666]

Post count does mean something, as far as the site logic is concerned.
When you report a one-time spammer, you can remove his post/thread completely without twicker's intervention. This happens when you reach a certain number of posts yourself (I think).

[LB]

BHX Specter wrote:

It is unfounded though as there is nothing that has happened on the site to warrant it.

For a long time when I first joined, there was no such thing as a 'lounge bunny'.

[Catfish666]

For a long time when I first joined, there was no such thing as a 'lounge bunny'.

To be fair, there are very few lounge bunnies to this date. I can count no more than three.
That's not to say I'm against your original suggestion: I still keep my neutral position.

However, I'm against BHX Specter's suggestion to remove post count altogether (I have my own reasons).

[BHX]

I guess the only real counter argument is that every once in a while a legit non-C++ programming question springs up in the Lounge so with no post count those who genuinely help will get no post for the effort they put into answering it.

Catfish666 wrote:

Post count does mean something, as far as the site logic is concerned.

True, but that reply tells me I'm still not being clear so I did this quick Gimp photoshopping to show what I mean.

Remove the post counts from here:
http://prntscr.com/2kjkc4
Here:
http://prntscr.com/2kjl0j

And add it here:
http://prntscr.com/2kjkg1

Put everyone on a level field. Then you don't have to worry about people attempting to spam for post count, users being bugged due to post count, and everyone can focus on doing Q&A in the other forums and tackle the spam issue while keeping the site logic in place.

[LB]

@BHX you're going way overkill with a medium problem with an easy solution.

[G30GNwbp]

The reason offered why there needs to be a change is large post counts could be held by inexperience users; and this is possibly bad because a novice user on this site might get a poor answer and assume that it is a good answer based on the users post count.

Can anyone provide a thread where this might have happened?

Also there seems to be a consensuses that this is not a real problem; with the possible exception of L B.

Did I imagine it or was it just a year or two ago that L B was spamming the lounge with a thread about how he sometimes has trouble understanding certain emotions? And if I remember right nobody reported him or called him a spammer.

[LB]

People are putting words in my mouth now. I give up.

[cire]

rtd2645 wrote:

Did I imagine it or was it just a year or two ago that L B was spamming the lounge with a thread about how he sometimes has trouble understanding certain emotions? And if I remember right nobody reported him or called him a spammer.

Your definition of spam seems to coincide with BHX Specter's. If it doesn't interest you, it is spam.

That isn't any reasonable person's definition of spam, and since LB didn't spam so there was no reason to report him.

[G30GNwbp]

@cire

I was just using word as it has been used. I personally find the word too vague. It is a pejorative word.

I did not have a problem with LB's thread about his personal problems--my point is he is being a little hypocritical reporting others for something he is not above doing.

This whole thread is useless; twicker does not bother with trivial stuff.

[maeriden]

Can anyone provide a thread where this might have happened?

http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/beginner/110492/
While I may not have a high post count I don't consider it low.
That was so embarrassing.

[CodeGazer]

Also there seems to be a consensuses that this is not a real problem; with the possible exception of L B.

It is far from just LB agreeing with this suggestion.

http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/lounge/121697/#msg662892

http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/lounge/121697/#msg662903

http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/lounge/121697/#msg662940

http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/lounge/121697/2/#msg663099

http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/lounge/121697/2/#msg663115

http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/lounge/121697/2/#msg663218

http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/lounge/121697/2/#msg663245

Them are from the first two pages of this thread and are the posts that I saw people agreeing with LB suggestion so I wouldn't say it is a consensus that this shouldn't be implemented...

It seems to me most people that are arguing against this have the main argument that post count doesn't matter so why should it matter if this is implemented or not?

[BHX]

Forum spam consists of posts on Internet forums that contains related or unrelated advertisements, links to malicious websites, and abusive or otherwise unwanted information.

So, depending on the user, the posts/threads that don't interest them (unwanted information/posts/threads) are spam. That is what I base my understanding of spam on this forum from.

I wouldn't report LB for an emotion thread, while I would have considered it spam because it was unwanted information in my personal opinion, but when I consider a thread spam I just ignore it (thus why I never posted to the Dark Matter/Dark Energy thread as it didn't interest me).

LB wrote:

@BHX you're going way overkill with a medium problem with an easy solution.

Maybe, but still only a matter of editing less than like 5-10 lines of code and maybe adding one or two lines of code.

[LB]

I felt justified to post the emotion thread here because at the time I was under the impression that many people, like me, had various forms of autism, and I wanted to see how other people handled it. I was trying to connect with a community that doesn't exist anymore, and probably never did.

I think I am starting to understand now why so many people have been closing their accounts recently. They just want the pain to stop.

[G30GNwbp]

@CodeGazer

I also do not care whether it is implemented or not. It's childish to be concerned with post counts.

In fact it is childish for me to respond you. Good-night

[BHX]

@LB I was just using your thread as an example, but in all honesty I believe I did comment in your thread. As for closing accounts, I can't speak for the others, but I was just an idiot that let my emotions get the better of me and did it in a moment of frustration.

Now, my idea of removing the visible post count may be overkill, but I have a logical reason behind saying it. As I said it levels the field so that users focus on the information given and won't pm users just because the may have a higher post count and won't play favoritism in the C++ board threads. This is a trivial thing, but it will remove the need to worry about spam upping post count and new users misinterpreting the high count as a skilled programmer because they can no longer see it publicly. Then have it so you can see how many you have in your personal account page and it stays in the site so that it still does what Catfish666 pointed out about reporting. This method then takes care of all the hypothetical issues that have been brought up, posts are still kept track of and visible for the users in the account so if they care about it they can still see it, and if you have a person who is just posting to post only they will know it as we can either ignore or report any obvious spam and go about our days.