Often people will say ?Post counts don?t matter?we should get rid of them.? Of course then you could say ?If they don?t matter, why *not* have them??
So it is first important to note that postcounts?for better or worse do have impact on everyone. Be it at the conscious level: ?I want to get to 2000 posts!? or the subconscious level, they affect how we all post.
Proof? Funtime in Pok?land. I don?t need to tell you most people quit posting in any thread that was placed in there. Why? It?s still as fun?you just don?t gain posts. Perhaps it?s part of the fun, feeling as if you are accomplishing something by earning more posts. Perhaps if people weren?t posting so much to raise their count, they would have never gotten involved with people at the community and thus never met their friends.
But all of what I have said thus far deals with how people handle postcount from a first-person perspective. Let?s think about third person now. How you see others? postcounts. Do you treat people differently? On purpose or out of habit? As others have said, new members are impressed, nay sometimes frightened about members with large postcounts. This seems natural. But I believe the same applies for those who are not new members. You have to admit, would you have taken this topic or any topic more seriously if a person with 100 posts made it?
200?
1,000?
We sometimes express our awe in another?s ability to post a large amount in a short time. ?Wow, you posted x times today!? Even the postaverage thread shows this. Someone famous for posting in it is Pokemaster10000. He posted in it because he liked to comment about his rising average.
--Bad right?
Not necessarily. While he did post about this, he enjoyed talking to other people in that thread that became his friends. That wouldn?t have happened in there was no postcount. At the same time though, it can cause people to abuse sections like trivia in which they have no genuine interest in. This is sad, because it makes trivia loop endlessly, excluding people.
That brings another downside to postcount?excluding people. While friends can be made over postcount-raising activities, it can also cause anyone who *isn?t* interested in doing so or part of the loop already to be completely cut out from the conversation. This can include new members, who don?t know anyone, or even older members who feel out of place.
So, should postcount be removed from posts? I don?t know. I do know if it is, there will be an uprising because it is quite a big change?even if we like to pretend we?re above it. Postcount affects you. It affects me. Its absence would affect you. It would affect me. This obviously means a great deal of thought needs to be put into it. We haven?t had a big spammer problem, and that is not why we?d consider removing it. It, if justified, would be for a more welcoming environment for everyone. But it may work to cast us away, even if we don?t think it can.
