A Post About Posts

[drdony]

Surprise, surprise

Being a new member or newbie here, it take time to get around and see what is happening. Like many, I did the usual "Introduce Myself" and get a few responses. That was not the surprise; however, when I posted a simple thank you to the respondents, I got the Surprise!

My thank you earned credit for another post! So I started looking around and found that posts from all levels including the Gurus, earn a post for short and sweet comments.

I think that saying thanks is a sign of respect, BUT I don't think it rises to the level of a post that deserves a Post Credit.

To me, posts and comments should contribute subject of value (other than a thanks, I agree or nice post) to the original post. Certainly the numbers and ranking might be significantly different if only post of value were counted as posts.

Some sites require an minimum number of words to qualify as a post - but then again a while a simple "thank you" would get rejected, but a "Thank you so much for your post Alice", would get threw the system.

I vote for meaningful posts and comments!

Great to be here with you

[Mal Tindle]

Hi there,

Thank you for your feedback on forum posts, it is something we are all aware of but I have a couple of points which I stress are only my opinions and I’m sure others will come on board with this.

As you will know, there are many forums out there, many are good and some are very good but sadly there are a lot that are frankly garbage and very badly administered.

Here we have a very hands on and enthusiastic founder in Evan himself as well as a very hard working and vigilant administrator in GT. We also have a group of moderators who keep an eye open for anything out of place that we feel we should report.

I fully agree with you that quotes like ‘I agree’ and ‘me too’ are an abuse of the system but in the case of the introduction section where a new member might make a quick reply by way of ‘thanks for your welcome everyone’ then I think that is perfectly ok as we don’t want to alienate a new member for a one off thank you.

I know that GT keeps a watchful eye out for these sort of things and if a new member went on to make two or three word replies to twenty or thirty posts (as we had last week, no names mentioned) then that member would receive a friendly but firm message from him followed by removal if it continued..

Hopefully we have things fairly well covered here and I am sure you will enjoy the forum and thanks again for giving us your thoughts on this.

regards,

Mal.

[GT Bulmer]

. . .
I vote for meaningful posts and comments!

Great to be here with you

Hi, Don:

Thank you for expressing your opinion on this issue and for promoting the purpose and value of contributing meaningful posts and comments. Most of our active members agree with your perspective and most do their best to honour the concept, most of the time.

@Mal: Hey, Mal, your response to Don is right on! Excellent! Better than I likely would have said it.

What I have observed since being the Forum Admin here is that most regularly active members engage in a sufficient amount of quality comments that when, on occasion, they do post a short reply, it does not feel out of place. Where we have an issue is when a new member joins us and (as Mal pointed out) they post a stream of brief and valueless comments that are obviously aimed at boosting their post count. Mal is correct in that I do keep a watchful eye on those members.

Evan would be able to comment on this next part better than I because he started this forum, but I believe that the original purpose for giving credits for forum posting was to add an element of fun and challenge to encourage and inspire the members.

I know that when I first joined a couple of years ago I noticed that you could advance up through the "Titles" and "Levels" in your profile with certain post totals and that motivated me to be more active in the forum. I had previously been trained to try to contribute to forum discussions, so I have always tried my best to live up to that standard.

Again, I thank you, Don, for bringing up this issue and expressing your support for meaningful contributions. The more of us who support it, the better example we will set for new members who join us.

GT

[Evan]

Thanks guys - I love that there's a passion to make these forums better and GT and I are always open to ideas that you have!

In general I find that people are very helpful and try to leave detailed comments when appropriate. It's usually pretty easy to find the people who post just to get the 20 minimum using a couple of word replies - they pretty quickly get banned by GT or myself.

If you do find members who you feel are abusing the system that we haven't caught please bring it to our attention via a private message and we'll look into it!

We love the forums as a friendly place for entrepreneurs to help each other and I'm so overjoyed that you guys take time out of your day to visit and contribute your thoughts!

[drdony]

Thanks all for your comments., we are in total agreement. From what I saw in a few instances, I thought a breath of fresh air and a reminder was in order

Great to be here associated with your all, buy something

[ideasuniversity]

Thank you Drdony
For your observations.
Hope this post is in order

[drdony]

Great to be here with you Ideas