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How to get Brohoofs on the Forums

Ashbad

Entry posted by Ashbad

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Oh, you seriously just clicked this to find out how to get more of these valuable "brohooves"? They mean that much to you? Why do they, exactly?

 

Perhaps you think you'll been seen as a cooler person if you get more. Perhaps you think there's a magic ratio that once you overcome it ( 1:1.5 posts:brohooves, for example) that you'll become a moderator or get a "special" forums rank. Perhaps your goal is to become a top-20 poster and make page one of this list: http://mlpforums.com/members/page__sort_key__posts__sort_order__desc__max_results__20

 

Well, as someone with both a high ratio that is above 1:1.5, a modest amount of posts, and a staff position, I'm here to tell you that in my opinion, you're going about things in a very wrong way. But how?

 

First of all, brohoof ratio means nothing. Zip. Nada. It's the amount of times that people thought you were a cool person, and that's virtually as far as it extends. It doesn't mean you're a better person, it doesn't mean you're going to get a staff rank (as far as I can say from basic observation), and it doesn't mean you're superior to others with a lower ratio.

 

Secondly, post count means little as well. It's the amount of times you typed text into a text input box, and pressed a button called "post". Becoming a top poster just means you're good with typing and pressing buttons. It doesn't mean you're more committed to the forums than others, it doesn't mean you're a more respectable person than others, and it MOST DEFINITELY does not mean that you post quality information.

 

So, of course, human nature is to set silly achievements such as "I want to have at least this much of a ratio", and it's hard to pretend that's a completely dismissed thought. It's admittedly fun to see that people laughed or agreed with what you said, but once you realize that it means little more than that, you'll start spending less time obsessing over your ratio. How can you make it a fun side-effect to the MLPForums experience, rather than the experience itself?

 

Post quality posts. Don't post for the point of increasing your post count for the day, nor to whore around and get brohoofs. Post when you really have something to contribute to the thread. Were 50% of the forums' members to do this, there would be far less bans, significantly less drama, and a jolt in productivity. I like to point out who I see as "quality posters" all the time, and my normal example is Scootacool. Yeah, I'll use him for an example again. He doesn't post 20 times a day, but when he posts, you can expect a quality post! Some may snicker and call these quality posts "TL;DR, WALL OF TEXT", but these posts are the very lifeblood of the community!

 

I hope those who read this will consider in the future to NOT post-whore or brohoof-whore, but post quality content. Brohooves and popularity surely follow.

  • Brohoof 3
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Clarity

It's all rather biased, really. It's more about people's opinions of you, rather than the quality of your post. That's why I don't think brohooves matter all that much, because it's all opinion and perspective.

 

Some brohoof simply because they mention their favorite pony, some brohoof because they're friends, some do so because they see their favorite meme like "20 percent cooler" so it technically doesn't matter as they aren't really honest opinions of the post most of the time.

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silvadel

Personally I think a major element of brohoof ratio is how often you post in areas that posts do not count. If you specifically avoid those forums then you probably have a horrid ratio. If a ton of your posts are in the roleplay, welcoming, and forum games sections then you will have a higher ratio.

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Killian Jones

My biggest annoyance is, I do everything in my power to make quality insightful posts, no brohooves, no replies, Im getting to think that people don't even bother reading them anymore. Hence I have changed my stance on using the forums, and instead of making time to make quality posts, I use my time working on something else. I see brohooves as a measure of success for making a good point, if I am not getting them, then I should not be wasting my time making them. It's how I've felt for a long while and eh, I don't care anymore. I'll only start when someone is obviously wrong.

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Evilshy

I think a fair amount of brohoofery comes from your reputation. People think you're funny, so they're more likely to see stuff you post as funny. People think you're intelligent, so they're more likely to view what you say as intelligent. Take Blue, for example: he's intelligent and he doesn't mess around with useless stuff very often, so when I see his name above a post, I think "okay, here comes some wisdom."

 

But as everyone knows, the best way to get brohoofs is to be staff and post something official. Or donate $630 to the site.

  • Brohoof 3
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Crispy

But as everyone knows, the best way to get brohoofs is to be staff and post something official. Or donate $630 to the site.

 

Or get engaged.

 

Besides, quality is subjective. Yes, long, detailed and well thought out posts can draw some big gains (remember Pencils' Pinkie Pie thread?) But at the same time, a small, well played joke can hit big too.

  • Brohoof 2
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Nilkad_Naqadah

TL;DR is in my opinion a frankly terrible thing. The fact that a post is long and the viewer's attention span is too short does not in any way invalidate the point being made, as longer posts or "walls of text" are generally long simply because the writer wants to thoroughly support and defend their point, leaving as few inaccuracies or inconsistencies as possible, because that way there are fewer arguments quibbling over details that they have to respond to, giving them more time and opening more space on the thread for legitimate points to be made in an intelligent manner.

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Bronium

Honestly, I'd rather an average word/character per post ration to replace the number of brohooves on the profile page.

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Ashbad

 

 

 

Or get engaged.

 

Besides, quality is subjective. Yes, long, detailed and well thought out posts can draw some big gains (remember Pencils' Pinkie Pie thread?) But at the same time, a small, well played joke can hit big too.

 

Of course, but forums can't thrive on jokes alone, nor do jokes always work. Same goes for quality posts in terms of "gains" (which I think is a horrible choice of words as it implies that posts should be for the main purpose of pulling in "brohoof revenue"), but forums can thrive alone on quality.

 

 

Honestly, I'd rather an average word/character per post ration to replace the number of brohooves on the profile page.

 

Sounds like you're implying that quality has to do with word length entirely. I'd say it's a mix of elaborating thoroughly, yet still not going over the top. 5000 C-c C-v's of "CARROTS AND PEAS" isn't as quality as a 200 word piece of advice that's sound.

 

 

 

I mean, were it my decision, the site wouldn't show either post count nor brohoofs (nor even have a brohoofing system), but memcmp("Ashbad", "Feld0", strlen("Feld0")) doesn't produce passable results.

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