Welcoming Plaza and Post Count

[False Perception 482]

So one of the main argument points for the character limit is that it supposedly ensures quality posts. Another is that it stops people from spamming to raise their post count.

 

When you put these two together, you have a working system. However, in the Welcoming Plaza, posts don't go toward your post count. This would be fine in my book, except for the fact that it still has a character limit. Now I know the limit isn't that much, but why should I have to make my post just as good as all my others if I'm not going to get the same amount of credit that I do in other parts of the forum (minus the Colosseum, obviously)?

 

I propose that since the new users should be faced with the character limit as soon as they join so they are familiar with it and the way it works, that posts in the Welcoming Plaza go towards your post count.

 

Oh, and who the hell said they don't like cookies?

Edited August 14, 2012 by False Perception

[FedoraMemes 582]

I suppose raising the post count would be a way for the Blank Flanks to level up quickly, but I still think that we should keep the character limit, to encourage newer members to write more. If having Blank Flanks posting increases too quickly, then maybe you have to be a Muffin for your post count to increase? Wether that is available on IP.Board is beyond me, but you never know.

 

Also, I wub cookies :3

[NavelColt 22,881]

I say we maintain no post count for that forum, so that newbies can't just lawl around in their intro topic to get five posts and ergo get out of Blank Flank mode. But, the minimum thusly does seem a bit hindering since welcomes are often repetitive. It's basically the only forum where quite a few members copy pasta their introductions in every single new topic.

 

>Keep the fact that posts don't count in Welcoming Plaza

>Lower the character minimum for Welcoming Plaza to 50 or something

 

My thoughts.

[False Perception 482]

I suppose raising the post count would be a way for the Blank Flanks to level up quickly, but I still think that we should keep the character limit, to encourage newer members to write more. If having Blank Flanks posting increases too quickly, then maybe you have to be a Muffin for your post count to increase? Whether that is available on IP.Board is beyond me, but you never know.

 

Also, I wub cookies :3

 

Well, 200 WOULD encourage the newer users to open up about themselves a bit more, but then they might think that's the forum standard. You don't really see many very new users in Roleplay World, for example.

You leave blank flank rank very quickly anyway, I would imagine it wouldn't matter much either way if it were to counted or not.

I do not believe IPS tech can do that.

F*CK YEAH, COOKIES ARE AWESOME!

 

I say we maintain no post count for that forum, so that newbies can't just lawl around in their intro topic to get five posts and ergo get out of Blank Flank mode. But, the minimum thusly does seem a bit hindering since welcomes are often repetitive. It's basically the only forum where quite a few members copy pasta their introductions in every single new topic.

 

>Keep the fact that posts don't count in Welcoming Plaza

>Lower the character minimum for Welcoming Plaza to 50 or something

 

My thoughts.

 

As with my above post, users do not usually stay in blank flank either way.

Also with my above post, to gain more users we need to be as easy to use as possible to be appealing, so having a non-standard minimum in the sub-forum they are almost required to post in first might confuse them, and turn them off from staying here. Besides, getting the newer users to post more about themselves will help people to know who they are. Longer welcoming posts also tend to be better ones, which makes a user, again, more memorable. If a new user sees someone knows who they are, it really brightens their day, and if they're happy here, then we all did our job, right?

 

Dem commas.

Edited August 14, 2012 by False Perception

[Chigens and Kay 3,832]

No, because just like the RP post counts were abused, this would most likely be abused as well to farm post counts.

 

I agree for lowering the minimum character limit though, sometimes I just want to welcome them and not have to add a bunch of extra stuff.

[False Perception 482]

No, because just like the RP post counts were abused, this would most likely be abused as well to farm post counts.

 

I agree for lowering the minimum character limit though, sometimes I just want to welcome them and not have to add a bunch of extra stuff.

 

With the way the limit is structured, it shouldn't still be considered farming. I could say this entire thread is just me farming posts, because I'm being attentive to it. If a user makes a legitimate post that welcome the user, it shouldn't be considered spam! If the moderators do their job, and the users do theirs, then stuff like:

"Welcome to the forums. (filler:blahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblah)"

Won't get through and if I'm correct, deleted or hidden posts do not count.

If someone posts a lot in the Plaza, then why shouldn't he/she be rewarded like a dedicated roleplayer? Again, if both parties do their job, stuff like that above won't be tolerated.

[Chigens and Kay 3,832]

With the way the limit is structured, it shouldn't still be considered farming. I could say this entire thread is just me farming posts, because I'm being attentive to it. If a user makes a legitimate post that welcome the user, it shouldn't be considered spam! If the moderators do their job, and the users do theirs, then stuff like:

"Welcome to the forums. (filler:blahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblah)"

Won't get through and if I'm correct, deleted or hidden posts do not count.

If someone posts a lot in the Plaza, then why shouldn't he/she be rewarded like a dedicated roleplayer? Again, if both parties do their job, stuff like that above won't be tolerated.

 

Still, this is a forum for discussion.

 

I don't think anyone wants to see someone go and post 2,000 replies in WP just to get a Unicorn badge...

 

The people who do welcome the users are nice and do it just because they like it and to guide them, not to be rewarded for it.

[Twiliscael 3,960]

They need to experience the hell that we go through every day! Blank Flanks with benefits? Hell no!

 

/sarcasm

[Starshine 16,334]

No

 

Eeyup

 

I freaking hate cookies

 

---

 

You may know me from my welcoming template in the plaza, and i tell you what, it's easy to get dozens of post counts daily in that place. It will be the second RP world disaster, everyone is welcoming newbies not for friendship, but for their own greed for badges

 

No, seriously, welcoming others shouldn't be rewarded with anything, so only the sincerest will pay a visit to that place

[Haven Celestii 9,385]

I have to say no to adding a post count in the Welcoming Plaza. Just like Dreamwalker said, people like us who are in there very frequent with some form of copypasta welcome would start to skyrocket on posts.

[False Perception 482]

I believe text copy and pasted into the text box doesn't count toward character limit..if so, then aha! The 'pasta welcomes are trumped then.

I have to say no to adding a post count in the Welcoming Plaza. Just like Dreamwalker said, people like us who are in there very frequent with some form of copypasta welcome would start to skyrocket on posts.

 

[Zoop 8,384]

No, seriously, welcoming others shouldn't be rewarded with anything, so only the sincerest will pay a visit to that place

I agree with this completely. Also, food for thought: what are you going to appreciate more as a new member? A one line copypasta, a youtube embed, or some manner of post that has actual substance?

 

Instead of giving someone an extremely brief and vague welcome, why not mix it up a bit? If they say they do artsy stuff, ask them what sort of work they've done; encourage them to toss it over into Octavia's Hall. If they say that they're into certain types of games or music, why not ask them about them? You'll be doing so much more to actually feel welcome that way.

[Starshine 16,334]

Instead of giving someone an extremely brief and vague welcome, why not mix it up a bit? If they say they do artsy stuff, ask them what sort of work they've done; encourage them to toss it over into Octavia's Hall. If they say that they're into certain types of games or music, why not ask them about them? You'll be doing so much more to actually feel welcome that way.

Good suggestion

 

Sometimes I tried to mix something to my opening welcoming post, but most of the time the introduction itself was so vague I couldn't really find anything mention-worthy

 

And personally I joined the 'welcome committee' because when I ask for some forum rules and information in my introduction thread, no one even bothered to answer. That hurts.

[Zoop 8,384]

Sometimes I tried to mix something to my opening welcoming post, but most of the time the introduction itself was so vague I couldn't really find anything mention-worthy

 

And personally I joined the 'welcome committee' because when I ask for some forum rules and information in my introduction thread, no one even bothered to answer. That hurts.

Aye, it is a lot more difficult to pull off when the introductory post itself is extremely vague, which happens quite often sadly. x_x

 

I occasionally browse around the forum index on the intro board to see if there are any threads with zero responses that could use a post and a bump to avoid that sort of situation, since it does suck - especially if you've actually put a bit of effort into the thread.

[Haven Celestii 9,385]

I agree with this completely. Also, food for thought: what are you going to appreciate more as a new member? A one line copypasta, a youtube embed, or some manner of post that has actual substance?

 

Instead of giving someone an extremely brief and vague welcome, why not mix it up a bit? If they say they do artsy stuff, ask them what sort of work they've done; encourage them to toss it over into Octavia's Hall. If they say that they're into certain types of games or music, why not ask them about them? You'll be doing so much more to actually feel welcome that way.

 

I attempt to spice it up. I'll point them to Octavia's hall if no one else has done so or ask them about some hobby of theirs that they mentioned when it interests me. Id rather not ask about something with no actual interest, cause then I would just be a douche.

[Arylett Charnoa 4,919]

I'll say what I always say in response to people saying that the character limit should be decreased/removed in OOC or posts should count for there being a limit:

 

Just because posts do not count, does not mean your post is not expected to contribute in some form or considered any lesser than the rest of the forums. It does not mean that we expect some crazy high quality elitist spiel with every post, we just expect at least some amount of effort. The 100 character limit is there because the rest of the forums have it, first of all (Minus Cloudsdale which is a completely different animal of its own and two other forums), and Welcoming Plaza is no different. In fact, I'd wager that the Welcoming Plaza is a very important section. It is where members get their first impression, and we should at least encourage replies with a little thought behind them. Hence the limit. (Of course, it doesn't mean you can't have fun and run about. You can! Just put a tiny bit of thought into it.)

 

For new members, too, it introduces them to the limit and gets them accustomed to it immediately rather than posting a welcoming thread and suddenly being assaulted with it in some other section.

 

As for posts not counting, I think the reason for that, other than people post farming in Welcoming Plaza, is to encourage a Blank Flank to explore outside of their welcome thread and see the rest of the forums. To post there, and earn their position as a Muffin. Being a Muffin grants one several privileges, so one should at least contribute more widespreadedly rather than posting in the same thread again and again. It's kind of one of the reasons why RP post count was re-removed as well.

[Street Comedy 327]

Why should they count? How hard is it to post 5 POSTS in Everfree Forest or Show Discussion?

 

If posts do count, you're gonna see alot more Pony+ members due to how easy it is to post Welcome! In. Every. Single. Thread.

 

I'm also against abolishing 100 char min in the Welcome Forum.

 

Welcome doesn't seem that promising if you just joined. "Just welcome." I like seeing meaningful introductions and welcomes, it's not even that hard to do 100 characters. That's 2 healthy sentences.

 

TL;DR: No. No. Yes.

[silvadel 1,393]

My take on this is that the posts in some of these forums like the welcoming area should count but maybe up to a specific limit. IE you can only get TWO postcounts per day in the welcoming plaza. This would give the blank flanks their first post if they decide to make a welcoming post, and would encourage others to at least look at the welcoming plaza and welcome the new ponies without allowing it to significantly increase pony postcount.

 

Look at it this way -- I do not think anypony would disagree that it is a LOT harder to get postcount than it once was. In some ways I think it is relatively too hard but that is neither here nor there.

 

If it were up to me to set things up, Significant fanfic edits would count(as it is now, you keep adding sections and you get no new posts) to a maximum of two per day. Actually I wouldnt even see a problem with being able to get 2 posts per day in Ask a pony so long as the message in question was 200 characters or longer.

[Frith is Magick 1,471]

I understand that the low character minimum and the post count encourage people to welcome newcomers, however, a line needs to be drawn. I understand that actions are being taken against people who copy and paste replies or use templates, and I understand that enforcing the procedures is not easy, but I believe change is needed. People who use the Welcoming Plaza to increase their post counts reduce the quality of the rest of the forums because there is less incentive to earn badges by posting relevant material. I have a proposal which I believe will offer incentive to welcome newcomers and limit the improper usage of the Plaza. The first part of my proposal is that only members of the rank Cupcake or higher should have their post counts increase. This will prevent newcomers from getting falsely earning badges. The second part is to limit how many posts are added to a count per week. The incentive to welcome new users remains, but it will be harder to use it to speed up progression through the ranks. 

 

Summary of my proposal: Only Cupcakes and higher can increase post count in the Welcoming Plaza, and only 5-15 posts in the Welcoming Plaza per week are added to a user's count.

Edited October 25, 2013 by Frith is Magik

[Antismurf9001 1,271]

Summary of my proposal: Only Cupcakes and higher can increase post count in the Welcoming Plaza, and only 5-15 posts per week are added to a user's count.

 

The first part sounds fairly reasonable, but I'm not sure I agree with the second part (at least with those values).  At your maximum of 15 posts per week (assuming I've done the math correctly), that means that you can get about 780 posts per year.  That would mean that under these rules, the people joined the site the day it was created could be at most of the Pony rank.  They would have to wait another two years before achieving Crystal Pony.  I'm not saying that ranks and badges are the most important part of this site, but I'm not going to lie and say that I wasn't very excited to get the Phoenix badge just the other day.  

 

Maybe a maximum post count per week would be beneficial, but capping at 15 is way too low in my opinion.

[Frith is Magick 1,471]

 

 

Maybe a maximum post count per week would be beneficial, but capping at 15 is way too low in my opinion.

Thank you for pointing that out, it was simply a wording error which is now fixed. I proposed for the limit to only apply to the Welcoming Plaza. The goal is to limit how many posts are counted so that badges are earned through posting relevant content. I am in favour of welcoming newcomers, but it feels almost dirty that people are responding largely for the purpose of raising their count.

[Antismurf9001 1,271]

Thank you for pointing that out, it was simply a wording error which is now fixed. I proposed for the limit to only apply to the Welcoming Plaza. The goal is to limit how many posts are counted so that badges are earned through posting relevant content. I am in favour of welcoming newcomers, but it feels almost dirty that people are responding largely for the purpose of raising their count.

 

Oh, okay, that makes much more sense.  I agree with you now, that proposal actually sounds like it would be beneficial (from the point of view of a random user of course).

[Frith is Magick 1,471]

As little as I like the idea of necroing an old thread, I have something to say, and don't want to create clutter with a new topic.

 

Posts made in the Welcoming Plaza should not go towards post count. Recently I have seen blatant spamming, primarily of the WP, with repetitive, low-substance posts. I won't pretend to be a mind reader capable of knowing the intents of others, but this reeks of spamming for the sake of increasing post count for badges. While welcoming new users to the forums creates a positive environment and increases retention, excessive posting of empty welcomes dilutes the value, especially when simply inspecting the New Content pages makes the level painfully obvious. Because enforcing content requirements in the Welcoming Plaza is immensely impractical, the incentive to "farm needs to be removed". Not counting posts means that people will be posting welcoming messages out of a legitimate desire to be welcoming, and are more likely to post more than a simple hello.

 

Seeing the Welcoming Plaza doesn't make me think "what a welcoming, friendly place" anymore, it feels like spot where people only pretend to care out of self interest. Spam deteriorates the welcoming atmosphere of the Welcoming Plaza. Not counting posts there is a simple way to at least minimize posting for the sake of posting and return a sense of sincerity to the WP.

[Shift 4,272]

A necroed thread that was made in 2012 and last posted in October? 
 

 
But seriously, I think posts in the Welcoming Plaza should count. I've been to the Welcoming Plaza, and the people there genuinely seem like nice people who are genuinely welcoming as many ponies as they can to feel welcome. 

 

Though, I do believe we should have at least a 50-100 character limit, not a 20 one. That would make the posts more quality and people would have to put more thought into them, if you catch my drift.

[NavelColt 22,881]

As little as I like the idea of necroing an old thread, I have something to say, and don't want to create clutter with a new topic.

 

Posts made in the Welcoming Plaza should not go towards post count. Recently I have seen blatant spamming, primarily of the WP, with repetitive, low-substance posts. I won't pretend to be a mind reader capable of knowing the intents of others, but this reeks of spamming for the sake of increasing post count for badges. While welcoming new users to the forums creates a positive environment and increases retention, excessive posting of empty welcomes dilutes the value, especially when simply inspecting the New Content pages makes the level painfully obvious. Because enforcing content requirements in the Welcoming Plaza is immensely impractical, the incentive to "farm needs to be removed". Not counting posts means that people will be posting welcoming messages out of a legitimate desire to be welcoming, and are more likely to post more than a simple hello.

 

Seeing the Welcoming Plaza doesn't make me think "what a welcoming, friendly place" anymore, it feels like spot where people only pretend to care out of self interest. Spam deteriorates the welcoming atmosphere of the Welcoming Plaza. Not counting posts there is a simple way to at least minimize posting for the sake of posting and return a sense of sincerity to the WP.

 

The staff has been playing Ring Around the Rosey with the Welcoming Plaza for over a year now, changing posts from not counting to counting, adding and taking away the character minimum, and many other not so throw-of-a-switch changes. The goal has always been to have it be as active and helpful as possible. That's why posts started counting in the first place, because remarkably few people ever posted in more than three out of ten welcoming topics, leaving a shockingly high number of new members with two, one or even no responses, which was just as big a problem in its' own way as having people abuse post count by working spam into their posts.

 

Staff is currently discussing things with this. I'm for killing post count as well as the 'no copy paste welcomes' rule. I'd rather have someone copy paste a helpful and kind welcome to most if not all new welcoming topics, then ban copy pastes and tell everyone that every welcome post needs to be sincere and thought out, knowing full well that, that's not what's going to happen. People are lazy, man. That said, perhaps some standards to what works as a copy paste welcome and what doesn't, can help us have the best of both worlds.

 

We shall see, Batman.