Until now I've stayed out of this whole post count drama crap. That said, it doesn't seem to be dying the death it deserves so here's my $0.02 on the whole deal. In regard to some of the points made above in regard to keeping post counts in the thread post headers:
[1) .....It is an accumulated part of ones board history, something "earned".......
The number of posts by any user shows nothing "earned" as it a cumulative or running total. Some blow bag with 7,000 posts might contribute less to a forum than a more reserved user who has 200 posts. The only way to truly evaluate what a member has "earned" is to look at each post in the correct context - that of the thread it was made in - and evaluate it accordingly. Things such as content, relevance, tonality, etc. truly show what a member has earned. A rolling total number is useless to determine what a member has contributed or has "earned".
2) 0000It has been the norm here at the ORG from the beginning until just very recently.....
True. That said, times change as do things in life. This is one of them. The "it's always been done this way" argument is not a strong one in any application unless valid reasons for not changing implemented methodology can be presented. Change is part of evolution and not always a bad thing.
3) It tells at- a-glance, part of who we are, in terms of experience and effort.
See my response to point 1. I don't understand how a cumulative post count displayed on someones post can contribute to the evaluation of a specific post in a specific thread or the effort that went into such a post. If someone judges who a person is solely by their post count number that akins to judging someone in the "real world" by the size of their bank account which totally ignores many factors that help shape who a person truly is. If someone evaluates me solely on my post count I feel sorry for them as they might be rather narrow minded.
Further, while we are all members of this community, this is Cat-Dogs world we live in. He owns the domain, hosts the board and puts TONS of effort into runnin this place. I appreciate the fact he ever values our input on running the board at all. He made a change that he didn't think was major and had NO impact on the functionality of the forum. If he wants to do that I have NO problem with such changes. Hell, I'm just glad I can hang out here and chill out and I don't have to do jack shit other than log on - no effort and no cost to me. In my mind he can do whatever he wants and I'm along for the ride and I'd still thank him for all his effort.
Finally, I don't get why this is such a big ass issue. Post counts aren't gone all together - they are accessable with just a little effort. Are we too busy or is it too much effort to check a profile to see someones post count if you are curious. Then again, if you had to run a credit check on someone everytime they talked to you in order to evaluate them I guess it would take some time after all.
Post what you wish in response to this I am DONE readin about this and I am definitely done talkin' about it.
PS - in case you haven't figured it out I'm with Cat-Dog's original call to nuke the "at a glance" post counts - hell - he can get rid of 'em all together if he wants. Thanks for all the work CD
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