Message Count in Novel Pickup Requests

Discussion in 'Novel Updates Site Discussion' started by Westeller, Jun 11, 2018.

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Should Message Count be disabled in Novel Pickup Requests?

  1. Yes

    24 vote(s)
    58.5%
  2. No

    17 vote(s)
    41.5%
  1. Westeller

    Westeller Smokin' Sexy Style!! Staff Member

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    The overabundance of posts consisting of nothing more than "+1" has had a direct consequence that many people probably haven't noticed: posts in the Novel Pickup Requests subforum are no longer counted towards your Message Count on the forums.

    It's been this way for quite awhile.

    Today, I ran into someone having trouble posting a thread in that subforum. They wanted to submit a new Pickup Request and were actually trying to follow our template (imagine that!) ... Unfortunately, it turns out that the half-dozen posts they had in the subforum - exactly one of which was even an actual "+1" post! - simply didn't count as enough "participation" in the forums to earn the honor of posting links. ... I was flabbergasted.

    It's rare for people to exclusively participate in one subforum, and perhaps especially rare for that subforum to be the Novel Pickup Requests subforum. It's also not exactly the most difficult thing in the world to post a few times elsewhere. I wouldn't be surprised, then, if that's the last time I personally run into another person having the same problem, for the same reason.

    So perhaps it isn't a "big deal" that Message Count is not increased in that particular subforum.

    After all, those "+1" posts are a problem anyway, right?

    ...

    Wait.

    Why are they a problem, again?

    Because they're "low effort" posts that "don't contribute to discussion?"

    Because they're just spam?

    ...

    I disagree. Firmly. This isn't @justabot's Piñata Game we're talking about here, and these posts are not the equivalent of the "!hit"s in that thread. These are people posting as a show of support for a pickup request they find appealing. Maybe they weren't incredibly verbose, but surely their "+1"s are more contributive to the forums than, say, the random gibberish posted in General Chat, or the latest "lol qidian sux" thread in Novel General.

    Look through the forums. Open random threads.

    How many throwaway posts do you see that really aren't even much longer than those "+1"s, much less more important to the forums in any way? Why are they counted, then?

    Because those subforums consist of more than just the throwaway spam?

    ... Well, start opening threads in Novel Pick-Up Requests, then!

    You're going to see an awful lot of "+1"s. Especially now that you're looking for them. ... But, tell me, what else do you see? Is no one posting anything else in the subforum? Are no opinions being shared? No discussion going on? .... Is it really that different from the other subforums? That much worse?


    ...

    But maybe you're convinced. The "+1" posts are garbage. They shouldn't count as participation in the forums and it's good they don't.

    I think it'll be hard to convince you otherwise. So let's try something else.

    Let's talk, instead, about Message Count, and the affect "+1" posts actually have on it.

    Message Count, I think we can all agree, could be properly renamed "Size of My Dick in Millimeters," with the ultimate goal on the forums being to increase that number as high as possible, so everyone can see how Really Freakin' Huge yours is. With that in mind, you're probably itching to open up the Novel Pickup Requests subforum to post a whole slew of "+1"s, and you're totally bummed to find out they don't count.

    ... Right?

    Because that's obviously the place to go for easy Message Count spamming! That's why everyone posts all those "+1"s there, and they're obviously going to stop now that they know it doesn't count anymore!

    ... Or not. No. Let's be honest. No one is going to that subforum to artificially inflate the size of their e-peen, and, if they were, they'd probably end up banned for spamming ridiculously. What are they going to do, after all, "+1" the first fifty threads in the subforum, one after another?

    No, people go to that subforum to look at the requests, and they post to show their support. Their interest.

    They don't post for Message Count.

    They don't care that they aren't getting any imaginary points for it.

    And, if they were, it really wouldn't even make much of a difference at all in their total.

    They're being denied a handful of those hard-to-come-by millimeters. Heck, maybe even a dozen or two. In the grand scheme of things, with @AliceShiki reigning supreme at 14,887 posts on the forums, are we really worried about their few "+1"s?

    Are they.. upsetting the balance?

    ...

    No?

    So what's the big deal, then? Why have we disabled Message Count for the Novel Pickup Requests subforum? On a whim? Just because? ... Are we.. accomplishing something?

    Not really, huh.

    Am I the only one who thinks that's dumb? :facepalm:
     
  2. Suijin

    Suijin Blood God [Medic]

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    +1 should just be deleted if its fresh.
    leave the count going for normal ones
     
  3. Nyamsus

    Nyamsus Life is full of shit and we live in it

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    N+1 = X
     
  4. DocB

    DocB "I see you, little mouse! Run along"

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    +1
    and your total will be 35000 Nuffies
    So are you gonna pay, @Westeller or should i put it on @LaDyViL tab?
     
  5. oliver

    oliver Well-Known Member

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    Who cares about message count, it’s the like to message ratio that makes me feel special :blobpeek:

    On a serious note tho, i never even noticed pickup doesnt count messages, Maybe because i rarely post in them, so i don’t really have anything for or against it not counting, since other than the specific situation you talked about, which doesnt really affect anyone active on the forum as a whole, it’s not really a problem. But at the same time i do agree that theres probably not any respectable people going to pickup just to inflate message count, so it isnt really a problem with that either. I want a neutral vote
     
    AliceShiki, Westeller and Sin like this.
  6. LaDyViL

    LaDyViL New Member Staff Member

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    I'm all for disabling post count in that subforum. In other words, the opposite side of what @Westeller wants.

    Am not paying his tabs for him, nope.
     
    Slayerwolfx2 likes this.
  7. Sin

    Sin Well-Known Member

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    Could just swap out message count to account activity per request. So say person a posted 5 times and person b 15 l. It won't count as 20 posts but 2 people are interested via reply/post. Well not sure how that would work out or be coded so, yea?
     
  8. KuroKaze

    KuroKaze Well-Known Member

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    I wanted to +1 as a joke but was affraid of being banned :LOL:.
    I mean let's face humor is a double edged sword:cautious:.
    Anyway i degress i wanted to say there is no neutral option to vote on.
    I understand the arguments but seriously it doesn't affect me much since i only +1 things that peak my interest which doesn't happen that often.
     
    Westeller likes this.
  9. Westeller

    Westeller Smokin' Sexy Style!! Staff Member

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    The neutral vote is not voting.
     
    Slayerwolfx2, AliceShiki and oliver like this.
  10. CyberCypher

    CyberCypher Air Breather

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    PLUS ULTRA
     
  11. oliver

    oliver Well-Known Member

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    Touché
     
  12. Tachi Works

    Tachi Works Not a very well known member

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    I thought people just used +1 to bump the post in the forum so it would gain more views and priority from time to time. I don’t think people actively think “haha it says I have so posts under my status what an accomplishment” so I don’t think removing the counter for it matters.


    Just don’t delete the message itself. It’s fine to delete the count in the thread if the message is below a certain number of characters. Message has less than 4 chatacters = doesn’t count towards number of messages in thread.

    But topic still gets bumped due to recent activity.

    That’s my vote.
     
  13. Westeller

    Westeller Smokin' Sexy Style!! Staff Member

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    That's exactly my point. This isn't some bizarre spam that's meant to abuse Message Count. People post there with purpose. Those "+1"s might not look impressive, but they're at least as important as the answer to the question "watch any good movies lately?" ... But your answer to the latter will "count," and no amount of support for a pickup request ever will.

    There's simply no good reason for that. So why is it disabled?
     
    AliceShiki likes this.
  14. Tachi Works

    Tachi Works Not a very well known member

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    People don’t even notice, so I don’t think it’s really matters. Also it might just be so translators don’t have a bias and pick up novels not based on how many comments it hasn’t under it. I know I sometimes have a bias for replies/views a thread has and it’s not fair.
     
  15. Westeller

    Westeller Smokin' Sexy Style!! Staff Member

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    If it really doesn't matter, then is there any reason for it to be disabled in the first place?

    Even if the people posting in the subforum aren't bothered by it, I am.

    If there's no good reason to have Message Count disabled, it shouldn't be. Period.
     
    AliceShiki likes this.
  16. DarthOu

    DarthOu 《Lord Vader》

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    Yeaahhh tell dem boys Westeller!!!
     
  17. Scholar Occult Cauldron

    Scholar Occult Cauldron Bonk Maestro | Ascended

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    Feels like a Schroedinger's Cat situation, where we are stuck in a limbo of does or does not. Personally, I think there should be a character limit one has to reach for it to increase message count, while the other messages can still be used as recent activity bumps. Food for thought.
     
    Nekorin likes this.
  18. Westeller

    Westeller Smokin' Sexy Style!! Staff Member

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    Compromise is nice, too, but ultimately I feel that the "+1"s are at least as important as, say, @DarthOu's post above yours, which counts as participation in the forums, unlike bumping or showing support for a Novel Pickup Request.
     
  19. LaDyViL

    LaDyViL New Member Staff Member

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    People don't notice, okay. So there's no need to have it counted into the total posts then. You said it yourself, people don't notice it.

    Yes, I agree that those posts are so it would get more views. So if they just want it to be bumped, post a +1. It's been a day, the thread got pushed back to the second page, post a +1 again. Next day, post a +1 again so they will stay at the front page.


    As someone who put efforts into her posts, who scrutinize each of her posts, I don't want these "+1" to be counted into the post count. I used my time, my finger, my typing, my brain, my words, to construct my posts and get that increment of one post in my total post count. Having these spam +1 which are legit in its subforum for its bumping purposes be counted the same as mine, I disagree.

    +1 for YES, the message count should be disable in that subforum.
     
  20. Scholar Occult Cauldron

    Scholar Occult Cauldron Bonk Maestro | Ascended

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    I agree that the +1's are important, since I use them too when I agree but couldn't be bothered to write why, but aren't there subforums on the forum for the random posts like @DarthOu? It's like how the games on the forum don't count on message count, since that's the place for wacky posts and answers.

    Let's all just compromise and make 5 "+1's" equal one count of "I want this novel now". It should be called the IWTNN!! count, specific to the novel pickup forum.
     
    Westeller likes this.