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While digging through the phpbb mods I found a neat one that would make a great anti-"post whore" device. Maybe the same mod can be done to the Invision Power Board used here. The mod displays the average words per post in each person's profile. I dunno about the IPB version of the mod but with the phpbb one it will go back up to 100,000 existing posts to calculate each person's average words per post. CoN has 38,173 posts as of this post so it would work out well. You guys have lots of other nifty stats so I figured maybe you would be interested in this one.

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FFXI (Siren server)
Tauu the Windurstian Tarutaru!
White Mage & Paladin

Nice idea. I'll look into this in the summer, though it may not come to pass if it's too heavy on querying the database.

The same people who post excessively just to up their post count will begin posting excessively but with huge numbers of extraneous words to up their word count. It will take them a little longer, but if someone wants to look "cool" in a forum, they'll grab any way they can. I have faith in the "post whores."

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Veni, vidi, dormivi.

I think it would cause people to think more about their posts. It would be easier to elaborate and go into great detail about something than it would be to bs. If someone did bs a lot it would apparent. The mod would slow the amount of short posts because people would want to keep their average up. Then the only people with high post counts are the ones who deserve it. The message to the forum users would be "If you want a lot of posts you better come up with some quality stuff or it's gonna show in your word average that you're a short poster which is does not make you cool." One of the reasons this forum is so good is because of the quality content and that's because of the strict posting policies already in effect. The average words per post statistics would go right along with that.

Well I did the modification to my forum which is still under construction. It'll be interesting to see how it works. I even made it so that you can see each person's average in the thread view itself. The string "Average words per post: #" is too long so I just made it "WPP: #" (words per post). Fun stuff.

This post has been edited by i90east on 22nd April 2004 23:31

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FFXI (Siren server)
Tauu the Windurstian Tarutaru!
White Mage & Paladin

I'm not saying it's a bad idea, which is fortunate, since my opinion is largely irrelevant, anyway. I'm just saying that it's hardly a panacea, and that more words doesn't necessarily imply more thought. Brevity is the soul of wit, and all that. Having more to say is great, but saying more without having more to say is just irritating.

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Veni, vidi, dormivi.

I personally feel that less is more, so you won't see me saying more just 'cause this stat gets put up. =)

Edit

Whoooo, it was a kinda fun run while it lasted... post 667. =P

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~Status Report~

* Completed... Dragon's Head
* Completed... Soldiers of the Empire: Disciples (release pending)
* In Progress/Undecided... Of Love and Betrayal
* Planning/Assembly... Where it all Began

If we do do it, it will be on the profile page rather than in topic views, and I'm thinking of it more as a fun stat than a way to actually measure "goodness of posting", as it were. (Trust me, we already have our own opinions on all of you. )

I'm with i90 on this one. I think a words per post stat would encourage better posting. However, as with posters like Zephie, oppinions wouldn't change based on a low wpp. However it would dissuade people from posting one word posts and such.

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<Nealio> Seymour sounds like evil Winnie the Pooh

Quote (DisasterChild8 @ 23rd April 2004 08:40)

I'm with i90 on this one. I think a words per post stat would encourage better posting. However, as with posters like Zephie, oppinions wouldn't change based on a low wpp. However it would dissuade people from posting one word posts and such.

There aren't many people that post one-word posts around here. It might be because we specifically suggest that you not do that in the rules.

If we add this mod, it will be as a curiosity, nothing more. The number of words in a post has no unequivocal relationship with the quality of the posts or of the member.

This post has been edited by Rangers51 on 23rd April 2004 13:00

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN? Or perhaps buying a really good looking shirt?

I fear this stat. It might make me feel the need to type more.

I don't think you should make me wordy. You wouldn't like me when I'm......WORDY.

j/k...sounds like a fun stat

This post has been edited by The Ancient on 23rd April 2004 16:31

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"That Light has bestowed upon me the greatest black magic!"

An avg. words per post sounds like an interesting idea, but mine could be low or something.

I absolutely love hearig myself, so I'm afraid mine would be rather high. A very good idea! It would be interesting who would be on top. My current guess would probably go to gozaru~ His ramblings on religion certainly helped there!

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The Collapse of Heaven and Earth

Yeah, it sounds interesting, but as R51 said, it won't really measure the "quality of a post". A post doesn't have to be that long to bring the point across and to have a good quality post. It's the same as making a speech. You don't have to draw out a speech if you can get your point across in just a few sentences.

I think this would just encourage more "spam", but in the form of nonsense and irrelevance to the topic being posted on.