Off Topic, Postcounts, User Ranks and more

Veloce · 12 January 09, 17:40

Its become increasingly the case that the Off Topic section is no longer Off Topic, but "spam any old rubbish to increase postcount", so we're making a few changes to try and fix that...

User Postcounts are no longer visible (except to admins) - perhaps this will stem the stupid amount of posts made just to increase a users postcount

User Ranks (Driver, Champion, etc.) have also been removed for the same reason, because they are a measure of how many posts a user has made

Polls - we don't need polls about what colour socks you wear, whether you prefer 1pm or 2pm as lunchbreaks, should you drink coffee or tea at your next meal, etc. The odd poll is ok, but its been overdone to the extreme and you'll find most of them in "the bin" shortly (at least you will if you are staff, otherwise you wont see them at all).

Cliques / ganging up on users you dont like - basically has to stop, as in real life there will always be people who annoy you and you just have to suck it up and get on with it.. I'm pretty sure you don't run around your school / workplace / home town shouting how xxxx is a xxxx and must go away, so why should the internet be any different!

We'll be closely monitoring how the changes affect the Off Topic section (and the rest of the forums) over the next few weeks, and if we dont see the desired changes then expect firmer action to be taken against the offenders.

perhaps now would also be a good time for you to remind yourself what the forum rules are

12 January 09, 17:40	#1
Veloce Administrator Join Date: Apr 2003	Off Topic, Postcounts, User Ranks and more Its become increasingly the case that the Off Topic section is no longer Off Topic, but "spam any old rubbish to increase postcount", so we're making a few changes to try and fix that... User Postcounts are no longer visible (except to admins) - perhaps this will stem the stupid amount of posts made just to increase a users postcount User Ranks (Driver, Champion, etc.) have also been removed for the same reason, because they are a measure of how many posts a user has made Polls - we don't need polls about what colour socks you wear, whether you prefer 1pm or 2pm as lunchbreaks, should you drink coffee or tea at your next meal, etc. The odd poll is ok, but its been overdone to the extreme and you'll find most of them in "the bin" shortly (at least you will if you are staff, otherwise you wont see them at all). Cliques / ganging up on users you dont like - basically has to stop, as in real life there will always be people who annoy you and you just have to suck it up and get on with it.. I'm pretty sure you don't run around your school / workplace / home town shouting how xxxx is a xxxx and must go away, so why should the internet be any different! We'll be closely monitoring how the changes affect the Off Topic section (and the rest of the forums) over the next few weeks, and if we dont see the desired changes then expect firmer action to be taken against the offenders. perhaps now would also be a good time for you to remind yourself what the forum rules are