0 Posts?! O_o

[James Latimer Cockney Rebel]

Well I was just checking my profile and my number of posts when *gasp* 0 posts per day and 0 on total! I asked Tokkiquil and she said it was the same for everyone when she looked as well... any admin know what's up with this? *looks on at Bleys, and his 30 second "maintenance" period*
Oh and noo! All that damn spamming in vain! *crie* j/k

[The Man]

The Top 25 Posters in the Memberlist no longer works either. You can sort of get an idea of how many posts someone has by doing a search for all their posts, but this discounts every post of theirs that got relegated to the Staff Forum unless you're a staff member yourself. I, for one, know that I have one post in the Staff Forum, given that I posted once in a thread that got moved there, so I currently have 4072 posts, counting this one. But... *shrug*

Oh well. Frankly, I was getting sick of being noticed only for my post count, so I don't miss them much. Although I was looking forward to overtaking 'Kishi's post count eventually, and now I won't be able to do that. That's the only disappointing thing about this removal of post counts to me.

Oh, and by the way, 'Kishi had exactly 5,000 posts when the reset happened. Talk about strange.

Here, I'm going to quote a chat between myself and Bleys. Hopefully he won't mind.

AaronFreedo (6:50:48 PM): Got a question: Is the removal of post counts going to be related to a soon-to-come pruning?
CitizenBleys (6:51:12 PM): no, it's related to spamwhores flooding the board with useless crap.
AaronFreedo (6:51:19 PM): Ah. Yes.
AaronFreedo (6:51:31 PM): That makes sense. Too many people seem to be obsessed with their post counts.
AaronFreedo (6:51:56 PM): The only thing related to my post count that I cared about was passing 'Kishi, but *shrug* I'll just rest assured that within a few months, I'll have probably done exactly that.
AaronFreedo (6:51:58 PM): xD
CitizenBleys (6:52:32 PM): ah, but will you *know* it...
AaronFreedo (6:52:38 PM): No, I won't.
*snip*
CitizenBleys (6:54:59 PM): post counts are still being stored in the database, because the server timed out on my sql query, but they're not visible anymore.
AaronFreedo (6:55:03 PM): Ah. *nod*
CitizenBleys (6:55:30 PM): I'm sure some people will raise hell, but it's for the best, in the end.

And I agree.

Peace
Stuffed Manny

[James Latimer Cockney Rebel]

I had no idea, of this "hiding post counts" thing, I just thought something was wrong in the database after Bleys did his maintenance. I'm not bothered by post counts either, I just wondered what was actually happening. Perhaps there should be an annoucement or something to let other bewildered members know too. Thanks anyway.

[The Man]

No problem. It wasn't Bleys's idea, either; I'm guessing it was Unne's, since he was always in favour of removing post counts in the first place, but Bleys was the one who figured out how to do it. I do think that many people seem to spam with the intention of raising their post count, which is a shame, especially since a pruning wouldn't have been as severely necessary if we hadn't had so bloody many posts. *shakes head*

I mean, yes, I looked at the list quite often myself, but I have a lot more time to browse the fora than most people do, so I'd guess that most of my posts wouldn't qualify as spam, though I did that from time to time. I suppose an announcement would have been nice, but I also suppose that the pruning takes precedence. Or something.

Peace
Stuffed Manny

[Yamaneko]

Good, I personally disaproved of showing post counts, since it results in spam. Although I do know more or less how many post each active member has. Good I say again, good job Bleys.

[Killy]

It doesnt stop people from knowing the post count if they really want

The Man now has 4075 post and I didnt use the search option, Its still stored database, you just need to know how to ask (I found out how to do this earlier while I was looking for something else).

Oh and if you think Im hacking EoFF, you are WRONG, its a simple trick...

[Yamaneko]

Do you mind telling us this simple trick, please?

[The Man]

Heh, I have 4076 posts now. And I'm not telling anyone the trick, since it's better off left unmentioned. If you ask me, you shouldn't have mentioned it here in the first place, BN, because now spam whores are going to look for it and find it and possibly force poor Bleys to do another board hack.

At any rate, post counts aren't really that important. They're not explicitly displayed anywhere on the boards, and I'm glad they aren't. We don't need to be worrying about a stupid number anyway.

Peace
Stuffed Manny

[Yamaneko]

It's not really a trick, but it'll work. At least there won't be that much competition going around. *sigh*

EDIT: My question is why didn't Bleys do the hack on that part, you know, because people are going to figure it out very easily. Well I guess he could do if post count competitions get out of control again.

[The Man]

I don't see why it had to be mentioned here in the first place. The fewer people that know about it, the better. I actually wouldn't mind it if somebody deletes all the posts that have to do with said "trick," because it isn't necessary for people to know how to figure out their post count. It really isn't.

Peace
Stuffed Manny

[Killy]

If you want to delete my post, go ahead. The manipulation, isnt that simple and you have to search for the answer.

*Snip*

[The Man]

Er, yes. I'm dumb. That's not what I was referring to, but there it is, broad as daylight. *slaps forehead*

Peace
Stuffed Manny

[Killy]

Its edited now, theres still another way, I noticed the other one later

[Dr Unne]

You all realize of course that counting the posts from the EZBoard, the UBB and the last generation of VBB, most of the old-oldbies here have a disgustingly large number of posts that no non-old-oldbie will ever overcome. Quite likely most of the staff has at least double the post count that's displayed on this generation of the VBB. And since none of us know it for sure, no one will ever know who's "in the lead". Any competition that people are having here is sorely misguided for that reason, if not for the bajillion other reasons that worrying about your post count at all is misguided.

In any case, I find this all pretty darn immature. "Ooh, I found another way to know my post count!" Getting rid of the post counts in the first place was supposed to stop the kind of crap that's going on in this thread.

[The Man]

Unne's right, and I personally am of the impression that as soon as Bleys (or any other administrator) figures out a way to set everyone's post count to zero permanently, it should be done. Not before I pass 'Kishi's post count though. ;D

Peace
Stuffed Manny