Do forums really need post counts?

[Thomasss]

Post counts, the things that all forums use and many members use as bragging tools, however are post counts really something that is almost "required" in forums?

Everyday you post, every day you look at your post count without actually realizing you did, and you have at-least once in your online life wished you had more posts, but is focusing on post counts something that forum members have prioritized over actually participating in the community?

I removed the display of post counts on a forum of mine, and the reviews were pretty mixed so I ended up putting them back just to keep everyone happy, however the more I think about it, the more I wonder, why are post counts even shown nowadays?

Of course in the ACP, things depend on post counts, however removing the display of post counts in profiles and such doesn't hinder what the ACP offers, so the only downside to removing post counts would be your members. What's everyone's thoughts on post counts? Are they really something that is required nowadays? Has it encouraged a competition with members, and does it directly effect how members post, such as posting small little posts without much content?

 

[Teapot]

I have nothing against post counts. I do wonder why they were ever made but who knows. They do cause lots of competition and problems between members but I think that post counts can also be good. They can show how long you've been on a particular forum or how dedicated and active you are. I, personally, would never remove them because I have a feeling my members would not enjoy it at all. But to each their own.

 

[RH-Calvin]

Post counts doesn't matter to me much until I am active on the forums. Activity will automatically increase my post counts, and I don't run after achieving that as a goal. I tend to keep myself active on threads where I have a little bit of knowledge or can make things better.

 

[THF_Martin]

They matter only to us admins I think. We look at our forum and get sad if post counts are not high, we then turn into associating low post counts with forums that we shouldn't join. Normal forum users wouldn't do that - they will just look to see if the forum has a decent flow of discussions for them to reply to. They don't really matter too much for the vast majority of people and therefore probably do more harm in terms of competition for high individual post counts than any good.

 

[Ashley z]

I prefer to look at Reputation points and the quality of posts. If someone has a low post count, but has a lot of high quality posts that are thought out and well written, they are doing a better job than the guy with thousands of posts that are lower quality.

I think post count matters a lot more to Admins than regular visitors, as THF_Martin said. I still think it matters though. If a visitor sees thousands of posts on a forum overall and new posts each day, they are going to be more inclined to join the forum than if there's hardly any content.

 

[Cosmic]

Every social network has some type of metric in which different users can be compared. On Facebook it's friends (or likes for pages). On LinkedIn it's connections. On Twitter it's followers. For forums it's usually post count. People will inevitably use this to compare themselves with others, but I don't think that's nescessarily a bad thing.

As the admin of a site, it's in your interest for the members to think their account is valuable. That they are being recognized for all the effort they put in, and more effort means more recognition. So, I think post counts are an important part of any forum.

 

[Rich Edmonds]

I prefer to look at Reputation points and the quality of posts. If someone has a low post count, but has a lot of high quality posts that are thought out and well written, they are doing a better job than the guy with thousands of posts that are lower quality.

How does one know if someone publishes low quality content, simply by looking at their reputation? That's quite the assumption.

I don't particularly care for either. That said, it always serves as a positive reminder to see just how much everyone has contributed to a bulletin board. Activity is most important after all.

 

[Ashley z]

I prefer to look at Reputation points and the quality of posts. If someone has a low post count, but has a lot of high quality posts that are thought out and well written, they are doing a better job than the guy with thousands of posts that are lower quality.

How does one know if someone publishes low quality content, simply by looking at their reputation? That's quite the assumption.

Because people generally don't give +Rep to people for low quality posts. Unless the Rep system is abused or misused, Reputation is a good representation of whether someone is a high quality user or a low quality user.

 

[Rich Edmonds]

I prefer to look at Reputation points and the quality of posts. If someone has a low post count, but has a lot of high quality posts that are thought out and well written, they are doing a better job than the guy with thousands of posts that are lower quality.

How does one know if someone publishes low quality content, simply by looking at their reputation? That's quite the assumption.

Because people generally don't give +Rep to people for low quality posts. Unless the Rep system is abused or misused, Reputation is a good representation of whether someone is a high quality user or a low quality user.

You have 76 posts and 7 rep, so does that mean 69 posts of yours were low quality? 😛

 

[Cosmic]

Reputation numbers can be misleading. On FP, for example, the people who have the most reputation aren't necessarily those who have said the most awesome things, but the ones who used the forum back in 2009-2012. 😛 The reputation system was used a lot more back then, but people give reputation points much less frequently now.

 

[Joshua Farrell]

With me, even though I don't entirely care about individual users' post counts (I would rather look at the forum as a whole, instead of individually), I personally like to know where I am at in relation to how active the forum is. My whole goal is to know what I have done statistically, instead of just raising my post count, just to get a higher post count.

 

[LadyAnna]

I don't think it matters, especially not on a per member basis.

The count of posts on the forum as a whole can tell a bit if it is an active forum or not, but the numbers alone won't tell the whole story, 99 percent of the posts could have been done last year just as well as be spread out evenly since the start of the forum 🙂

Unless you dig a bit deeper and start reading you won't know anyways, and when you start reading you find out if the forum is good or not, you see the quality of posts.