Post Counts

[Azareal]

What do you think of post counts?

A lot of sites look at post counts as if they are the most important metric that there is, although pieces of software will generally show you the overall post count rather than how many posts were made within a certain window of time (at-least to the users) making it biased towards forums which have been around for the last twenty years.

The same is true for users, although with them, you also don't quite know if their posts are from them creating useful posts or whether they just casually said a few things here and there.

This is probably one reason that newer software are moving away from post counts entirely, although I like the idea of showing user contributions with a sort of level system which aggregates statistics to help encourage people to post and to highlight top contributors, plus it adds an element of gamification which people always like lol

 

[Jordan]

I don't look at post counts. I even turned off showing the totalpost count on GameRebels.

 

[Geoffrey]

When looking to determine a forum's activity, I look more at the most recent post dates in each of the forum sections rather than the overall (or even individual section) post counts. The count could be very high, but also be from months or years ago and that doesn't do any good to a new user today. If I can see that your forum sections have all been posted in either today or at least within the last week, that's a much stronger indicator of an active forum.

 

[Page]

I tend to look at members base counts and the last activity content, meaning when was the last time any members posted on the forum and just keeping that date updated. Yet failed many times, also not good idea to get staff posting all-the-time.

But as an member on site's that are active and posting allot of content. As long there are are always new threads and new posts in threads from each members that will keep things active and those are posting active got reasons to post, just that you have some that are just posting for the sake of posting to get there content going up and up

 

[Martee]

I'd much rather go via when the activity is occurring. Sure, having a couple thousand posts is always handy for me to get stuck into when I'm popping into a forum for the first time though. However, if it's a completely new forum but I can see that the members/staff the website does have are engaging with one another and curating new content, then that's more important to me than if the forum has gazillions of posts or anything else.

Quality over quantity for me!

 

[Carlos X]

I am also the proponent of "Quality over Quantity," but the reality is, the forum's overall post count is a signal of a site's life. If your site has 20k active posting members, then it signals "there's a lot going on over there." Users come in, like the site, and register.

A lot of sites look at post counts as if they are the most important metric that there is, although pieces of software will generally show you the overall post count rather than how many posts were made within a certain window of time (at-least to the users) making it biased towards forums which have been around for the last twenty years.

I think both metrics are important. Not just one.

I joined a COD4 site because it was popular. It was active, and the forum's overall post count signaled to me that there's something going on in there. I became a lifetime user, until they killed themselves by trying to be relevant.

I joined a Black Ops and Black Ops 2 site for the same reason, except they were filled with trolls and whatnot. So, I left.

 

[Kaynil]

When looking to determine a forum's activity, I look more at the most recent post dates in each of the forum sections rather than the overall (or even individual section) post counts.

This is what I do too. Seeing the "last pist by X on such-n-such date". It is a good preliminary to see how recent is the activity and if it is one user posting everywhere ir therest more variety.

Then I check on the latest post link to complement my conjecture. I can see more on how many were recent discussions, what were the kind of threads/topics and confirm if other users are interacting as much.

Lastly, checking some of those sections and seeing the threads dates and last reply adds more insight too.


With all that said, I don't really care much for a forum being super duper active, I think that seeing what's the vibe is more of a factor for me. If I feel I can fit and there's at least someone else to bounce conversation with, that might be all I need.

 

[Jerlene]

If I'm seeing if I should join a forum I will look at the post count and I'll check the dates on the latest posts.

 

[Allenafaith]

If I am joining a forum, I don’t look at total post counts, I normally look at the activity. I wouldn’t want to join a forum with tons of posts but no activity that’s recent. I don’t want to be talking to myself.

 

[Page]

Also when doing paid posting or exchanges I relay look at the details of an forum. Mostly helping to get there content going more then anything

 

[SolviturC]

While I look at post count when joining a forum, they're no the most important thing for me. If I look at a lot of forums, they often also have silly nonsensical threads that also count towards the user total or the forum total.
So while yes, it matters to me if a forum has 20 or 20.000 posts, I also tend to look at where these posts are made, how long ago, and how much they contribute to the forum. Are they just word-playing games, or are people actively trying to contribute good or even great content to the site?