Eliminate the Post Counts??

[Guest MaxPower27]

Because then the people who do care about upping their post counts will leave it on, thus continuing to clutter the board.

But then Bruiser can turn them off on his account and we can close this thread.

[moral suasion 0]

I've never heard of a board that eliminated any trace of your post count.

I believe Scott Keith took post counts off and changed all the titles to "User" for a few weeks towards the end of his reign of terror.

Agreed. That was the beginning of the end for the old thesmarks.com board.

 

SKeith pissed off A LOT of people when he eliminated post counts.

 

But that board had gone to complete shit and he was only doing what was necessary.

[Guest The Metal Maniac]

Max: Are you blind or something?

 

I'll try to explain it clearer:

 

Making it an option for people to decide whether or not they see post counts (so that every single person has the individual choice whether or not to see them) WILL NOT CHANGE ANYTHING.

 

The people who caused this to become an issue (That is, the people post-whoring to get higher numbers or starting "Yay, I got 1000 posts, watch me jerk off" threads) will leave their counts ON. They will still see post counts. They will still care about post counts. They will still post-whore and create such ridiculous threads.

 

That solves NOTHING.

 

And don't think for a SECOND that Bruiser is the only one who is concerned by this. Merely looking at this thread will tell you that there's plently of people who have an opinion on the topic, some of whom agree with Bruiser.

 

Personally, I think that post counts can be useful, but on this board, they're useless. I think they work well on EZBoards, where the post count is only representitive of how many posts the person had at that time, as opposed to Invision, where every single post I've ever made has the exact same number.

 

I like the EZBoard style because then every so often you can have a post with a neat number, like 666. I mean, hey, fuck you guys, I don't care if I have a zillion posts or 3, I want at least ONE that says 666, because I think it'd be neat.

 

And then it also makes it easier to see when a person made a given post. Like, if I wanted to see what someone had to say in their first 10 posts, it's much easier to tell with proper numbers, as opposed to dates.

 

But that, as far as I know, is impossible on these kinds of boards, so it's a moot point.

 

Where am I going with this? I'm honestly not sure. But I think I'm gonna vote to get rid of them, because I can.

 

Oh, forgot to add: I don't think the old Smarks Board has any real bearing here. Keith did that because HE felt like it, thus causing shit. Here, Dames has been kind enough to ask EVERYONE what they think, so when the decision finally is made, no one has any right to complain about it being unfair, and we don't have to deal with mass-bannings, offshoot boards, or pictures of Hitler with Dames' head.

[Guest IllustriousOne]

I think we're going to do the Hitler thing anyway...

 

Oops.

 

*let cat out of bag*

[Guest Banky]

p00p tastes yummy.

[Guest Midnight Express83]

How about this: people just stop making and adding to stupid threads. They die and everyone is happy. That goes for me too, sound like a fair deal?

[Guest The Flying Dutchman]

I think we're going to do the Hitler thing anyway...

 

'Cause we're REBELS~!

[Guest EL BRUJ0]

I would give a nice, thick spermal shot to see the following items gone: post counts, member numbers, joined dates, group titles.

 

Why? Cause they're ghey.

[Guest SP-1]

I think it's funny that people are getting so worked up over postwhore threads and the like. Those are usually joke threads. And it won't stop things like the Anglesault thread. It will continue regardless. It won't stop post-whoring because people will still do it, and if anything they'll do it because of a retarded battle over post count.

 

That people get worked up over it at all is ludicrous.

[Guest Youth N Asia]

23 in the plus for keeping them.

[Guest cobainwasmurdered]

Keep them.

 

People will post whore no matter what. I don't care about my count that much but it's retarded to get rid of them.

 

If it causes Drama then so be it. It's part of being a messegeboard with thousands of members.

[Guest goodhelmet]

Damn, now i know why the keep em category is winning. CWM and his 32 alter egos voted for them.

 

Also, for someone who says he doesn't care about him, you are sure proud to be the first 10,000 post man, huh CWM?

[Guest bob_barron]

Or maybe people just don't want post counts to go away

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

I endorse the previously mentioned "instead of post counts, penis size number" idea. Seriously. The people advocating their retention have mostly been using the "high post count = more respected" argument, which is bullshit. I honestly got to my high number without even really trying. I wasn't consciously post-whoring, as I stayed away from the Word Association, Mission, and Person Above You threads. Well, I was pretty active in the Person Above You Thread for the early parts, but probably only for the first 25-50 pages out of the 300+ it is now. I don't even post much in the OAOAST namesake thread, if at all.

 

Either way, they really are useless, so have them visible in the personal control panel of the poster and remove them from public view. Get rid of the public showing of member number and joining date also. If you're a quality poster, let it show with your words and not your numbers.

[Guest El Satanico]

No no no...I want my member number seen...my member number rules

 

 

[Guest Memphis]

 

Mutoh says - "Eliminate all post counts"

 

Good one, Keiji.

 

M

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Definitely go with the penis number. That should be a new poll or something.

[Guest Big Poppa Popick]

all this talk about freezing stuff in the oaoast

 

if anyone handnt noticed..were an e-fed now practically..so if youre going to freeze our counts...freeze swf too

 

see...now its getting silly..

 

who the hell cares about post counts, go about your lives

 

this has been +1

[Guest Sandman9000]

The only thing my post count is good for is my "celebrations" that happen when I hit the thousands marks.

 

And my post count celebrations are the only celebrations that matter.

[Guest goodhelmet]

if i recqall correctly, when SK banned post counts, he also banned the tagline under the avatars. i think people were more pissed off about that than the actual post counts. hell, i'll admit it was fun to see the next step in the belt progression before the mods allowed us to have our own personal taglines. also, no mod here has ever illustrated the amount of hubris and audacity that SK, the redhaired bostonboy and the fat christian rocker ever displayed. to indicate that eliminating post counts is a dictatorial response by the mods is just wrong and inaccurate.

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

As someone who's really only been around since this place became TheSmartMarks instead of TheSmarks, someone want to explain the whole situation? From what I gather, there were moderating abuses, people left and formed WDI in protest, and then it became TSM.

 

I mean, I don't even know who the hell the Boston Boy and the Fat Christian Rocker dudes are.

[Guest Retro Rob]

As someone who's really only been around since this place became TheSmartMarks instead of TheSmarks, someone want to explain the whole situation? From what I gather, there were moderating abuses, people left and formed WDI in protest, and then it became TSM.

 

I mean, I don't even know who the hell the Boston Boy and the Fat Christian Rocker dudes are.

1. I think the Boston Boy is Don Becker, but he is actually from Long Island.

 

2. Fat Christian Rocker dude has to be Botter.

 

Long story short, SK and Botter (not really Becker) were getting really pissed at the post whoring and flaming, so they decided to create a new list of rules including putting a ban on the posting of PICTURES. On top of that, post counts were cut out. People bitched about it, so Keith took away Titles too and left everyone as "User". The mods still had their own Titles IIRC. People starting posting the Adolf Keith pictures and various other crap meant to inslut Scott and his crew. The rest of us verbally tore the guy apart and MANY people either got banned (like me) or just walked away from the forum all together. Most of them joined WDI and stayed there until the change of the guard. Others came back when SK moved from the EZBoard to this one.

[Guest goodhelmet]

botter and fucking becker! i honestly couldn't remember their names. i just remember seeing their pics and thinking to myself "what a couple of fucking dorks!" then a couple of weeks later, i see SK's pic and think to myself "what an even bigger fucking dork!" then bower showed his pic and made me think "ok, not everyone looks like a fucking retread from the star trek convention circa 1984".

[Guest Sassquatch]

As someone who's really only been around since this place became TheSmartMarks instead of TheSmarks, someone want to explain the whole situation? From what I gather, there were moderating abuses, people left and formed WDI in protest, and then it became TSM.

 

I mean, I don't even know who the hell the Boston Boy and the Fat Christian Rocker dudes are.

 

The "Boston Boy" that Will is referring to is former owner and admin of the Smarks Don Becker who is really from Long Island. The "Fat Christian Rocker" is former Smarks web designer and former wannabe rock star now converted Christian Jeremy Botter.

 

There are names in here that many of you will most likely have never heard of or know.

 

The Porno and Flaming folders at the old Smarks EZ Board were where most of the posters that make up WDI and SNKT all hung out. They were like these two giant General Chat folders where everyone had a good time.

 

But there was a poster there named Maurizcio C who was supposedly from Italy and typed of his posts with a bad "a" after almost every word. He had bad blood with many of the posters in the Flaming folder as well as almost everyone else on the board who ever encountered him.

 

One day Maurizcio C complained to Don Becker that the cliques in the Flaming folder and Porno folder (namely the Inner Circle which was the first clique to kick off the clique wars) were getting out of hand as well as taking their frustrations out on him in the other folders (which was over exaggerated by Murizcio). Don Becker then made the famous comment "posting cliques are gay" which spawned the gPc or gay Posting clique.

 

This comment created a monster as cliques on the board sprung almost over night with one of the most notable being Team Havoc which was led by the genius who was a legendary troll at both the Smarks EZ Board as well as WDI who has not been seen since being banned at WDI over a year ago.

 

Time went on and for the most part, things were good at the board.

 

But soon post whoring at the board had reached ridiculous levels of utter tripe. Maurizcio had managed to post 250 times in a single day which led to many people complaining about how Maurizcio was ruining the board. But Maurizcio struck back in time before anything punishment could be handed out and accused the posters in the Flaming folders of being the people who were ruining the board. Both sides tangled with one another until 12/07/01 came:

 

Jeremy Botter, the board’s website admin and designer, took away post counts and customized avatar settings which Keith had told him to do in response to the bickering amongst the posters.

 

This announcement made by Keith opened a can of worms that probably wishes he to this day he would have never opened.

 

Keith told anyone who asked why the settings were removed or ask for them back would be banned. The first causality in this mess was a poster by the name of Witty Banter. In the thread that Keith had made his announcement in, Witty Banter made a remark that had nothing to do with the post counts or what was going on and he was quickly banned from the board.

 

The sheer dictatorial fashion in which he banned Witty Banter set off everyone who was involved in the matter as well as the way that Keith coldly made a major change to the board without any other poster's inputs which many felt was made in an unfair and domineering manner.

 

Shortly after Witty was banned, pictures of both Keith and Becker popped up on the boards in the General Chat folder along with the Flaming folders. The most notable and often remembered pictures of Becker and Keith were with their heads copied and pasted into various pictures of Nazi's and Sailor Moon girls. This went on for a couple of hours until Keith had Botter delete the Flaming folder.

 

The group of posters was furious and in response to this action, they opened up a site called WDI which is still up today.

 

In one of the funnier moments of WDI's infancy, Jeremy Botter made a post at the board shortly after it went up saying that he heard that the WDI posters were going to invade the board and threatened to have the board deleted by friends of his who knew how to do that kind of thing.

 

An invasion never happened and WDI went on with its business.

 

WDI was created as a "fuck you" to Keith and the other admins at the Smarks who had shown no regard or care for the posters and this perception stuck with the board long after the "war" had ended between Keith and his friends. When the squabble finally ended is anyone's guess but more than likely people would point to Dames buying the board and becoming the owner as the day that the disdain ended for both sides.

 

Over the last year, WDI has grown out of it's old shadow as not just a board that was created in spite of another board's actions, but as a message board that has no goal of bringing down the Smarks but rather just posting and generally having a good time.

 

And there you have it.

 

Of course I might have missed some things in there (timeline wise) but that's the meat of the matter.

[The Dames 0]

In other words...

 

I am YOUR Savior.

 

Dames

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

Well then, I probably should have expected Sass to BRING THE FRIGHTENINGLY GOOD MEMORY~!

[Guest Lightning Flik]

In other words...

 

I am YOUR Savior.

 

Dames

So Lord Dames, since your the Saviour, does that make your dad God?

[Guest Sassquatch]

In other words...

 

I am YOUR Savior.

 

Don't push it Smart Marks boy.

 

From what I understand, Dutch has your name on auto ban so you better watch your step over there.

 

OMG AUBSE OF P0WAh~!@#$

[Guest Sassquatch]

Well then, I probably should have expected Sass to BRING THE FRIGHTENINGLY GOOD MEMORY~!

 

All I did was sit back and watch.

 

Of course it helps that I had AIM + at the time when the story was recounted to me by a couple of the people who posted Keith's head on Hitler and this the conversation was saved.

 

Alas, I have not had AIM + in months and all I have are archived chats from the summer explaining what happened during the exodus from the Smarks to WDI.

 

I'm good Kotz but not *that* good at remembering things.

 

[Guest HungryJack]

Ahh, the summer chats. Those were good times, good times indeed. I had a few saved, but they were lost in the Great Reformat of Aught-Three.