I pretty much agree with what Finegan said. I never thought about suggesting another title.

I have to say that having multiple levels would be good.

For example:

1000 Posts = LQ Addict
2000 Posts = Something else
5000 Posts = Something else
10000 Posts = Something else

Guru only by being appointed.

I do like LQ Crack Monkey

It would even be nice if say, at a certain number you could change your title to anything you wanted (except Guru).

So I could change mine to say............ " Water Drinker "

Peace,
Whitehat

Wow... I would have thought it would be much higher with all the members here!

Just to clarify a few things.

- I don't really think you should put too much credence in usertitle's. I want this board to stay fun and open, so I'm not sure the peer review system fits into that spirit (although it is a good idea).
- I am open to the possibility of another title or two if I really like a succession I get.
- Taking away the post increment from General will actually allow us to be a bit more lax I think. I don't want to insinuate the General takes away from anything as I have stated many times I think it's invaluable as far as building community.

--jeremy

I like your attitude about this Jeremy.
I have seen a really bad implementation of policy regarding some unwanted/unnecessary posting (JLO) and have been having some flashbacks as I have seen this building.
I feel more and more that a reasonable solution will be reached here.
There has been a lot of talk about post counts and I do not completely follow it. I think most everyone realizes it is not a sole criteria for judging any post and in that context all this stuff about not having it seems somewhat silly. It is an indicator of how much someone participates and anyone else is free to judge the quality of the post they see from any other user. One is able to judge that if they read 20 nonsense posts daily from user A (who has a post count of 2500) that they post a lot of nonsense, and 20 very useful posts on a daily basis from user B (who has a post count of 2500) that they post a lot of useful information.
As I have said, I would prefer closing or deleting completely unwanted threads after making clear what that would be.
Not counting general posts places a solid second.
While it is unfortunate to need to deal with this type of thing it is because of the immense popularity of the site that it is necessary and the right decisions will allow it to continue to be both immensely popular and immensely useful.
Thanks a lot, Jeremy.

That's not entirely accurate. I remember when I was totally new and just managed to install Mandrake 8.2 and couldn't connect to the internet. Lots of people offered help that consisted of a bunch of commands I had no idea what they did (I used linuxnewbie.org back then), and no explanation was offered. I blindly followed this advice because I really had no choice and the post count was definitely something I considered. I mean, it's not "all important" or anything but it does count for something to most all of the brand newbie's who have no way of knowing a quality post. But like you, I am confident Jeremy will find a reasonable solution. He got LQ this far

"I want this board to stay fun and open,"

I agree. I would like the spirit of LinuxQuestions to be cooperation, not competition. I prefer to downplay or ignore the competitive parts of LinuxQuestions such as the Affero system. Similarly, I don't see post count as a competition and therefore don't quibble about what is a quality post and what is a count padding post.

Similarly, LinuxQuestions must have personality. You have to allow a certain amount of exhuberence and nonsense to keep from being a sterile, boring forum. I think that the moderators do a good job of allowing exhuberence while stamping out flames quickly.

So a certain amount of nonsense floats through the General forum which I usually find entertaining. If it also inflates a clown's post count then dub him clown at 1000 posts.

___________________________________
Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeBo...home.page.html

Steve Stites

Originally posted by Whitehat :

I agree with this completely. And I also like the LQ Crack monkey title.

I say go for it, I dont even see a need for a post count.

I've always liked the LQ Crack Monkey but I personally would want something to remind me I need to go get a life, maybe the 15k mark perhaps.. and have it in parenthesis or something since I have the Moderator title under my name.

It would say something like: "Go get a Life, you post too much"

On a serious note, I don't think Titles should go away and I don't think posts should go away. I am for the posts not counting if you post in General and I can really care if they are retro-active as well, that would bump me back down to the 12k mark..

If we did have another title, I don't think it would really be necessary til the 10k mark though and maybe, just one day further beyond that, like 25k when that day actually happens. I remember when we thought no member would ever hit 1k posts.. ahh.. the good ol days.

Cheers.

my .02:

- posts in general shouldn't count, because they're not about linux
- if the decision is to stop counting general posts, to be fair it should be retroactive
- like the idea of a few more incremental titles
- don't like the "crack monkey" drug reference "LQ Addict" is bad enough without going further in that direction. i think the titles should be somehow linux or computer related, if possible

Didn't MasterC hit 10k before he became a mod?

Number of posts has nothing to do with becoming a Mod - that's entirely Jeremy's decision. I think one of the mods was a mod before he got to 1000 posts.

Nope, I believe he was around 8k or so.

I actually became a moderator at like 996, just a few shy of becoming Guru at the time cause there was no such thing as LQ Addict at that time.

This has been brought up, if it happens so we don't add the option of posts not counting and the continue to count when you post in General, my vote goes to the members here where their favorite forum is General, to just name them 'General Junkies' which would clearly tell others they post most in General, not contributing as often to the other forums, etc.

Cheers.

Yep, one problem with a peer review system, is simply that its open to abuse/bias, and then there's the problem of sycophantic members - insofar as titles matter at all? you could make the "Guru" title an option at 3000 or maybe 5000 rather than at 1000 - although there are few/if any "experts" on the board, on average, most members will know a little more at 5000 than at 1000 - so maybe an option of "Guru" is more appropriate at 5000.

So - what do members think - insofar as it matters at all

Would it be more appropriate to have "Guru" as an option at 5000 rather than 1000.

If there was a collection of information which was defined as "all there is to know about Linux", I'd probably know considerably less than 0.001 %

Nicely put Jeremy - at the end of the day, its the taking part that counts..... and having the chance to help out....... one learns this in life, when one loses the ability to do something you previously took for granted......... now back to helping out

Yes, that'd be a good idea. I decided to go with LQ Addict because I definitely don't know enough to call myself 'guru'. I think also that the titles should reflect the size of the board - a couple of years ago it seemed impossible to hit 1000 posts (to me at least ) and now there are so many people joining that it is remarkably easy to do it - whether by living in General or simply answering a relatively small number of posts per day. In fact, many of the questions that come up have been asked and answered before, so anyone who can use the Search button can hit a 1000 with some good posts.

Rather than having the titles alone, why not show the favourite forum? That way, the title could say "Guru - General", for example. This would be fluid, since whichever forum gets your attention the most at that time would be reflected. For instance, mine would read "LQ Addict - Linux-Newbie", reflecting both the forum I most post in and my real status . Should I hit the hardware forum more, it would then show "LQ Addict - Linux-Hardware".

Would that seem reasonable?