A lot of non technical Linux talk goes into there... Which is why I think it should count.

We actually just turned it off about 6 months ago.. why revert back? Did you read the sticky in General? There was a thread with voting, most members feel they should not count.

Turning this feature off also prevents spammers from making 5 crap posts in General to make links elsewhere and such..

I was for it then and I'm against reverting back to old ways.

PS. We don't need members reaching newer member status's by posting a 1k times or more in General on off-topic posts. There are technical posts but the flame, crap, off topic posts outweigh the technical posts by a large percentage.

I agree with trickykid - posts in General should not count, precisely because of the anti-spamming reason he indicated. I think it's also useful to point out that from a functionality standpoint, the only number that really matters is 5 posts, since that's the minimum to be allowed to include URL's. From post #6 onward, the only difference that the post count makes would be in the title that appears below your nickname, which of course is strictly a cosmetic issue.

Additionally, I would also say that I think most people would judge the value of a given reply on the content and information within that post, rather than on the person's post count. In other words, if someone's advice answers the question that's being asked, then whether the poster was a Newbie, Member, or whatever, it really doesn't matter - the problem was successfully resolved and that's the whole point. Along those lines, and perhaps to look at things from another angle, if you spend any amount of time here at LQ, you'll probably notice that a person's post count does not necessarily correlate to the quality of their replies. There are some people with relatively low post counts whose comments are extremely helpful, and likewise there are other people with high post counts whose comments are less so. -- J.W.

I agree with trickykid and J.W.

There are a lot of people who post almost exclusively in general. Back when the posts in general counted, there were a few people who made guru status from posting 90 some percent of their posts there. It should be about helping people. General talk is a good place to converse but I don't think is the point of the forums.

I have seen a lot of people in their first post that are guru's and people with over a thousand posts who aren't. It may be good to see post counts to know who is active. But a person who is here for awhile will learn who are the guru's and who aren't

Maybe there should be a new status, "General talker"

I agree with Trickykid, J.W. and Darthtux.

It was turned off for a good reason, as stated above. Turning it back on would be a bad idea, IMO. General is really just a kick back place, it doesn't add to the wider pool of knowledge of Linux technical issues - which is what this site is about after all.

As usual J.W. (et al) are spot on imho.

mark

PS: Mods, If this post gets me a gratuitous increment to my post count please feel free to deduct a merit point

I think it's great that we took away general counts.
It makes people who are more concerned to actually post useful stuff to pick up the post stuff.
(However, I do see a flaw. There was this post moved to general, for a 1 post noob, and he/she still had that one post. )

I'm glad it changed. keep it this way.

titanium_geek

Personly i would prefer that post postcounts and the title are removed.

Guilty as charged