What's the Point?

[Digital Jedi]

Pojo has had this little hack installed for quite some time now which affects the way users can post in a thread. Maybe you've seen it in action. What it does, is if you were the last poster in a thread and you try to post again, it will automerge your post into your last one with the subtitle "Additional Comments" and a Last Edited reason listed as "Automerged Double Post."

On Pojo, I can see where that can be an issue, since you've got, not just new players, but new users to the Internet joining everyday. So their not likely going to be aware of the Internet faux pas of double posting.

Now here's where my question comes in. See, even though the thread automerges any doubleposts, it still bumps the thread when you do. So I have to ask, what's the point?

When exactly did double posting become a bad thing anyway? I mean that seriously, not in a sarcastic context. I was always under the impression that double posting within seconds of each other was discouraged to prevent users from overdoing it where they're thread wasn't getting the attention they wanted. Not just to keep people from adding an additional comment.

So what is the history behind this social anomaly? No other culture then the forum culture has a turned based comment system like this, and one has to wonder, at least in Pojo's case, if double posting can still bump a thread, what purpose does the automerge serve? You hear a lot of people throw the word "bandwidth" out there anytime someone says or does something like this. But is there such a significant difference between a new post and edited post that your saving more bandwidth with one than with the other? What's the real source of this social taboo and does it hold any actual water with the bandwidth savers?

 

[Raijinili]

People get confused when one person stops talking and one person starts talking again.

 

[masterwoo0]

So what is the history behind this social anomaly?

The history behind it NOT being acceptable is the fact that most people who do it, dont say much in the second post to make it worth being a stand alone post.

Take this as an example:

Post #1. The rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain.

Double Post #2. Oh yeah, and in April too.


Now, why wouldn't it just be better to edit the previous post, and add to it?

 

[Raijinili]

I'd say it's more of a suspicion that the post is just an obvious +1 postcount.

 

[DaGuyWitBluGlasses]

Except for image files, web pages must send all duplicate data for each time it appears, so sending a header and signature again does cost bandwidth (especially when the number of people viewing a thread is in the 1000s like it can be at pojo).

And as raijinili alluded out, Pojo does use postcount based privileges, so automerge does cancel out that benefit.

thirdly, the length of a page is based on the number of posts and not the length of the posts, it's annoying to have to change pages more than necessary, reducing the number of posts reduces the number of pages.

 

[Raijinili]

Well, images and off-page scripts.

 

[roadhouse007]

So what kind of benefits would users have by having a higher post count? Not that it would apply here anyway.

 

[masterwoo0]

So what kind of benefits would users have by having a higher post count? Not that it would apply here anyway.

Considering that most members in general belong to more than one forum, old habits die hard, and while there aren't many incentives to having a higher post count, if they are already used to doing double post for PC somewhere else, they aren't much paying attention to the fact that it doesnt matter here.

 

[Digital Jedi]

So what kind of benefits would users have by having a higher post count? Not that it would apply here anyway.

The Rep system is enabled in most forums, and it's become a kind of status symbol. Supposedly your words are more respected and your opinions count for more when you have a high rep count. As opposed to here were reputation is earned the old fashioned way. Post count can increase that in most forums.

Places like Pojo do have a veterans forums for long time posters only, and that seems to have some kind of status symbol affiliated with it. Other forums might hand out benefits, but few really utilize that system.

 

[Raijinili]

People like having big postcounts. It makes them feel superior to those without.

 

[roadhouse007]

I remember how I actually made fun of jason c for acheving 5000 posts in about half a year. Just joking of course, but I said something to him about it.

 

[The Advocate]

Who cares about this and who has the time to care about this? So someone double posted or whatever you want to call it, how does that hurt or help anyone? When I was new on this site I responded to some old threads and someone sent me a PM saying I was bumping threads. Who cares, bump em back then. How about not caring and discussing the game again. What does anyone gain from their post count, I know I haven't gained a thing from mine (and it's not high) and I haven't lost anything. If I see a thread that is interested I'll post to it and I can't help it if you don't feel it's a worthy post. Let's not get too serious here, after all it still is a game and supposed to be fun, if it isn't that then it becomes work and I have enough of that already.

 

[The Advocate]

And just for the heck of it, here is a double post, maybe I'll get banned for life.

 

[roadhouse007]

I remember when you joined, Advocate, and I did make one comment in one of the threads you revived, but I didn't send a PM about it. That was because the majority of those threads were outdated and contained topics which no longer applied.

 

[Digital Jedi]

Who cares about this and who has the time to care about this? So someone double posted or whatever you want to call it, how does that hurt or help anyone? When I was new on this site I responded to some old threads and someone sent me a PM saying I was bumping threads. Who cares, bump em back then. How about not caring and discussing the game again. What does anyone gain from their post count, I know I haven't gained a thing from mine (and it's not high) and I haven't lost anything. If I see a thread that is interested I'll post to it and I can't help it if you don't feel it's a worthy post. Let's not get too serious here, after all it still is a game and supposed to be fun, if it isn't that then it becomes work and I have enough of that already.

The issue at that time was not the fact that you bumped old threads, (as I've repeatedly pointed out, we allow a little leeway on that depending on the topic) but that you bumped nearly thirty threads that we're a year or more old. It wasn't that it hurt anyone, it's just that, on a discussion board, there should be good reason for reviving a topic that died out more then 6 months ago to keep the discussion fluid. Consider some of these elements. Some info is simply outdated and information pertinent to the topic has changed. Another was some members involved in the old discussions are long since inactive or banned, so there was little chance of a response from them. It also keeps the threads linear, helping to keep discussions current. And there's no rule against starting a new thread on an old topic, which is actually preferable in most circumstances.

 

[Jathro]

Quality... not quantity. That's what we should all strive for.

 

[The Advocate]

Yes, I give... and I was guilty but no harm meant, just trying to kill some time and read and post over a brief break I rarely get and one of the things I like to do is read about Yugioh when I'm not in trial or depositions and just trying to have fun. I do admit that I was clueless about the rules when I joined (I know ignorance of the law is no excuse) so all the leeway is appreciated.

 

[Raijinili]

So someone double posted or whatever you want to call it, how does that hurt or help anyone?

I thought I already stated how, but here's some more, then:
It's usually a sign of ignorance of how the board works (not so bad) or laziness (which annoys people). Or spamminess (the "+1 postcount" mentality), which USUALLY means that the person has a lot of contentless posts.

It doesn't take that much effort to edit your post, so people who double-post are classified as falling under one of the above categories.

Of course, you could have just made a mistake, or a post before your previous post was deleted while you were responding.

When I was new on this site I responded to some old threads and someone sent me a PM saying I was bumping threads. Who cares, bump em back then.

Bumping a thread also leads to confusion. People start responding to posts whose authors haven't been on the board for months, or the context in which it was posted no longer applies and people make angry corrections (which were not really correct at the time of the original post), because not everyone looks at the dates before responding to a post.

Also, bumping dead threads pushes down active ones. It's kinda rude. You may say, "screw manners", but that's culture for you. Or subculture, in this case.

 

[roadhouse007]

In some cases though, I see bumping old threads as OK. Such as if the information in the bumped thread is still relevant (even if the author is not on the boards anymore). An example of 1 I am responsable for is the XBOX LIVE thread started by Frost Monarch (which was the 1 and only post). I posted there because I saw no point of starting a new thread with the exact same intention. But just commenting on a subject where the information is probably no longer valid causes confusion, and is bad practice.