Some Dopers post 15 or more times a day, averaging 10 or more a day and often with negligible contribution/participation, IMO. I found a pertinent recent thread, but it’s in the Pit and, unsurprisingly, it quickly degenerates into picking on a particular poster. Maybe we can just talk about stats, without singling anyone out.
The only mention I’ve seen in the sticky posts is this:
It’s not that hard to avoid reading posters who have to make everything about themselves and/or insist on irrelevantly weaving the same personal circumstance into everything they post. While it’s annoying and pathetic, a post or three of this kind every week is not that big a deal. However, even if someone stays on topic, 15 or more posts a day seems to be an unhealthy obsession that is not especially uncommon to see in people’s online presence. I suggest adding something to the sticky posts to discourage this kind of behavior.
Just to be clear, I’ll add that I understand that some people might use the board thearpeutically, as a means of dealing with some kind of setback, and that such “therapy” might go on for weeks or months, etc. But this is different. I spend more time out and about than on this board, and, in real life, people who exhibit this kind of behavior in public are eventually told to knock it off.
Er, um, while it’s nice to know you agree with this board policy, I’m a little confused. There already is a sticky note, which you quoted, so why would they need another?
To be clear, the rule is just about excessive posting on a single subject. Some people happen to have more free time than others, and some people choose to spend a higher proportion of their free time on this board, and that’s not something we’re inclined to pass a rule against. Likewise, we’re not inclined to moderate posts for quality, except in the most extreme cases.
As in other rules, it’s a judgement call as to how much is “excessive.” Posting 15 times a day in itself isn’t against the rules, nor do I think we want to make it so. If people find it annoying, the Pit is available. Now if a poster tries to turn every thread they participate in into a discussion of their personal obsession, that can be more of a problem, since it derails discussion of the original topic of the thread.
Posting large numbers of threads per day can become a problem if threads by a single poster come to dominate the first page of a forum and bump threads by others down the page so they are less likely to get a response. In such cases we may also ask posters to pace themselves.
We deal with such things on a case by case basis. If the behavior of a particularly poster begins to be disruptive or seriously affect the participation of other posters in threads the mods would discuss the situation and decide what course to take. I wouldn’t see a reason for an additional rule beyond what is already on the books.
This site is fairly low-traffic as sites go already. If everybody made less than 500 posts/started only 3 threads over the course of 4 years, the site would be dead.
Post-whoring (excessive numbers of one line/word replies) have happened and been dealt with IIRC and the rest seems to have been handled pretty well case by case. Same basic thing with what I call the “one trick ponies” who see their favorite subject in every thread. Going just by posts-per-day though could be a little trickier. My PPD is currently 3.16 but this doesn’t take into account I’ve been joined since 2007 and didn’t have much to say the first 4-5 years and am sometimes away for a week or more. The reality is its probably more like 5-6 when I actually post. Going into this kind of detail to moderate would be a whole lot to ask from a volunteer force.
Post padding isn’t as much of a problem as it was in the early days of the board, when “post-parties” to celebrate reaching milestones were so frequent they ended up being banned. Back when the most prolific posters only had 10,000 posts, it might seem possible to catch them. Now with some posters over 70,000 posts it’s clearly impossible become a leader in any reasonable length of time. Since we don’t have different titles for increasing numbers of posts, there’s little incentive to post just to get your numbers up.
What does this mean? People who post a lot aren’t “in public”. Do you mean people who talk a lot in public? or talk a lot about themselves in public? I know several people like that and have never heard any of them get told “to knock it off.” Mostly those kinds of behaviors may drive people away (or not) but they don’t actually get called out for it. Maybe in grade school? I just don’t get your point.
Mods, thanks for the clear and concise explanations and thanks to everyone else for the responses. I missed the mention in the registration agreement. Wouldn’t it make sense to add that to the Etiquette sticky?
Contributions that amount to a drive-by and tossing a comment or a turd into the conversation.
It’s okay, you don’t have to get it (but see preceding reply). I’d like to see posters express an opinion on the subject, and you’ve already participated, so thanks.
I didn’t know that was a thing.
Yeah, I’m not suggesting setting a limit. Just hoping to see some (more) opinions on the subject.
I agree. I rarely have a problem with frequent posters. It’s the obsessive thread-starters that irk me. Threads are the fundamental way the information on a board is organized and they should have at least some minimal merit. If someone starts a thread about every random brain fart they happen to have, it becomes disruptive. The posters who don’t even come back to their own vast outpouring of threads are especially annoying.
We also tend to get near-duplicates on some of the larger issues. If there’s a thread about “X happened”, do we really need threads on “My opinion about X”, “Will X turn out to be good or bad?”, and “Kim Kardashian speaks out about X”? I guess I’m just a thread minimalist. Or maybe an organizational obsessive. But postings, meh, I say go nuts if you enjoy it!
Eh, I don’t post 15 times a day, but… MB like these are like 90% of my social outlet. I don’t like the idea of putting a cap on how much people can post.
