I have an idea for a thread, the title…
If you open this thread you must post
A more ‘interesting’ idea is the same concept, but with a different subject. such as…
Open this thread
The idea being…
… to act as a trap. "ah ha, now you MUST post!
I know the answer is probably “NO” but I thought I might as well ask, to be sure.
Feel free, dopers, to use this thread to ask Mods if they condone your idea(s)
This has been tried before. We gave up, because it never succeeded.
I’ve seen a couple of these threads requesting a 1:1 post to view ratio and they never seem to work.
Damn Dopers. Don’t know how to follow directions…
Doesn’t the view counter increment by one even when a poster merely previews his or her reply? Since each post requires at least one viewing* and some Dopers will preview their replies to check for coding and spelling errors, it seems that the inequality
number of posts { < or = } number of views
will favor strict inequality more often than equality.
I’m pretty sure it doesn’t. But that’s easy to check. Find a thread buried deep on the board someplace that no one is likely go digging up and preview a few times without posting and see if the number of views changes. I’d do it, but I’m off to bed.
The problem with attaining a 1:1 ratio is that for non-members, all threads are ‘read-only.’ If a person who couldn’t post read the thread, it would foul up your goal of 1:1.
Happy
No offense, but how does this help wipe out ignorance?
Not that anything in MPSIMS does. 
rsa since you asked.
Games make people happy and puts them in a good mood (so does forced creativity, i.e. thinking of a witty reply when forced to reply)
When people are in a good mood they are probably more likely to accept new ideas and more willing to listen to criticism
accepting new ideas usually equals reducing ignorance.
Yeah, it sure doesn’t work. When anybody posts to the thread, the view counter will increment once for when they read it the first time, and once for when they view their post after posting. Later, if the thread reaches page two, the view counter will increment for each poster’s view of the first page, the second page, and their post.
So, during the first page, you can hope for a views-to-posts ratio of 2. After that, it just gets worse.
Some workarounds are discussed in the linked thread, though.
Ooh! How 'bout a thread on “If pirates using 1920s style death rays wrote the LOTR whilst riding in horrible Star Trek blimps, would that prove the existence of God?”
The board just would not be the same without Lobbers, you know?
I didn’t intend a 1:1 replies:views thread. just a thread where if you’ve opened it (clicked it from the forum page) you have to reply.
The idea was to force people to come up with a witty response/ and to hear from people who wouldn’t normally reply.
And I just saw NCB’s post. Aw, I’m all embarrassed now. I hope you mean it in a good way.
NCB=:cool:
However, pointless threads make some people annoyed and put them in a bad mood. (And even as a game, its a pretty pointless one.)
They also upset the hamsters.
This has been tried many times, and it never works. Aside from multiple views by people who do post, and some people who open the thread and don’t post because they think it’s stupid, some people will deliberately view the thread repeatedly without posting just for mischief.
NoClueBoy, shouldn’t that be “If pirates using 1920s style death rays wrote the LOTR whilst riding in horrible Star Trek blimps, would that prove the existence of God vs. Batman?”
So, Colibri and rsa, are you suggesting MPSIMS should contain factual and useful information only, no Mundane or Pointless threads?
I know this (you must post) idea is flawed. But I don’t think all ‘pointless’ threads should be done away with.
They are fun, and anyone who says they are annoying/a waste of time comes across as a little prudish
It’s definitely a better idea than this thread. Which I refuse to post to in order to complain.
The exercise would be pointless because there is no way to force someone to post in a thread. You would just end up with another thread with pointless one-liners. I would vote against it.
No at all. That’s not what I said. But threads should at least try to be interesting and entertaining.
Many other “game” threads have been amusing and required creativity. The one you proposed does not.
I mean, c’mon, all you are asking is for people to post for the sake of posting.
Well… My idea hoped that it would bring out the creativity in all, poster and lurker alike. Those people believing that they should at least try to be creative as they have just been challenged to post to a place where posts get ignored unless they stand out in some way.
But I am drunk as a skunk so blah blah nothing I say is worth note.
wibble wibble my mother is a teacup,