Ed says that going free-to-post will include an overhaul to the interface. My suggestion is to do away with post counts altogether.
The idea being that once you get a four-digit post count, you pretty much can’t link anybody you know in real life to any board conversation you’re in without broadcasting “I’m a big loser with no life.”
ETA: I’m just talking about thread displays, not necessarily disabling them. On second thought, I’d suggest removing all information except username from post headers. No post count, no join date, no location, and no title. All of that could still be kept intact and accessible via that user’s profile.
I think people tend to develop an unhealthy attachment to titles, locations and post counts anyway.
For whatever it’s worth, I agree with you. Except for location. I wish everyone would use it even if it’s just a state, region or province. It’s exasperating to read a post where the locality is central to the issue, but you have no idea where the poster lives.
Members are allowed to edit their posts within five minutes after making them.
I’m sure other Mods will offer their thoughts, but I’ve never thought of my post count as a reason to hide my participation here. Lacking the technical knowledge, I have no comment on how feasible or likely this idea is.
I’ve never understood why it has to say the number of times you’ve posted. Who cares? Your location might be helpful if you post a general question like “Can I legally own my own atomic bomb?” and don’t bother to add, “I live in Rhode Island, by the way.”
I participated in a long and somewhat heated debate on this very topic in the pit recently, fighting the good fight for meaningful locations. (I’ve argued for meaningful locations many times here over the years.)
You can still see the occasional poster who thinks it’s the height of with to have their location say “Ellis Dee’s basement”, as if I am somehow wounded by that.
So while I agree with your premise, in my experience the location field is just another point of contention between the overly-paranoid, the class clowns, and those of us who feel that meaningful locations add context to the poster’s thoughts. Why not just do away with points of contention? That’s the idea, anyway.
Also, if the location is only available in the profiles, I’m assuming there would be less incentive to put in a meaningless yet oh so clever joke location. Similar to how birthdate is now; usually you’ll see it blank, occasionally somebody will fill it out, but I’ve yet to see a joke birthday. I find that telling, based on the “my joke location is only for my own amusement” argument. Maybe it’s not amusing to yourself unless you can broadcast it to a wide audience.