Quote:
Originally Posted by Unassisted
I have another example.
JJ Huddle, a board which discusses Ohio high school sports is free to read, but charges $10 to register, and registration is required for posting. In addition, they require that registered members post at least once every 90 days to retain their membership. If you don't post during that 90 days, you have to pay $10 to register again. |
To me, that's a faulty model. Any time you REQUIRE somebody to post X number of times to be a member in good standing, frankly, you are doing it ass-backwards. Although, in this one specific case, why somebody would be $10 to not post is kind of a mystery.... but still: the general point is that nothing is gained by encouraging people to post if they don't feel like they have something to contribute.
The Great White Lie of the internets is that it makes everybody equal. Bzzzt. The truth is that, just as in real life, there are many stupid people and many stupid things to be said by them. The internet just makes it easy for people to broadcast them out to a larger audience.
Setting posting requirements does NOT help "build a community" or whatever. It just sets the standard that "We don't care what you say, but please, dum dum, we'd like for you to say it here. We'll even give you dozens of ******** little gif files you can insert when your words fail you." I no likey.
That said: I'm not at all against the RedsZone Poobahs changing things up so that they can make their Secret Hang-out a little more fun and gratifying for them. I just think there are better methods for vetting potential new members than requiring them to spastically post on a daily basis just to get noticed.
Then again, this criticism comes from a guy who has made 50-something posts in 4 years of being registered here, and who had a 3-to-1 "rep points to posts" ratio before those got wiped. Under the old system, I might have made the ORG with just 4-5 more really good posts. Under the new system, at the rate I'm going, I won't even be considered until probably the All Star Break of 2009. ...
Maybe even longer, since this new system is only going to ensure that the parts of RedsZone I *can* post to are populated by people who will be motivated to post voluminously, whether they have something to say or not, thus gumming up the entire works and making it harder for me (and others like me, as I do not lay claim to being the only Damned Clever Semi-Hermit on these boards) to find spots to post our own selves.
See? Vicious circle.