Hummz, 300 seems a bit much, since its on about quantity of a post but about quality :\

This is EXACTLY what I'm talking about. Trap17 is SOOOO preoccupied by "post count" that you ASSUME all I care about is getting my post count up. If you look at my profile, I have more than enough posts. I don't care if you NEVER count another post again. My message is NOT about POST COUNT. It is about SPAM. Your response to me clearly reveals that YOU are preoccupied with post count.. not me.

I dont care about post count. I just care when I am called a spammer for posting small messages.



Again, I don't see how making 15 good posts and then saying thank you at the end is not contributing to the community. This is beyond me. I understand that hosting credits should not be given on posts like that but I don't agree when you say it does not contribute to the community. Hence considered as spam.



If you like your members to keep writing and BS their way to 300, that's your choice. But, personally, I don't like to see people write CRAP. Just get to the point, leave the padding out. With your system, you are simply making spammers write longer spam messages. How does the community benefit from a LONG spam message rather than a SHORT spam message?

Your hosting credit system and post count system will work for determining member activity or inactivity. But I don't think it will work for SPAM. That is my point (and my opinion). By telling people you will count a post and give hosting credits to posts that are 300 characters, you are simply providing a spamming guideline. You are basically telling spammers you will accept spam messages as long as they are 300 characters long..

Edit: Maybe my original post was in the wrong place. It was more about word count and spam rather than the activity and inactivity system. But I replied because I saw the famous "300" character spam meter...


I am not asking for a more lienient system. I want to address the issue of spam, short posts, and how mods treat them.

First, I did not mean that you are spamming. I am sorry if I have offended you. By saying "you", I was referring to those spammers who are reading the post.

Ok, now about the issue.
You still dont get my point. Why do you think people will prefer to post a Long thank you message rather than a short one. I thought this system will be the best way to tackle spam and also to give genuine post points.

I am trying to make a better solution against spam. The only hitch in the plan that I have already implemented is, Posts which are less than 300 cannot be said to be 100% spam.

Ok, now I did make a better system than this, but I did not implement it because it was complex. The two major issues regarding the post count issue is,
1> An easy interface by which members can understand what it is.
2> A tracking system which checks the post and gives points depending upon it.

The current system and hosting credit system were running in parallel as both had the common 300+ character rule. If we remove that, we can get more complex and effective system but members will have no clue on what basis they are given credits.

Here is the actual system which I had in mind.

There are 5-6 Regular expression filters which first filter the post for bbcodes, extra spaces etc. After that, it is analysed in the following way.

If a post is less than 50-100 characters, we ignore it. Because no genuine post can be so small.
If post is greater than 50 characters, We add a minimum level hosting credit. *So users do recieve something, instead of nothing*. We also increment the post count.
If the post is greater than 300 character, we run the next function which calculates hosting credits depending on the size and quality ( more sets of Regular expressions for determining it ). So that user recieve more for all the contribution they make.

Definately the above system is more advanced and will calculate every post made by members. But the problem is, members will start complaining that "Why the system is showing less amount of credits even after they posted 3-4 messages". Because the new system gives post counts for small posts, but since the post themselves are small, they give a small amount of hosting credits to members.

The current system does not have this problem as the posts count and Credits both are given only if post is>300.

Also, it will be hard for us to tell members to make X amount of posts because we have no way to predict what kind of posts that particular member is going to post.

With all the above problems, it is obvious there will be a lot of misunderstanding and bad faith. And we cannot afford to lose the trust of our members. So, even though the current system does has small limitations, it is quite effective for controlling spam and assigning proper hosting credits.

I like the hosting credit system! It helps to keep better track of inactive members. Also, some spammers (not all) wouldn't go through the trouble of getting 300 characters in a post, so that stops the spammers that are lazy. The 300 character limit is a good idea. However, that's my opinion. People can have many different ones.

I think its pretty cool how Admin can come up with something like this. It does prevent spamming and it will be more challenging for the people who want to get host but then stop posting when they have the hosting. That happends alot and this prevents that which is great. I dont even know how much is 300 characters in here cause it doesn't count for you but i estimate lol So if you dont know just make sure you post like 3 lines and up.. i think

I think the Hosting Credit System is really great, it makes things more organized and straight forward because forum members can now know exactly how long they can remain inactive and how many posts they need to make to keep their account healthy and prevent their account from being suspended or even terminated. At first I thought the 300 characters rule was a bit much, but now it seems pretty fair in a sense that forum members will have to make more meaningful posts and we will see less SPAM and one-liners.

Yh the hosting credits system is a very innovative idea, will keep track of inactive members. I admit i myself was one, but that was because i just had a long period of exams and wasnt allowed to use internet, but now thats over so i now can stay active .

Great Idea by the trap :D

Due to the possible objects from members, We have re-constructed our system. We simply cannot let misunderstandings breed..

REMOVED THE 300 POST COUNT SYSTEM. ALL POSTS WILL BE COUNTED. MORE DETAILS AT :
http://www.trap17.com/forums/trap17-file-no-6147.html

Somepeople probably dont like it becaue they aint active innit...
Well i dont mind doesn't change anything XCEPT SUSPENDS you if your inactive.... no worries this is a cool script by a cool person...
Hope there will be more new improvements to trap...i will be waiting ...

i have full confident in Opaque he will get everything perfect,
and that he removed the 300 characters post count i personally think is kinda a good idea. because i usually make a post that is straith to the point... and not so long...

an anyway there was a little bug in it.... not really a bug but still, people just quoted allot so those characters would also count... that way it was easy to get posts