I'm New and Cannot Post...why?

[The Magic Pudding]

I'm glad I found this before asking. I was just wondering why I couldn't respond to a post on the politics board.

Serious question though.

Wouldn't this contribute to more trolling? Or I suppose the more appropriate term here would be spamming. Does this policy not cause a whole bunch of useless responses; responses that don't contribute much overall to the forum?

This is simply speculation, those who have been here longer, mod's in particular would know better. Half of my posting this was to increase my post count anyway. 

You really are an anarchist.

[hismikeness]

The proper term, as coined here, is "post-whoring."

And yeah, there are some new members that will post just to make that number on the left reach 50. But, in the meantime, the natural side effect is that they get to know the community, the style, and the overall "feel" of the forum while approaching that post count.

And that, is what it was intended for.

[McQ]

I'm glad I found this before asking. I was just wondering why I couldn't respond to a post on the politics board.

Serious question though.

Wouldn't this contribute to more trolling? Or I suppose the more appropriate term here would be spamming. Does this policy not cause a whole bunch of useless responses; responses that don't contribute much overall to the forum?

This is simply speculation, those who have been here longer, mod's in particular would know better. Half of my posting this was to increase my post count anyway. 

It works, and it doesn't contribute to more trolling or spamming. And we watch for people who make useless posts simply to get a count of 50. I'll happily add to the required count of posters who try to rack up their count with junk. 

[Whitney]

if the policy were not more beneficial than not having it do you think we'd keep it implemented?

[ThinkAnarchy]

if the policy were not more beneficial than not having it do you think we'd keep it implemented?

It's possible it could have improved the trolling aspect while harming something unforeseen. The net gain could still be positive while only being slightly beneficial.

I also saw you ask about the location of the message about the 50 post rule and I did not see it when I first logged in. Since it was under the Meeting Place board description I never read it. The Meeting Place seemed self explanatory, so I felt no need to read the description. It could be in a different place though, seeing as I'm one of those people who sometimes tries to walk through "Out of Order" doors when the sign is at eye level.

As I said in my initial post though, the mods and admins would see the results far better than a new member.

[Whitney]

I also saw you ask about the location of the message about the 50 post rule and I did not see it when I first logged in. Since it was under the Meeting Place board description I never read it. The Meeting Place seemed self explanatory, so I felt no need to read the description. It could be in a different place though, seeing as I'm one of those people who sometimes tries to walk through "Out of Order" doors when the sign is at eye level.

Since that question was asked it has also been posted into the rules and user registration agreement 

[Tank]

if the policy were not more beneficial than not having it do you think we'd keep it implemented?

It's possible it could have improved the trolling aspect while harming something unforeseen. The net gain could still be positive while only being slightly beneficial.

I also saw you ask about the location of the message about the 50 post rule and I did not see it when I first logged in. Since it was under the Meeting Place board description I never read it. The Meeting Place seemed self explanatory, so I felt no need to read the description. It could be in a different place though, seeing as I'm one of those people who sometimes tries to walk through "Out of Order" doors when the sign is at eye level.

As I said in my initial post though, the mods and admins would see the results far better than a new member.

"If it works don't fix it" The rule has only been around for a few months and it's bloody brilliant. The quality of the new members is high and the troll count has dropped to a virtual zero. So far so good

[thequestioner]

I don't like it.  The only reason I joined was so that I could do a poll and I needed only atheists.

[Davin]

I don't like it.  The only reason I joined was so that I could do a poll and I needed only atheists.

Wow, was it always like this or are there more people with polls recently?

[Whitney]

I don't like it.  The only reason I joined was so that I could do a poll and I needed only atheists.

great...that means the policy is working...

[Whitney]

I don't like it.  The only reason I joined was so that I could do a poll and I needed only atheists.

Wow, was it always like this or are there more people with polls recently?

It isn't infrequent..one time we had a whole grade school class (i'm assuming a private school due to it being a religion class) asking us the same questions and generally acting like idiots (so the school's ip was banned).

on google we are on the first page (usually top listing) for "atheist forum" so we're probably typically the first place that gets hit up for survey requests.

[Troll god]

I like this rule, I hope nobody gets discouraged.

[Bibliofagus]

I was also wondering this  ??? It's nice to have a help desk taking care of all queries.