A thought about post counts. Options

[viugiufgjhfhjfhg...]

In my short experience as a CreateBlog community member, I have realized post statistics do play a significant role in the user's experience since they grant access to extra features and are a requisite (that can be bypassed in exceptional occasions) to apply for staff membership. This is the not the first place where I have seen this system being used, and thusly it is not the first time I pass this thought to the community to consider. Without further ado, I'll proceed to explain my position about this subject.

In my opinion, post quotas only manage to make users work enough to meet them in order to enjoy the benefits they get for reaching the 50, 100, etc.., post mark. Such acting is not necessarily linked to making users involved in improving the community, but rather in seeking personal goals that may or may not transcend (positive or negatively) onto the rest of users.

That is mainly because apart from the site's general rules, there's not a standard establishing how a person should fill the demanded rate. Since it's pretty easy to maintain a high PPD ratio without adding anything that contributes to the site in general while avoiding the violation of any general rule, the point of having a posts limit becomes kind of moot, in the end.

Lastly, keeping a post count policy seems to have stemmed an underlying rivalry between users based upon the number of posts when it comes to, for example, hiring sessions. Despite knowing it's not a must-meet requirement, people seem to focus first on their PPD then on evaluating whether their skills can be of any help to Createblog or not. And that is pretty counterproductive to the purpose of selecting people willing to sacrifice time and efforts for an online community.

[*I Shot JFK*]

Regarding the third objective, why do you want to reduce the number of 'fly-by' posters?

The reason that there ought to be an Official Member status which is not related to design is because there are a large number of members who contribut ehugely solely to the comuntiy forums, in the same way that many designers contribute solely to the design forum...

While a post does take less effort than a layout or even a simple graphic, the vast majority of designers design because they enjoy it, not specifically to achieve a status, in the same way that members of the community forum post because it is what they enjoy, not to achieve a status... i challenge the idea that one type of member is more valuable than another. I personally wouldn't visit createblog at all if it weren't for the community forums (i dont use my myspace anymore, so i have no use for any of the layouts), so it is entirely the posts of community members which define my experience here, and I'm not alone in this respect.