This kind of started as me being semi-snarky on Off-Topic, but seeing how it suscited more positive reactions than I imagined it would, I thought it could merit its own thread as a feature request.

Speeking of threads, they have been popping up everywhere. People make them to say or ask something that's been explained elsewhere, reposts of threads that already exist, or threads that are outright rude or bad. It'd also keep spambots out. To give you an idea of how bad exactly the problem is, every word of the last sentence is a link to a thread that could have been avoided by simply reading the forum more thoroughly, or asking a BAT or GMT. They're all from within the last month. The general amount of threads in the Abandoned Wasteland seems to go up, the quality of threads as a whole seems to slowly sink.

That's why I figured some slight moderation might be in place. Of course I'm not asking to put all threads on a mod queue before they can be made, that would be endlessly tedious and arduous. I would simply like to put this forward to the group: what about a minimum number of posts before you're allowed to start new threads? Of course, beatmap submissions fall out of that rule (though on the other hand the probability of first-post miracles seems quite low, and the percentage low enough to say "just do as the system says for a while") and the introduction forum should also be an exemption (unless of course introductions becomes the new abandoned wasteland because of this)

The general number seems to be something about 10, which is good enough to filter the least of the least, but low enough to allow people who're new to join in on the dscussion fast enough. I was also considering having the number be however many you need to no longer be a rhythm rookie, but I don't know the site's system so I can't judge on how high that number is.

So, the usual. Thoughts, corrections, perfections, support, et ceterea.

The idea in itself looks good, and it seems like something that can easily be done, but here's the thing, most users won't care about the limit and will just make 10 shitposts and then will be able to start a thread.

Also, quite a few of the shit threads in off-topic are not made by new members.
So yeah I don't really know what to do about off-topic, I like the idea, but it doesn't seem like it'd work out.

This idea isn't really centered around off-topic. The constant flow of shit threads will continue there, and there's nothing we can do about it apart from changing the mentality of an entire subforum's demographic. This feature is aiming more at purging general discussion from threads that fit in any of the categories above. Actually, not a lot of the threads I linked stemmed from off-topic to begin with.

Oh sorry, seems like I sped through the post a little bit

Yeah sure why not, we can always use that on GD

Rregional forums would benefit too, obviously.

Community has grown a lot and is still growing exponentionally so the number of people who need to be forced into taking some time to lurk around has grown too.

I'd suggest around 25 posts though.

Awww I'm not one of the links.

Also, while it seems a good idea in theory, it's only going to inhibit the good ones.

The good posters will post here and there, eventually reach the minimum and possibly put a new "good" topic.

The bad posters will post in places to raise their count so they aren't limited any longer, and all this will result in is a flood of posts from people as they join. For example, who is better than ddrXero64. I'm sure you remember the fun of him showing up and having what was it? 100+ in about 3 days (not including off-topic). Spam would get worse imo, as right now they are being courteous only making topics once in a while, it could be like most other sites get where the comments are littered with spam. If you put the minimum to post topics the spammers will switch to the comments which I feel is far worse.

It would be way more effective if a message popped up when you tried to create your own thread, stating the rules plain and clear.

I understand where you're coming from, but the whole.. minimum number of posts thing is the wrong way. Do you think people will understand the rules after posting 10 times?

That's why I was putting the number up for debate. In retrospect, it should definitely be higher. If we get the limit higher up, surely a mod will notice 30 or even 50 posts of rapid-gear spamming. And I really don't think anyone after 30 posts will still be as ungreened as to post a thread asking for a beatmap request. This is really just there not to minimize the shit threads (as I said, every user makes a bad thread sometimes) but to minimize the number of threads we have to deport to the wasteland and leave with a single link to another topic. Bad content would also partially filtered if we up the number, since I doubt any troll would have the attention span to make 30 DECENT posts (I say decent so you don't go off thinking these posts are gonna be just like their threads they make now, because modqueue meets them long before that) and still make a shit thread after that. I think it would be effective, but the best way to find out is to implement it.

This isn't around to stop the purposeful trolls, they don't need to start a thread to get people unnerved. Thiis is about those people who just don't care to do the research. If we don't give them an outlet to outright fling their question into open air and hope someone pops around to answer it, they'll be sort of forced to contact someone who knows about it, or search on their own on the website.

Wojjan wrote:

Thiis is about those people who just don't care to do the research.

In this scenario I definitely agree with Chaotic, but with a twist. Put a setup for anyone under a certain amount of posts or some shape or form of that for the popup stating the basics of posting (or on their first post or etc). Having one for every single post of every single person is ridiculous, though if the new posters are gonna hop in and muck up the place with "hurr make me a map of this" make it where they have to do the click through a page saying "DO NOT REQUEST, DO NOT REPEAT THREADS, POST IN THE RIGHT PLACE, ETC." and when they click, they agree that if they blatantly break it they get some sort of ban. The ones that skim it will see that they are not supposed to do what they are about to, and the ones that don't care and click past, well there's no cure for ignorance. Just a thought.

There is a cure for ignorance, it's called nipping it in the bud before it has a chance to post a thread. Threads are redundant for such a large list of reasons, and giving them no option but to look for it themselves or ask on their own in my opinion beats making a box that covers all our bases with "go check the FAQ and the stickies everywhere and the languaage forum and the bug reports and the hacker list and general discussion and all of the forum games to see if anyone hasn't already said what you want to say."

After all, this type of fool proof was already proved helpful by lots of other forums all over the web.

Also mixing both ideas mentioned in this thread could make it even better.

I'm indifferent about this idea, however new people not being able to make intro threads until after some posts seems odd. Granted, if we let topics be made in intro forum, they may just use that as an outlet for their questions.

Well, I thought about that too, and the most obvious way to go is creating a thread in the introductions forum where people can post any question and get a decent answer from people without having to make a separate thread about it. MATs, BATs and GMTs have already proven helpful enough to send everyone with a question on their way, so if someone would just check that thread once every... day/two days or something, we'd get a lot of benefit from that.

I'm really just thinking aloud here, because I've seen it become an issue, and I want to get a solution that's best for both of the groups involved, newbies and oldbies.

Alright, this is a good idea. I think this could prove useful to keep the asshats out of an otherwise seemingly-intelligent forum.

+1970 Yes, I've been playing Touhou 8 a lot. Shut up.

viewforum.php?f=8

What about that place...

Weezy wrote:

http://osu.ppy.sh/forum/viewforum.php?f=8

What about that place...

OP said it was an exception.

Don't see why not.

Not going to get into the argument/discussion, and regardless of OT, it's true that a large amount of clutter and frustration could be avoided with a simple limit.

Also found it amusing that some of the people who disagreed don't even have 10 posts, but meh. I think 10-25 is reasonable.

Would shoot a star but I haven't got any.

All of my stars.

this wont help at all, just offset the time the person makes the bad thread
or seeing as a large amount of your linked examples are by people with a higher than 10 post count, it will have even less affect and just be annoying for new players with genuine threads

I am gonna resuscitate this idea because I can only add a million more examples from abandoned wasteland to my post

Nice idea, though I admit I am part of the problem.. Perhaps minimum post count should be higher than 10 if this were to be implemented
Edit: perhaps with introductions being an exception, anyone below the minimum post count would have to get their thread modded first

I am so supporting this.

May I?

aevv wrote:

this wont help at all, just offset the time the person makes the bad thread
or seeing as a large amount of your linked examples are by people with a higher than 10 post count, it will have even less affect and just be annoying for new players with genuine threads

Well yes, ten was a bare minimum and I have already suggested a higher bar. What the BATs settle on is something they will deduce from the mean in post count versus shit thread, which will probably be about 30. Know that thirty posts normally doesn't rack up very fast, unless you post in absolutely every thread of discussion you can find.

And in that case, you're bound to bump into the thread you needed to ask something in anyway.

just spawn some brand new 18+ staff to do the easy though overwhelming and time consuming job of moderation (+ban hackers)