All of these posts do not count...

[stevemcelroy]

B&M - bricks and mortar.

Online is a bit different - the longer that a user stays on the website the better. In the case of Fred's I believe that I heard that it was added to the site because some users were growing tired of having people ask about why their mileage drops in the winter and would have moved on to another online communities - see Danny's explanation here in post # 11

It is all about keeping people on the site - the longer that we are here the more ads we view, the more likely we are to buy something from the store and the more likely we are to come back and keep that total active member count high. Those are the things that keep this place going.

If it did not matter why start them in the first place and why not just just dump it now?

Originally Posted by TonyPSchaefer

The difference, I think is that we're talking about the posts made in Fred's House of Pancakes and Fred's House of Politics not counting towards someone's total point count.

There is nothing in the PriusChat Shop for the politico. There is nothing in the PriusChat Shop that supports the random threads in Fred's House of Pancakes. The PriusChat Shop and the GoogleAnalytics ads that support this site are almost entirely car related because this is a car-related site.

I don't know what a b&m store is, but I know that if I walk into an AutoZone, they will tolerate me talking about vacuum cleaners until that point where they explain they don't sell vacuum cleaners and I should either talk about cars, buy something car related or go find a vacuum store.

[airportkid]

There must be some commercial reason behind omitting Fred's posts from the count because, frankly, who would care unless that statistic were tied to some financial gadget. But, given that the environmental thread's posts are still counted, I can't imagine what that financial consideration must be. Whatever it is, it must matter, because it's extra administrative overhead to put a discriminator on the counter (and keep in mind that it's there).

[qbee42]

Originally Posted by airportkid

There must be some commercial reason behind omitting Fred's posts from the count because, frankly, who would care unless that statistic were tied to some financial gadget. But, given that the environmental thread's posts are still counted, I can't imagine what that financial consideration must be. Whatever it is, it must matter, because it's extra administrative overhead to put a discriminator on the counter (and keep in mind that it's there).

A hint was dropped that something might be in the works for major posters, and in this context only Prius related posts make sense.

Tom

[qbee42]

Originally Posted by TonyPSchaefer

<snip>

Considering that the bulk of the new members don't even know about Fred's House of Politics and the bulk of the long-term members stay out of it, I'm not convinced that losing the 0.000150% of active membership if we jettison the forum would really hurt PriusChat as a whole. In a few months it wouldn't be missed. And I was probably being generous in my stats.

<snip>

It wouldn't be missed. What would happen is that Fred's posts would end up in the main forums, just as they used to. Then the moderators would be forced to make a decision to allow off topic posts, or risk losing valuable members to heavy handed moderation. The alternative would be to create a new off topic forum, and then we are back to Fred's.

As stated before, it's a balance where you try to keep the majority of your target audience. It's a delicate balance, since not all of us want the same things. If we did, marketing would be simple.

Tom

[stevemcelroy]

Just noticed the following - just my opinion, while that might be a valid argument and might work behind closed doors it is not the sort of thing that makes a great public argument - saying that each of us is worth only a fraction of a percent is not great then making it way smaller than it is is even worse - each of us count for .00028 or .028% - a small number but it does represent someone who contributes to this place. Having a total active membership of 3,500 is very small when you consider that it has worldwide reach - to put it in perspective - I went to a small K-12 school where my graduating class was just over 100 students - the alumni association would be roughly the same size.

It seems like those who have a beef with this are those who have post counts in the thousands - I am not one of those. I would imagine that someone with over 1,000 posts would be in the top tier of posters not one in a million and a half (the scale of .0001%)- replacing them will not be so easy - just sayin'.

Originally Posted by TonyPSchaefer

Running a business is not about making everyone happy. It's about making most people happy. PriusChat receives new members on a regular basis but it's the returning members who build the community and give those new members a reason to join. Right now, the front page is reporting 3,567 active members, of which each of us represent 0.000028%. Considering that the bulk of the new members don't even know about Fred's House of Politics and the bulk of the long-term members stay out of it, I'm not convinced that losing the 0.000150% of active membership if we jettison the forum would really hurt PriusChat as a whole. In a few months it wouldn't be missed. And I was probably being generous in my stats.

[hyo silver]

Originally Posted by TonyPSchaefer

...Right now, the front page is reporting 3,567 active members, of which each of us represent 0.000028%...

This reminds me of the tshirt with an image of the Milky Way Galaxy and a sign that says 'you are here'.

[airportkid]

Originally Posted by qbee42

A hint was dropped that something might be in the works for major posters, and in this context only Prius related posts make sense

Hmm. I wonder if that'll start a blizzard of "puff" posts out there in the auto threads to boost post count, if the something is a significant keeper.

Volume is the wrong metric. Thanks received in the auto threads would be a better metric of value of contribution, if the something is intended to reward contributory value. You know, highest ratio of thanks per post PLUS largest number of individual thankers - THAT would be an unfakeable yet easily measured indication of true value to the forum. A guy that made only 10 total posts in the auto threads but that got at least 8 thanks each from a total of, say, 60 thankers would be considerably more valuable to the forum than a guy who made 6000 posts in the auto threads but was thanked only 5 times by 3 thankers.

[xs650]

Originally Posted by airportkid

You know, highest ratio of thanks per post PLUS largest number of individual thankers - THAT would be an unfakeable yet easily measured indication of true value to the forum. A guy that made only 10 total posts in the auto threads but that got at least 8 thanks each from a total of, say, 60 thankers would be considerably more valuable to the forum than a guy who made 6000 posts in the auto threads but was thanked only 5 times by 3 thankers.

A problem with your metric is that sarcasm and humor will get as many thanks as useful information.

[hyo silver]

Originally Posted by stevemcelroy

...I would imagine that someone with over 1,000 posts would be in the top tier of posters not one in a million and a half (the scale of .0001%)- replacing them will not be so easy - just sayin'.

Ah, there's a note of encouragement. Thank you.

No matter how miniscule the percentage of posts, this is not an iteration of the infinite monkey hypothesis, nor a silicon cybernetic version of Horton Hears a Who. The whole galaxy is irrelevant as far as the universe is concerned, but that's not the point. There's a vital, vibrant community here, and it matters very much to those of us who are active members. That counts.

[amm0bob]

Originally Posted by hyo silver

Ah, there's a note of encouragement. Thank you.

No matter how miniscule the percentage of posts, this is not an iteration of the infinite monkey hypothesis, nor a silicon cybernetic version of Horton Hears a Who. The whole galaxy is irrelevant as far as the universe is concerned, but that's not the point. There's a vital, vibrant community here, and it matters very much to those of us who are active members. That counts.

^^^ This...