Add a post count to user names / accounts....?

It needn't be a long annotation though, Bit - maybe just a week, 10 days or something similarly short. And it wouldn't need to restrict posting at all - just mean that if the button was there, other people would know that the bearer was a new registration and not a name change.

I like the egalitarian ethos of mumsnet though- singling out newbies undermines that.

Please no. We are all equals here. I f I name change I don't want clues about my identity from date joined or number of posts.

Red button for newbies. That gets my vote.

Absolutely NOT.

No, it doesn't, Soup. It mattered less when the gems that were held up in the queue were of the order of 'Who thinks The Archers has gone downhill?'

Which would assist in identifying posters who have name changed for personal reasons.

Not so much if there were broad bands (1-500, 500-1000 etc)

New members' posts went into a queue that waited till a moderator got round to looking at them and deciding they were OK for all to see.

That doesn't really work for a support forum though.

No Viv the post count would follow a poster through NCs.

Which would assist in identifying posters who have name changed for personal reasons.

Some of the worse trolls in the history of Mumsnet and the internet in general have been long established posters.

Trolls find a way.

Having been here for 13 years, I vote no. It would be ridiculous!

I like the small red dot idea best.

On the old BBC Archers messageboard, it was all a bit of a free for all at first while both members and admin learned how internet forums work by trial and error. Eventually they introduced a rule that new posters were pre-moderated. Everybody else was post-moderated, which is how things are here - ie, moderators only look at posts if somebody asks them to (or, we always suspected over at the BBC, if the automod was set off by a trigger word). New members' posts went into a queue that waited till a moderator got round to looking at them and deciding they were OK for all to see.

This was pretty tedious for the new posters, especially those who were re-registering, but it did seem to deter the hairyhanded. Many of the new posters hung around together on a special newbies thread where they put in time posting anything and everything to boost their post count to the point where they would be released from pre-mod. There was a time element too so it wasn't just a case of posting 'Hello!' 500 times in half an hour - you stayed in pre-mod for a week or two at least as well as having to knock up a certain number of inoffensive posts. One long-lasting benefit of that was that people who started together tended to be chummy longer term.

"..... I'm pointing out that it is already possible."

Possible - yes.
Mandatory - no.

Anything that stops the troll hunters from troll hunting would be brilliant as far as I'm concerned. Maybe there should be a rule to be welcoming to newbies. I can't see how it's in MNHQ's interests to have newbies hounded off the site. Or our interests - newbies might be great contributors, we won't know unless we let them stay.

tryingtocatchthewind
Agree.
I am on a forum connected with my sport and people do try to pull rank by number of posts.
I was one of those quite relieved when a cliquey few left MN in a huff a few years ago because they had very bitchily ganged up and dominated threads by some supposed 'original members' 'legitimacy'.

"It's easy enough to set your profile to show date joined ....."

That's assuming you want a profile. Many of us don't - not for any sinister reason, but we just don't want one.

Post counts are very intimidating to newbies or lurkers who post rarely. It's bound to result in hierarchy

I think it's a good idea.

I name change frequently because of a dodgy ex and an issue with stalking. I'm very concerned about my privacy and safety on MN.

However I have no problem with having a post count. I don't think it would be a privacy issue.

A small red dot that goes sounds much more reasonable and "mn" I definitely object to a shiny newby badge - that way lies madness and tickers [shudder]

As a long termer lurker/thread killer date joined would be better as I very rarely post

Is it Polter!? How?