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

[DragonWithAGirlTattoo]

I was thinking that to see if someone is a real 'long term user of MN, you know penis beaker and penguin bollards..." we could have a post count added to user names / accounts....?

so mine would say [DragonWithAGirlTattoo (350)] or [OneOfMyOtherUserNames (350)] using my active name and counting ALL my posts, but without linking to any of my usernames

just a thought...

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.

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

Possible - yes.
Mandatory - no.

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.

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

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

Trolls find a way.

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

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

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.

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)

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?'

i like the 'broad band' approach, definitely would help with keeping people less identifiable

and i really like the 5000+ idea, to stop people posting crap to just 'get up there'

Absolutely NOT.

Red button for newbies. That gets my vote.

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.

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

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.

OK with indicating year of joining - but a tally of posts and awarding members their platinum status for posting loads and / or highlighting a newbie'so posts as a newbie, no thanks (hierarchical, judgmental preconceptions, cliques and royalty and all that).

And no. of posts - well, that's easily enough searched.

And never really 'got' the sacrosanct nature of the inalienable right to name change...

There have been a number of trolls who have been at one time considered much loved members of MN and even royality. Seriously it would not stop the determined trolls and potentially make them more determined to do the job properly so to speak. Vile trolls (and we have had a few) who pop up and are noticeble do damage but the long running ones can cause rumblings for years afterwards.

I don't think that identifying number of posts is a good thing, in stalking cases (and there have been problems for a number of mnners) this will just be used against them and potentially cause more problems.

A dot for a newbie might be ok to identify complete newbies but the uncluttered look is better and it is bad enough with the self talking/moving ads that have a habit of randomly popping up periodically.

Name change ability can keep people safe and allow much needed support. It is the one reason why I and many are still here.

Name changing is fine by me - if nothing else, it keeps those who are fixated on such things occupied for hours !

You could have the new poster (or otherwise) status of the ID referenced to the system ID and not the name so that an ID with no previous posts but no dot could be seen as a clear and 'legal' name change or from someone who had registered before the time limit but chosen not to post directly. (Although from what ID - if the former - would not be known unless the person chose to disclose it.)

Name changing is fine by me - if nothing else, it keeps those who are fixated on such things occupied for hours !

Cozie

Can't see the point of this at all. I don't understand what the relevance is of knowing whether a poster is new or been here since time began. They either have something interesting/useful/funny to say, or they don't.

I hate it that people feel the need to 'prove' themselves before they can post.

It shouldn't be necessary, Tiger, I would agree - but there seems to have been much recent unease by many posters about the proportion of threads/posts that are - or are suspected of being - 'challenging' on certain boards. I think people are just casting around for some sort of way to limit that proportion. (You could never eradicate it completely for the reasons mentioned by PP.)

I like the idea, if you do it via ranking rather than post numbers you could actually create the "MN Royalty" people talk about.....

I hate the proving & namechanged for this etc that goes on also. It doesn't mean anything to me bc you could pick up penis beaker by being on here a few weeks or just going straight to classics. That said I've been here 8/9 years and don't get naice ham obviously missed that bit! On the one hand it could be helpful in explaining a few things but on the other hand how it is now makes mn more or less a level playing field which I like.

don't get naice ham obviously missed that bit! or possibly just a bit dim