Posted by Proud Blade(VIP) on September 13, 2000 at 11:49:26:
(I do not intend to point fingers here. Although I will admit Zepachu triggered this post, there are plenty of other people who have made me think about it.) The argument that "no one is forced to read" anyone's posts has been thrown about lately. Let's consider the extreme case. Let's say I did nothing all day but post silly observational type posts. ("HAHAHA! N/T", "YOU SUK. N/T", "WAYNE CHREBET RULZ (*) N/T", and the like.) For the sake of argument, let's say I accounted for a huge chunk of the Forum traffic with these type of posts, perhaps 50-75 posts per day. You would not be forced by any person or agency to read any of my posts. What would happen? Well, the people who come to Dioxide's web site to read about CF will get annoyed. They come here to read about CF, not hear my joke of the day, review the latest football scores, or see naked pictures of BFHM. They don't want to scroll back two pages just to dredge the useful posts from beneath a pile of dung. That's the purpose of Forum Rule #3, and to a lesser extent the first Forum Rule #4. (Not the second Forum Rule #4. My fault on those. *bonk*) Dioxide's site is "dedicated to serving as a center of discussion through several forums, and a resource to bring information and services to new and old players of Carrion Fields through extensive compilations of game data." It is not, to repeat a sentiment I have echoed for months, anyone's chat room. In summary, keep an eye on your personal signal-to-noise ratio... "signal" being the meaty content of your posts that steers a discussion of CF and its niftiness or suckitude, and "noise" being that random fluffiness we all throw about from time to time. (See followup to "Beetles" below, although that even has a nifty CF tidbit thrown in.) I'm invoking the term 'ratio' because I don't see anything inherently wrong with frequent posting. I also don't think there's anything wrong with the occasional fluffy post. Heck, I post an awful lot, and it's likely that I'm the "career leader". (Zepachu being but a rookie upstart. =P) But I like to think that I pack a good bit of signal. Do I? Do you? (*): Even though Wayne Chrebet does indeed rule, doesn't need that Keyshawn punk, and is from the same neighborhood as most of my family, this would still be a sucky post.(**) (**): Look! Fluffy noise!