The purpose of which is...what?

I'd rather not be identified by a number. :P

Whoever said this has anything to do with skill? I know long posts do not necessarily have anything to do with skill, however people who post longer posts might rather be in the same squad versus a long post writer in a squad of short posts. Very simply because when we do our reports we report how many posts, if you make one post of 1000 words and your squad mates make 3x 300 word posts in the report it looks like you are outshined.

And no, I am not currently having this problem, if anything I'm the shorter word poster.

Rogueboy wrote:This can be a tool to take into consideration when forming a squad. May make those with writing difficulty stick out more so that others can help them

That, to me, indicates that you want to use this to identify an individual's ability to write.

Fine tank the idea, thats what I get for spur of the moment ideas, but what Drac said was what I had in mind. On a mental sidenote it becomes rather pointless since we tend to read each others posts.

so instead of having it openly displayed in every post, put it into the personal pages instead? that way only those who's purposely looking for the numbers will see them, and not any and all wandering eyes. Or if members still feel uncomfortable, it could be made only viewable by moderators.

I thought of adding it to Wiki pages... but there's just no way to account for all previously written posts without extensive research.

There is, however, another issue. not all posts within those three ComNets are story posts. In the Navy, we also put story discussion topics in the story net. Which would mean that the numbers would be off, then it would just be pointless. Or there would have to be some sort of selective option, for the moderators, to choose which topics are counted toward the count. Idk how hard that would be to code, seeing how it would apply to every single topic such as the "sticky" option.

But as an officer, I can definitely see some advantages to having those numbers.

If a grunt may be so bold as to make an observation,

I've written for a large variety of rpg boards and I've always come out with the same conclusion as to length of posts. People who post under seven hundred words average for important missions are usually either bad or just novice writers. The people who post consistently at a thousand words are mostly average. Those who can make consistent posts at 1.5k are very experienced writers. And finally, those who post over 1.5k are either published authors, or just dang good writers. There are several people on a different site who consistently post at 2k and they smoke competition in "Who is the best writer." in my opinion.

Why? Those who are better writers have more to write about. People who are novice writers post at seven hundred words because they run out of ideas and their creativity is shot. Longer posts is a measure of skill, but it stops being useful at around 'average~good' poster, because good writers have the length, but are working on the internal mechanics, whereas excellent writers have both down.

Also, you have to take into account that your average novice writer is not capable of writing a thousand words plus in a single post.

Anyway, that's my thoughts on the matter of length as an indicator of skill.

On another note, the RB's idea sounds appealing, but Drac has (in my opinion) the right mindset.

Two great writers always wrote to eachother letters, and one day one writer received a particulary long letter from his friend(the other writer) with a PC attached to it saying
"Sorry, I didn't have the time to write a shorter letter"

I disagree with you Spector.
It depends on what is written in the post, I've seen people write 1k posts on average and still say nothing in it to get my attention or to move the story.

And yes, dont raise dead topics

Hmh, I was wondering who it was XD Thankies.
I suck at being intellectual
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I'll ask for a soul.