Who will be our second walrus?

[grantmeaname]

Plus I was already in the shop rotating the tires and checking the fluids on my keyboard anyway...

[arebelspy]

From post 3 of this thread:

The latest Vegas betting line on the over/under dates for the next five:
grantmeaname   11/11/2015

Hope everyone took the "over".

Hey grant. :)

[arebelspy]

So what’s the threshold for walrii status? Do I get a special decoder ring?

I'm gonna guess 5,000 posts? Seemed like a much more ridiculous threshold when the forum was new.

It was bumped up a couple years ago when a large mass of people started reaching top status.  Can’t find the thread right now.  I’m actually thinking we might want to bump up the levels again next year (or create a new category) just to address the increasing post-count from ‘regular’ contributors.  But I know that’s unpopular among the ‘mods (or at least it seemed to be).

You have it backwards! I bumped it up and there was almost a riot as people lost their precious status. :D

Now that grant's in the club, probably about time to bump it again.

[G-dog]

So what’s the threshold for walrii status? Do I get a special decoder ring?

I'm gonna guess 5,000 posts? Seemed like a much more ridiculous threshold when the forum was new.

It was bumped up a couple years ago when a large mass of people started reaching top status.  Can’t find the thread right now.  I’m actually thinking we might want to bump up the levels again next year (or create a new category) just to address the increasing post-count from ‘regular’ contributors.  But I know that’s unpopular among the ‘mods (or at least it seemed to be).

You have it backwards! I bumped it up and there was almost a riot as people lost their precious status. :D

Now that grant's in the club, probably about time to bump it again.

Ouch....

[okits]

From post 3 of this thread:

The latest Vegas betting line on the over/under dates for the next five:
grantmeaname   11/11/2015

Hope everyone took the "over".

Hey grant. :)

I am impressed AF that you remembered that.  👍

Hi ARS.  😃  Hope you and the family are doing well! 

[Paul der Krake]

New phone who dis

[Dicey]

I still think that once a level is achieved, it should be permanent, even if the member in question does something crazy like delete their whole journal*, which drops their post count dramatically. @spartana and @lhamo are the first two that come to mind.  I've asked before, now I'm doing it again. Make it so, @arebelspy!

*I know they were deleted for damn fine reasons. Making them restart their count seems like adding insult to injury.

[deborah]

I still think that once a level is achieved, it should be permanent, even if the member in question does something crazy like delete their whole journal*, which drops their post count dramatically. @spartana and @lhamo are the first two that come to mind.  I've asked before, now I'm doing it again. Make it so, @arebelspy!

*I know they were deleted for damn fine reasons. Making them restart their count seems like adding insult to injury.

I actually disagree. It appears to me that people may delete their journals to become more anonymous. Losing your level also makes you more anonymous, so I think tying levels to posts is reasonable. Having had my level changed due to someone else deleting their journal just made life more interesting.

Of course, by posting enough to reach a higher level, people have also shown a level of commitment to the mustashian community, and can also be upset by being sent back levels. Perhaps the best thing is if people had the ability to decide for themselves whether to keep their level or not when they remove their journal.

[dragoncar]

Status should work like airlines.  Walrus Stache gets you 5x posts for every post.  Senior mustachian 10x posts. 

[grantmeaname]

And if you get a million posts, you're allowed to keep posting for free?

[arebelspy]

I still think that once a level is achieved, it should be permanent, even if the member in question does something crazy like delete their whole journal*, which drops their post count dramatically. @spartana and @lhamo are the first two that come to mind.  I've asked before, now I'm doing it again. Make it so, @arebelspy!

*I know they were deleted for damn fine reasons. Making them restart their count seems like adding insult to injury.

If people want to contact me to get more fake internet points, I'm happy to help out.

[arebelspy]

And if you get a million posts, you're allowed to keep posting for free?

Oh boy, I can't wait for that. I had to reduce my post frequency, lest it delay my FIRE.

[grantmeaname]

Henlo fren, can I have a fake internet point?

[nereo]

I still think that once a level is achieved, it should be permanent, even if the member in question does something crazy like delete their whole journal*, which drops their post count dramatically. @spartana and @lhamo are the first two that come to mind.  I've asked before, now I'm doing it again. Make it so, @arebelspy!

*I know they were deleted for damn fine reasons. Making them restart their count seems like adding insult to injury.

If people want to contact me to get more fake internet points, I'm happy to help out.

I just want my little yellow boxes to turn a different color, like yours.  Maybe Red?

[GuitarStv]

I still think that once a level is achieved, it should be permanent, even if the member in question does something crazy like delete their whole journal*, which drops their post count dramatically. @spartana and @lhamo are the first two that come to mind.  I've asked before, now I'm doing it again. Make it so, @arebelspy!

*I know they were deleted for damn fine reasons. Making them restart their count seems like adding insult to injury.

If people want to contact me to get more fake internet points, I'm happy to help out.

I just want my little yellow boxes to turn a different color, like yours.  Maybe Red?

I think Orange would be more apropos . . .

[G-dog]

I still think that once a level is achieved, it should be permanent, even if the member in question does something crazy like delete their whole journal*, which drops their post count dramatically. @spartana and @lhamo are the first two that come to mind.  I've asked before, now I'm doing it again. Make it so, @arebelspy!

*I know they were deleted for damn fine reasons. Making them restart their count seems like adding insult to injury.

If people want to contact me to get more fake internet points, I'm happy to help out.

I just want my little yellow boxes to turn a different color, like yours.  Maybe Red?

Aren’t the reds always the ones killed in Star Trek?

[okits]

I still think that once a level is achieved, it should be permanent, even if the member in question does something crazy like delete their whole journal*, which drops their post count dramatically. @spartana and @lhamo are the first two that come to mind.  I've asked before, now I'm doing it again. Make it so, @arebelspy!

*I know they were deleted for damn fine reasons. Making them restart their count seems like adding insult to injury.

If people want to contact me to get more fake internet points, I'm happy to help out.

Like, even if I don't deserve them? 

Wow.  We've gotten soft around here.  😉

[markbike528CBX]

How come I'm ninth on the list?

That's what Viewing Members 1 to 999 shows.

Probably took less than 20 minutes to compile.  Copy/paste, XLOOKUP, etc.  And yes, COVID restrictions on normal activities was an impetus.

Thanks for posting the link.   Now I can see my relative lack of posting and show DW the same. Proof...... proof that I have been outgeeked :-)  Not often THAT happens IRL, so I'm celebrating...

[Dicey]

I still think that once a level is achieved, it should be permanent, even if the member in question does something crazy like delete their whole journal*, which drops their post count dramatically. @spartana and @lhamo are the first two that come to mind.  I've asked before, now I'm doing it again. Make it so, @arebelspy!

*I know they were deleted for damn fine reasons. Making them restart their count seems like adding insult to injury.

If people want to contact me to get more fake internet points, I'm happy to help out.

They're not fake points, it's the status level I was referring to. (Though I do appreciate the humor of the points comments, I wasn't the wag who came up with that, and you've quoted my post here, Rebs.)

For this site to be useful and maintain its relevance, there has to be meaningful dialog, otherwise people are just shouting into the wind. Both the people I mentioned have been significant contributors for years. They're willing to share their life experience and hard-earned wisdom with others on the path to FIRE. In addition, these two in particular took paths different than Pete's, which adds to the collective FIRE story, illustrating that there are lots of ways to get there. For these reasons, I believe they don't deserve to be "demoted" when their life situation requires their not-as-private-as-hoped journals and other threads to be removed. They probably don't care, but I think their efforts to help others deserves to be recognized. Just my two cents.

[maizefolk]

Unfortunately I think linking status levels to post counts is something baked into the SMF software the whole forum runs on. If so it's probably not a request the administrators are in a position to deliver on, no matter how much we might like it. Sort of like the complaint about how broken the search function was/is to the point where searching google with "site:forum.mrmoneymustache.com" works much better. Everyone agrees the forum search doesn't work well but there is nothing that can be done other than advertise the workaround.

Things like creating or deleting subforums, changing the post count thresholds for ranks or the names of those ranks are set up to be configurable by administrators so they can make changes if we make convincing arguments for why they should do so. And forum rules exist only because they are enforced by administrators so they can change them whenever they like.

But I think this is a limits of what administrators CAN do issue rather than a what do administrators choose to do issue. (But feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.)

[markbike528CBX]

I still think that once a level is achieved, it should be permanent, even if the member in question does something crazy like delete their whole journal*, which drops their post count dramatically. @spartana and @lhamo are the first two that come to mind.  I've asked before, now I'm doing it again. Make it so, @arebelspy!

*I know they were deleted for damn fine reasons. Making them restart their count seems like adding insult to injury.

If people want to contact me to get more fake internet points, I'm happy to help out.

They're not fake points, it's the status level I was referring to. (Though I do appreciate the humor of the points comments, I wasn't the wag who came up with that, and you've quoted my post here, Rebs.)

For this site to be useful and maintain its relevance, there has to be meaningful dialog, otherwise people are just shouting into the wind. Both the people I mentioned have been significant contributors for years. They're willing to share their life experience and hard-earned wisdom with others on the path to FIRE. In addition, these two in particular took paths different than Pete's, which adds to the collective FIRE story, illustrating that there are lots of ways to get there. For these reasons, I believe they don't deserve to be "demoted" when their life situation requires their not-as-private-as-hoped journals and other threads to be removed. They probably don't care, but I think their efforts to help others deserves to be recognized. Just my two cents.

Lifetime Achievement Award?
Or just post status as total posts, not just in the current posting?  Might be confusing to newbys, but then we would have some backup to say spartana or whomever is a long term member and has valuable things to say, despite not having infinite posts.

Back when I was new, it did surprise me that spartana had "old school" status in the community without that many posts.  I figured it out, but it took head-scratching, which is something that I can ill afford to do, not having any hair for scalp protection.

[maizefolk]

Also given my lifetime average daily post count I'm only about three months away from hitting Walrus myself, that gives a nice ticking clock for when the criteria need to go up to keep us riff-raff out.

[nereo]

What the hell??!!  Spartana is back down to under 1800 posts (again??)

sheesh...

[nereo]

What the hell??!!  Spartana is back down to under 1800 posts (again??)

sheesh...

No I'm back UP to 1800 posts. No deleting anymore for moi as I believe I will be banned. Or paddled firmly. One is funner then the other.

Ballpark figure... if it were possible to count every post you've made (including those which have evaporated into the ether) what do you think your post-count would be?

[John Galt incarnate!]

I am so confused LOL

Speaking of confusion, just now is the first time (I think) that I read a bit of this thread.

I thought its title had something to do with "I Am The Walrus," the song sung by  the Beatles.

Do I deserve demerits for my obtuseness?

I'll let you and other Mu$tachian$ decide.

Ha ha!

[dragoncar]

I still think that once a level is achieved, it should be permanent, even if the member in question does something crazy like delete their whole journal*, which drops their post count dramatically. @spartana and @lhamo are the first two that come to mind.  I've asked before, now I'm doing it again. Make it so, @arebelspy!

*I know they were deleted for damn fine reasons. Making them restart their count seems like adding insult to injury.

If people want to contact me to get more fake internet points, I'm happy to help out.

I just want my little yellow boxes to turn a different color, like yours.  Maybe Red?

I think Orange would be more apropos . . .

Black boxes?

[Paul der Krake]

Petition to replace the yellow boxes with rainbow emojis for the "Fabulous Member" user class.

[G-dog]

Petition to replace the yellow boxes with rainbow emojis for the "Fabulous Member" user class.

This^^^^

[nereo]

Best Thread Ever.

[GuitarStv]

I still think that once a level is achieved, it should be permanent, even if the member in question does something crazy like delete their whole journal*, which drops their post count dramatically. @spartana and @lhamo are the first two that come to mind.  I've asked before, now I'm doing it again. Make it so, @arebelspy!

*I know they were deleted for damn fine reasons. Making them restart their count seems like adding insult to injury.

If people want to contact me to get more fake internet points, I'm happy to help out.

I just want my little yellow boxes to turn a different color, like yours.  Maybe Red?

I think Orange would be more apropos . . .

Black boxes?

You can call them black, but I'm pretty sure they're orange.

[ender]

[maizefolk]

That's what Viewing Members 1 to 999 shows.

Probably took less than 20 minutes to compile.  Copy/paste, XLOOKUP, etc.  And yes, COVID restrictions on normal activities was an impetus.

Are there really only 53 people on the forum who have posted more often than I have?

[diapasoun]

Ahhhh and that was actually your 5000 post. Nicely done, maizefolk, nicely done.

[okits]

That's what Viewing Members 1 to 999 shows.

Probably took less than 20 minutes to compile.  Copy/paste, XLOOKUP, etc.  And yes, COVID restrictions on normal activities was an impetus.

Are there really only 53 people on the forum who have posted more often than I have?

🤦🏻‍♀️ OMG I'm #9.

Welcome, @maizefolk !  dragoncar will give you the tour and the special washroom key.
(If you need some kind of reassurance, multiple users have deleted huge numbers of posts for various reasons, so the stats are not entirely accurate.)

[Dicey]

OMG, those are the cutest whiskers ever! Congrats, @maizefolk!

[ender]

I'm not sure how I feel about recognizing there are only 52 people who have posted more than 5000 times which means I'm in a small group here.

At least I'm on the lower side of that group :-)

[Dicey]

I'm not sure how I feel about recognizing there are only 52 people who have posted more than 5000 times which means I'm in a small group here.

At least I'm on the lower side of that group :-)

As okits mentioned, there are a number of regular posters who have deleted hundreds, if not thousands of posts. Spartana and lhamo are the first two that come to mind. I think one hits a certsin level, it should stick, even if some content has to be deleted, but arebelspy isn't having it.

[seattlecyclone]

I'm not sure how I feel about recognizing there are only 52 people who have posted more than 5000 times which means I'm in a small group here.

At least I'm on the lower side of that group :-)

As okits mentioned, there are a number of regular posters who have deleted hundreds, if not thousands of posts. Spartana and lhamo are the first two that come to mind. I think one hits a certsin level, it should stick, even if some content has to be deleted, but arebelspy isn't having it interested in rewriting SMF to make the levels work in the way you describe.

Fixed that for you.

[Dicey]

I'm not sure how I feel about recognizing there are only 52 people who have posted more than 5000 times which means I'm in a small group here.

At least I'm on the lower side of that group :-)

As okits mentioned, there are a number of regular posters who have deleted hundreds, if not thousands of posts. Spartana and lhamo are the first two that come to mind. I think one hits a certsin level, it should stick, even if some content has to be deleted, but arebelspy isn't having it interested in rewriting SMF to make the levels work in the way you describe.

Fixed that for you.

With all the superbrain  IT whizzes around here, how hard can it be?

[grantmeaname]

Very

[ender]

SMF sounds like "hey we wrote this in 1998 and it's state of the art still!"

[dragoncar]

Very

Seriously post count isn’t just a database entry that can be modified?  I guess it could do some kind of maintenance rebuild sanity check but it seems inefficient to do a post enumeration every time you need to display post count

We don’t need a general solution for a couple edge cases

[grantmeaname]

I thought the request was to make it so that your post count would reflect your posts which had not been deleted, but your mustache title would reflect your maximum ever posts unadjusted for deletion?

[Paul der Krake]

Take the bad code out, put the good code in. It's like removing cancerous cells, simple stuff.

[Dicey]

I thought the request was to make it so that your post count would reflect your posts which had not been deleted, but your mustache title would reflect your maximum ever posts unadjusted for deletion?

Exactly.

[dragoncar]

I thought the request was to make it so that your post count would reflect your posts which had not been deleted, but your mustache title would reflect your maximum ever posts unadjusted for deletion?

Exactly.

Not sure which user is actually requesting this feature, but hypothetically if I said "oh yeah in 5 minutes I can update your post count to be 5000 so you get walrus stache but the post count will hereafter be incorrect" that would be objectionable? 

Presumably this would only be done for a very few long standing members who could basically say "oh I deleted about 2000 posts" and you just take their word for it because... well nobody really cares deep down about the integrity of our post counting system do they?

[Dicey]

I thought the request was to make it so that your post count would reflect your posts which had not been deleted, but your mustache title would reflect your maximum ever posts unadjusted for deletion?

Exactly.

Not sure which user is actually requesting this feature, but hypothetically if I said "oh yeah in 5 minutes I can update your post count to be 5000 so you get walrus stache but the post count will hereafter be incorrect" that would be objectionable? 

Presumably this would only be done for a very few long standing members who could basically say "oh I deleted about 2000 posts" and you just take their word for it because... well nobody really cares deep down about the integrity of our post counting system do they?

But they actually did make that many posts. In both cases I'm thinking of, the mods knew exactly why they had to take down their journals and related writings. It's not about the "integrity of our post counting system" at all, but recognizing their overall contributions on this forum.

[Dicey]

BTW, is what I'm thinking of even that difficult compared to adding the "Who Quoted Me?" feature (which is a great upgrade)? I know we have some super smart folks around here.

The whole concept of naming various levels is indicative of achievement and contribution to the whole. They're kind of like merit badges. Once legitimately earned, they shouldn't be taken away, IMO.

[maizefolk]

Who Quoted Me isn't something the administrators here on the forums created but a new mod for SMF written by someone else that our own administrators chose to install. https://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=4203

Creating that mod involved someone who understands the guts of SMF (this person) writing at least 796 lines of new PHP code and troubleshooting, testing, and documenting that code.

There are a lot of things which should be really hard which computers make easy. But there are also a lot of things which seem like they should be easy, which are actually really hard to get a computer to do.

[nereo]

There are a lot of things which should be really hard which computers make easy. But there are also a lot of things which seem like they should be easy, which are actually really hard to get a computer to do.

That pretty much sums up my current problems with coding and the communication I’m having between do-authors. What is logically simple isn’t always strait forward to implement. Occasionally some very complex things are actually easy to code (once you discover how). Communicating that to others is neigh impossible.