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Serial Posts: The Good and the Bad


WisTex

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One thing that I have noticed on many forums, including ones that I have run myself, is the existence of serial posts. Serial posts are posts where there are hundreds of repetitive replies, such as posting different memes, or a word association game. They are typically used by members to increase their post count or to win contests, but they also can be a fun mindless game for members to participate in.

They are both good and bad, from the perspective of a forum owner.

Good Things

  • Increases activity on the forums, making it more active than it otherwise would be.
  • If it is structured as something people can reply to, it can increase replies by other users.
  • If it is content people want to view, then it may increase readership and page views.
  • Members feel as if they are contributing to the forum.
  • Some serial posts can actually be fun to post to or read.

Bad Things

  • Unless separated from normal posts, it can be used to increase post counts and points for contests.
  • People often post content they don't own, which may lead to copyright issues.
  • It may lead to spammy posts.
  • It can clutter up the activity feed for other users who are trying to read normal posts.

Possible Tactics

There are ways to deal with serial posts that maximize their benefits while minimizing the down side.

  • Have a special forum area reserved for serial posts, and move any serial post started in another forum area to this forum area.
  • Serial posts and their replies do not count in any contest or competition.
  • If possible, replies to serial posts do not appear in activity feeds. People have to go to the serial posts section to participate in serial posts.
  • Optionally disable increasing someone's post count based on replies in a serial post.

Using these tactics will increase activity on the forum, while keeping contests fair, while not cluttering up the rest of the forum.

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On 30/03/2018 at 6:02 AM, WisTex said:

One thing that I have noticed on many forums, including ones that I have run myself, is the existence of serial posts. Serial posts are posts where there are hundreds of repetitive replies, such as posting different memes, or a word association game. They are typically used by members to increase their post count or to win contests, but they also can be a fun mindless game for members to participate in.

They are both good and bad, from the perspective of a forum owner.

Good Things

  • Increases activity on the forums, making it more active than it otherwise would be.
  • If it is structured as something people can reply to, it can increase replies by other users.
  • If it is content people want to view, then it may increase readership and page views.
  • Members feel as if they are contributing to the forum.
  • Some serial posts can actually be fun to post to or read.

Bad Things

  • Unless separated from normal posts, it can be used to increase post counts and points for contests.
  • People often post content they don't own, which may lead to copyright issues.
  • It may lead to spammy posts.
  • It can clutter up the activity feed for other users who are trying to read normal posts.

Possible Tactics

There are ways to deal with serial posts that maximize their benefits while minimizing the down side.

  • Have a special forum area reserved for serial posts, and move any serial post started in another forum area to this forum area.
  • Serial posts and their replies do not count in any contest or competition.
  • If possible, replies to serial posts do not appear in activity feeds. People have to go to the serial posts section to participate in serial posts.
  • Optionally disable increasing someone's post count based on replies in a serial post.

Using these tactics will increase activity on the forum, while keeping contests fair, while not cluttering up the rest of the forum.

Thank you for this post and me myself had been recently also witness that thing but I am just a member so I thought that was a pointless thing to raised and Yes since every thing has its good and bad effect I think this post is serve as an enlightened for us to aware ourselves on the things and topics or forum threads we like to post. And if I am one of those who post some of those annoying post I am sorry I will try to keep level up and put my best foot forward to reply and make some serious threads and sub forums. Agin thnk you for the reminder.

 

PS. For other member, this one is worth reading! 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Like you said, there are different advantages and disadvantages of these serial posts. Whilst it might be a fun thing to have on your forum, I just don't think they are that great anymore really. It may have been fun a few years ago when forums were full of users and people spent a lot of time on forums, but I just don't see the point of them anymore really. People barely have time anymore and I don't think any of them will want to waste time posting around on these forum game sections of forums. Plus, I think that most admins actually add one so that they can get the forum statistics to increase which makes the forum look a lot better to both new users and potentially those that may be reviewing the site.

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