50 post minimum required to play arcade games!

Howdy,

To prevent those from just registering to play our games, we've implemented a 50 post minimum to play in the arcade. If anyone is spamming or replying with a bunch of nonsense or smilies to get their post counts up, they will be promptly suspended and their torsos catapulted into deep space.

UPDATED: Now Increased to 50 posts.

 

That's a really good idea, Alien. Mainly because you'll get more people to sign up and post, so that they can play. The only thing is though, some people will make their ten posts and then stop posting, and play arcade games instead of posting, don't you think?

 

Fair enough trade off, at least it's better than doing nothing and those who never were going to participate at all at least are good for 10 quality posts each...

If people frequently do that, then I can limit their access further too so...

 

He-he! this is the begining of the end ...

it was my first post ... do you have a soft which can estimate post quality?

 

Spam spam spam.... oh wait *checks posts* *runs off to play*

Nice idea.

 

Yeah, that's the one drawback, but since we keep a pretty close eye on our forums, we'll be able to lock down spammers pretty quickly.
We have excellent moderators here. No doubt someone will just spam so they can raise their post count, but that tactic will only get them banned, not the desired access to the arcade.

 

what about people that have already registered, have zero posts, but are playing arcade games? (ahem, my boyfriend...)

 

Hmm, he can still play games even with the limit set?

 

Hmmmm ... when I came into this site, it was out of general interest but I admit to becoming addicted to the games pretty quickly once I found the Arcade. I find it relaxing after work or when I don't want to do anything other than chill out.

I have mixed feelings. After all, the moderator/s do have the right to direct their site (was going to use the word "control" but ...). I'll stick around maybe and post when I think I have something to say, so may not get to play games for a while which is a shame ... I may lose interest ... I think numbers could well drop.

What's actually wrong with people enjoying the games if they have nothing to contribute to the posts at any given time?

I can understand that you may want "real" contributions but what about free will? Invading aliens might not understand that concept either ...!!

Cosmichotspur

 

Well, it's also not that difficult to post 10 messages. As long as they're not spam, it shouldn't be a problem. You're halfway there yourself at this point, and this is only one discussion you're involved in.

I think the reason could be two-fold (this decision was made by alien, so I'm only speculating at this point).
1) It will make people who wish to participate in the arcade participate in more aspects of the forums. Again, 10 posts really isn't that many, and I think we all believe that once people start participating in the forums, and getting to know the user base, they'll continue to do so.
2) The arcade *is* using server bandwidth, and people are essentially leeching off of a service alien is providing to the forum members. It was never really billed as a public arcade.

 

Dan is essentially correct.

This is a community, and it is our main focus. We don't survive by people playing games, we survive by active members. I don't even mind if 75% of the time is spent in the arcade, however being active here is what makes this place a community.

If you wish to play games, Alien Soup is hardly the main place to do that on the web. You can find thousands upon thousands of free-to-play-all-day-and-all-night flash arcade games on thousands of websites that let you play limitlessly. The arcade available here was included to give members the ability to play with each other etc. When you play and really don't talk to anyone, it's just not as fun without the personalities involved. That's just my opinion.

As Diesel has said, one decent thread about anything gets your post count high enough to play games. However if that is honestly your only purpose here, we hardly have a large enough arcade to compete with all the big boys and you'd be missing out on the thousands of other games available and that might be more fun for you. That aside, of course we'd love for you to contribute to the site and stick around and get to really know everyone but that's entirely up to you!

 

FYI alien - he actually just told me that he was denied permission :doh:

 

Whew.

Thanks for the report, GINA.

 

Hey! Happy Birthdays to me are good enough reason for spam even if they ARE a month early.

 

1

 

Theres alot of ppl that run around the web only wanting to have the best scores on the most arcades they can find and with out being part of the community . It has happen on a couple vb community i visit.

 

i wouldn't bother replying if i were you, he's got his 10 posts and won't be checking back here

 

Well, for one thing, doing this (posting 10 useless posts) will likely get you banned, so I wouldn't try it.

 

what if the posts aren't useless, but the person only posts 10 non-useless posts and stops after that?

 

That's fine. The point is that the posts can't just be meaningless fluff like some people have done.
If you're legitimately responding to threads, that's the idea.
The hope is that some of those people showing up just for the arcade, after having to participate in the forums, will decide to stick around and be active participants in the community.