Is the race for status affecting the quality of MP ?

Really well put.

I can't find myself agreeing with Mr Miller. I think each town has something. The trick is to find it and that is the really hard part when you live in the town. You see all your towns faults and problems, but you don't always see the beauty.

Thanks Gargoyle. Now if only I can find some pictures I know I have.... the terror of a 2TB storage system

That's why they call it terrorbyte!

If you don't see something unique...usually the problem lies with the viewer....not the viewee
Or to put it another way...there is usually some water..even molecules...in the glass

Speaking of adding to the lexicon...this one is right up there

I wonder if Randy et al shouldn't consider your ratio of posts to likes as part of this. Speaking personally I am trying to keep things at:

Total Posts <= Likes * 1.10

Or to put it another way I'm trying to keep my total posts less than or equal to 110% of my likes. It forces me to look at quality over quantity and has stopped me from making a couple of posts that really didn't add much to the conversation. It's just a personal thing right now, so we'll see how long it lasts.

I am sure the revised algorithm will compare these things as well as a whole bunch of other factors (purportedly 12 factors). Content of posts and humor of posts....sometimes one is important sometimes the other....some on here can do both at the same time Others just post one word to get a post. It is how it is set up now. It will change...that is a guarantee. To what is the question

Could you imagine if 70000 members had done this?? It would be like Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers book.....where leaves were made legal tender......which led to a slight inflation problem where one deciduous forest worth of leaves was the cost to obtain one peanut

We would still be ok if we had our towels!

I don't think it has any effect on the quality of MP.

The only thing that bothers me is that "What's new" is full of offtopic threads, but I am sure this will be fixed sooner or later.

Offtopic forums would be full of **** with or without the race for status. If you look at Flyertalk, you'll see lots of counting and other games in OMNI - and those posts don't even add to the post count on FT! And as for on-topic forums, I see some great content being added.

Not just FT. The wide open OT section exists on lots of forums; I've seen them on graphics forums, financial forums..... it's frequently found to be a necessary safety valve to keep the rest of the site on point.

So far the only forum member spamming the on-topic forum section for the purpose of gaining status seems to be Nile Guide

I personally would like my sub-ether thumb to work...but oh well

White ones from Marks and Spencer only though.

it is good to see so many have read the four-five book "trilogy"

I'm starting to see clicks being formed and people in the clicks liking each other to no end. I refuse to like for the sake of being liked...

I was late to the game. But the funniest part is I was reading that in the RCC in LHR on my way home from London. The day I arrived in London I had forgotten a towel and needed one. So I had just bought a white M&S towel. I laughed so hard it almost caused a disturbance.

LOL! You have to get the Original Radio series of this done by the BBC back in the late 70s....hilarious (and deviates from the book around Tape 2...yes...those old cassette tapes!)

I agree with you here JasonH. So, Gargoyle... is there a possibility that you might open a thread linked to your wonderful master thread called something like 'Hometown Photos?' I live in a very small town that really doesn't warrant its own thread but could definitely offer up a picture or two.

By the way, Gargoyle, I have now made the decision to visit Orvieto in April as a side trip from Rome based largely on your photos. Orvieto also happens to be my little town's 'Sister City.' Thanks.

I think that's a very good idea- It would go in Other U.S. Destinations.
Go ahead and start it, give it a title like "Small Town USA Photos- share your photos of your home town" or something similar.

I live in a very, very small place in Queensland, AU . I have a couple of pictures of the beach that I would not mind putting up.
Hometown photographs would suit me if there is a place for "hometowns outside the US"

Are you telling us to stop "liking" your posts, in order to help you fall back in this race?

Absolutely. Since Destination Travel is sorted by region, yours would need to go under
Australia/New Zealand/South Pacific
Please go ahead and start a thread, let me know and I'll add it to the list.

If we were all that concerned about this issue, we probably shouldn't post here as I'm sure we could save them for more useful discourse.

Personally I tried to be conservative at the beginning for fear of being labeled a spammer for status points. But then I realized that as long as I have something to say, useless or not, I might as well post. The purpose of status points is not to discourage posting. I think it is good, though, that you can't make them all from posts or likes alone. You have to have both, posts that also get liked, which seems to be working so far.