This idea has been niggling in the back of my head since I gained regular status. I used to be a very conscientious reader of threads. I never jumped in with a comment before reading all the posts. Then I found out that there was a “read percentage” I wasn’t hitting. Okay. I’m a network security dude. I like a good hack, but now I find I’m missing stuff and not always posting the best replies. Is this a failure on my part, or a failure of Discourse? (Discuss)
Speaking of hacks…
https://bbs.boingboing.net/users?order=posts_read@cfisher appears to be a bot or something. Seeing as they’ve beaten the next runner up for read threads by a margin of 8k and have only been here since march.
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@slybevel doesn’t seem to have trouble reading EVERYFUCKINGTHING either.
https://bbs.boingboing.net/users?order=posts_read&period=allWhat’s your excuse? 
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I think there’s something off with the stats, to be honest. I haven’t brought it up before, because I haven’t tried to get any real data there. I think that’s a separate issue from what I’m talking about though.
There are several people who contribute a lot to discussions that never make regular. I know it’s not easy to come up with simple metrics to gauge contribution, but I’m becoming firmly of the opinion that a fiew of them are working at the detriment of discussions.
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What anomalies do I show!? (No really, I’m kinda curious)
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I’ve had … similar doubts on the dynamic.
I do metrics. Not quite for a living but it’s been a part of my jobs for the last ten years. When you measure a number that’s meant to indicate something else, people will tend to game that number to an extent. If the number of threads someone reads at least 50% of counts for something, the quality of that reading will go down on average.
I accidentally became a Regular. Now I find myself reading threads I wouldn’t normally because I’m worried about maintaining something I didn’t get on purpose. I’m finding new interests and interacting with new people, but it’s stressful.
(In other news, the page @LDoBe linked shows I’ve been trying too hard. Which I had guessed … I just had not guessed to that degree. *goes back to avoiding threads I’m uninterested in* 
)
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Shoud I ask you about frameworks?
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Regular by accident as well.
I think @codinghorror would be pleased to hear that I just like the community enough that this place is my village.
It was especially so when I was still working the night shift. You just don’t get enough interaction doing that, so I’d come here and play grabass until “oops I have a new trust level”.
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I agree. I dont want to be prescriptive. I have imperfect ideas, and will talk at length about them.
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Me too. And I am enormously thankful for the safe plaice.
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That’s partly to do with the rest of the BB staff, although I think @Codinghorror also hit the mark with community self policing. That seems to be working quite well.
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I have never tried to read all the topics, or even most of them. And I only log in when I want to post something. If I am a “Regular” now, then I suspect the standards have been lowered or else the promotion code is broken.
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Maybe we just don’t know what treadmill we’re on. I know @OtherMichael fell off regular status after a short vacation. He hopped right back up as well, and I’m not going to say he isn’t a fine contributor to the forums but I suspect he was looking to hit a metric after he got back more than “contribute”.
It’s a hard problem, but I think the system could be doing better. (Sorry if It sounds like I’m calling you out @OtherMichael. I’m really not. I just know you pay attention to a fair number of technical details other posters may not.)
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Highly unlikely, as every time I have ever, ever checked this it has been correct. But! If you have anyone specific in mind, let me know, and I can check.
Remember the interval is 100 days, and at absolute minimum to retain regular status you must visit on at least 50 of the last 100 days.
These are all variables that can be adjusted, of course.
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I’m going back to that ever elusive and subjective “quality” issue here. What I was really trying to point out from the start is there’s a threshold where I feel the quality of my posting has gone down, since I became a regular, and concerned about maintaining status. This is just raw feedback on my part, but I suspect there might be others that feel the same.
I’m not saying you can get any measure on quality, but I think the balance may be set too high in the read area. I posted as a general topic as I think some around here might agree. Something to think about anyway.
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I in no way experience this. I’m “organic” in the community that way. But I have friends here who seem to be taking up a lot of productive time trying to run the rat race.
Maybe my job isn’t demanding enough or something, but I just don’t feel that pressure. I wouldn’t care even slightly if I lost regular, but I’m not the kind of person who likes to score highly on other people’s tests. Just a personality thing. Either I am satisfied because I pulled through for something I set down for myself or I’m not very interested unless I really care about the other person who set the goal and don’t want to let them down.
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Not presuming that you’re counting me in on this one ( 
) but my … achievement chasing would be happening with or without the accidental Regular status. It might or might not be happening here but it’s an issue I have to deal with in general. For me, that part’s my issue, not BBS’s.
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I’m not speaking for you. But yes, there’s definitely people on the BBS who seem rather obsessed with making sure they have #1 status at something or other…
https://bbs.boingboing.net/users?order=posts_read&period=all
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Just noticed, @OtherMichael and @peregrinus_bis have the most spawned topics on the BBS. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised at OMike. And I realize Peregrinus has a lot of threads that I specifically can’t make heads or tails of. Or just wasn’t interested in.
Should have suspected OMike has most topics after the people who actually write the articles, since he makes so many games.
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