However, by blanket restricting all of us newbies for the sake of a few who might be trying to mess it up, I'm not sure that this will actually make the polls results anymore truthful as anyone who is a newbie now cannot have their vote count - this surely will also lead to a result in the polls which is not a true reflection on what members think as a whole section of the PA members are now not part of this.  Surely this restriction will have a greater impact on the results of the polls than the few idiots who might have tried to sabotage the results in the first place - and now in essence they have won.

chrijom 

( oops didn't mean to double post - I really didn't, don't quit know what happened there.)

Well, let's find out ... 40 posts in the SR threads are not so hard to accomplish.

True,but I think maintaining the integrity of the site and the forum is really important.

(I'm not sucking up honest...it's what i believe)

I'm not surprised they are taken seriously. Some polls have a lot of time and effort put into them. And as a bonus fewer repetitive newbie polls is a good thing. Furthermore these newbies will get more involved with actual discussion first before starting there first polls.

It may not surprise you that I started a thread asking that newbies not be allowed to start polls a while ago. I was told by many it wasnb't a good idea and look where we are now.

I think it's stupid. 

OK. I guess I'm stupid too. 

Not at all. I just don't like the idea. I'm apparently in the minority, but I just thought I would make my position clear in any case. Just because you agree with/pioneered the idea doesn't mean I hold my intelligence any higher than yours. In fact, I'd say mine is much lower than 100% of the people here. 

I didn't say that you thought I was stupid. I volunteered that information myself.

By the way, I would suggest keeping that avatar of yours even after Halloween is over. ol' Boris would look quite snazzy wearing a Santa hat come December. 

Maybe Herman Munster would be more in keeping.

That!

*pictures moshkito's posts*

*laughs*

It really doesn't take that long to make 40 posts, a lot of forums have restrictions for new members, it's not a big deal. I don't know how big a deal poll jockeying is, but I agree with it anyway. If you really want your opinion to be known, you can still post, which is much more effective!

Thanks for leaving me out, ya jerk.  

All the more reason why it would make more sense to lift this restriction and simply focus on those few who do come along and poll-tip now and again. If it isn't a frequent desire for people (honestly, how many people would care about the outcome of a virtual poll?), the restriction makes even less sense. You're hindering the many due to the actions of few. 

But affects all new members for a time.

 

I'm not an admin, but I suspect the threshold isn't too high.

It is if you're a new member, excited to start participating in all the discussions... only to discover you aren't allowed to be a full member of the site until you've met this criteria you didn't even know about. I can totally see the point of those who have complained. 

Restricting the ability to rate albums until further established as a site member makes much more sense to me. Barring someone from voting on polls, not so much. Why can't the former be enforced while the latter remain unrestricted? The second situation is a forum matter exclusively, and has no negative lasting effect on the site itself. 

This is a forum restriction, not a site restriction. There are people that rate and review albums who do not join-in (or even read) the forum, whereas people who vote in polls are, by definition, forum members. We cannot impose a post-count threshold on people who only rate albums. Therefore we cannot use post-count as a threshold for reviews&ratings but could use the system adopted by IMDB - allow people to rate and review but ignore their rating values until they've achieved a prescribed threshold of ratings.

Theoretically this is true I suppose but I have seen no real evidence of this.

Right. It's not like any of us have any real concerns, or anything. We're just stirring up trouble for no good reason because we have nothing better to do. 

 

agreed

 

 

 

What worries me is that such a minor issue is indeed making a three page thread, when it shouldn't have gone past Angelo and Jody's responses halfway down that first page...

 

That's because we just keep posting.

 

 

 

 

 

basically until I have 40 posts, so I can wreckage another poll  

 

 

as for newbs not being able to vote....

 

 

I know, some (many) people here are more concerned with high post counts than the contents of the posts they publish....

 

I'm also concerned with my post count.... it's growing way too quick to my taste... makes me look like I need to find myself a life

 

 

Basically, it's M@X's site, so he can do as he wishes. Which makes perfect sense. We probably won't be seeing this rule lifted any time soon. Had I known it was the site owner's own choice to put the rule in place, I wouldn't have even bothered playing devil's advocate in this case. It's led to a lot of animosity towards me in particular, which is a shame. But that's the way it goes. 

Anyway, the only other thing I will add is that to those users who have contacted me as well as voiced your opinions in this thread, if you feel strongly enough about your reasons against the rule, perhaps you could contact M@X directly via PM. He's always been quite nice to me in such cases, and he'll probably take your position into consideration. 

Who are you speaking to? Me? 

Yes. I don't want a fight though so I apologise now.

Not sure why I would fight you over it. I don't even really know what you meant by the statement. 

From your former very vocal position to your new position is a climb down in my book. I will delete it if you want. It's hardly worthwhile anyway if you didn't understand it. Obviously i wasn't being as sardonic as I thought.

Oh, that. Well, being stripped of your 'Collaborator' position will do that to a person. My opinion obviously amounts to nothing much 

See ya, Snowie. 

You going somewhere? 

By the way, if you people haven't figured it out already, I don't take the polls seriously, but I admit I am seriously nuts.