New (Feb 11) R/T Board Posting Reqs

[dvcbrad]

Just read about the new rent/trade board posting requirement about 50 posts within the prior six months. The question that I have regarding that is will we be able to determine for ourselves how many posts we've had within that time frame. I know that we can see how many posts we've had, but I'm not aware of any way to be able to view how many within a given time period. Without that ability to monitor, the 50 within six months requirement seems rather arbitrary and without ability to assess whether we'll be eligible or not.

Thanks

 

[jekjones1558]

There is probably an easier way through search, but you can click on your user name in this thread and then click on "Find more post by.." and a list of your posts will show up. You would then have to count how many are within the previous 6 months. Hopefully someone else will post with a simpler method, but in the meantime that is an option.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Sorry, Brad, you've only posted 11 times in the last six months. So post twice a week for six months and you've got 52 posts.

It's very easy to see how many posts you have using the method jekjones1559 suggested. There are 25 posts listed per page. You need to have two pages worth to post on the R/T board.

 

[Chuck S]

Use the board search function onthe toolbar along the top of every DIS page. Go to advanced search, and you can pull up your posts for the last 6 months. Be sure and use the Post option and not Threads.

 

[dvcbrad]

One down, 49 to go!

Anyway, IMHO, the arbitrary requirement that is being imposed doesn't necessarily achieve the goal of "contributing" to this board community. Meaningful contributions are one thing, and some sort of requirement makes sense, but, in my opinion, to impose an arbitrary number of potentially meaningless posts doesn't achieve the goal of making a meaningful contribution to the disboard community.

To the contrary, this requirement actually makes me want to investigate other sites on which to seek rentals when I have the need rather than make points available to members of this community, which is counter to what is trying to be accomplished. For those of us who are not big posters, but want to offer our points to this community when we do want to rent, the opposite of the goal could possibly occur. In other words, it may make less points available from legitmate owners who are occasional renters and leave the mega-posters/renters as the ones out there. I'd much rather post when I have something meaningful to add to the community; I just don't like the feeling that I "have to post" to rent.

 

[LisaS]

Anyway, IMHO, the arbitrary requirement that is being imposed doesn't necessarily achieve the goal of "contributing" to this board community. Meaningful contributions are one thing, and some sort of requirement makes sense, but, in my opinion, to impose an arbitrary number of potentially meaningless posts doesn't achieve the goal of making a meaningful contribution to the disboard community.

We actually look at the posts to verify that they contribute to the discussion. Posts such as "I agree." or "Congratulations!" are not counted.

To the contrary, this requirement actually makes me want to investigate other sites on which to seek rentals when I have the need rather than make points available to members of this community, which is counter to what is trying to be accomplished. For those of us who are not big posters, but want to offer our points to this community when we do want to rent, the opposite of the goal could possibly occur. In other words, it may make less points available from legitmate owners who are occasional renters and leave the mega-posters/renters as the ones out there. I'd much rather post when I have something meaningful to add to the community; I just don't like the feeling that I "have to post" to rent.

The Rent/Trade board is provided as a free service to active members of the DIS community. Unfortunately there were people coming to the DIS just to use the Rent/Trade board, treating the DIS as a free classified ad site and not participating in the community here. I understand that there are people who just aren't that chatty and prefer to post only when they have a unique perspective to offer but we needed to come up with something to weed out the folks who were taking advantage.

Also, I believe it's in an owner's best interest to establish a posting history here. We encourage those looking to rent to check out the owners they are considering renting from by reading the owners' past posts. The posting history can reveal how well the owner understands DVC, whether they are helpful and personable and whether they appear to be the sort of person with whom one would feel comfortable doing business.

 

[dvcbrad]

We actually look at the posts to verify that they contribute to the discussion. Posts such as "I agree." or "Congratulations!" are not counted.

The Rent/Trade board is provided as a free service to active members of the DIS community. Unfortunately there were people coming to the DIS just to use the Rent/Trade board, treating the DIS as a free classified ad site and not participating in the community here. I understand that there are people who just aren't that chatty and prefer to post only when they have a unique perspective to offer but we needed to come up with something to weed out the folks who were taking advantage.

Also, I believe it's in an owner's best interest to establish a posting history here. We encourage those looking to rent to check out the owners they are considering renting from by reading the owners' past posts. The posting history can reveal how well the owner understands DVC, whether they are helpful and personable and whether they appear to be the sort of person with whom one would feel comfortable doing business.

Thanks for the reply, Lisa. Sounds like a lot of work to review all of those posts, but I guess the good news is that I'm not the one having to do it! ha

I appreciate your thought on this, and I know that you do encourage renters to review posts. I also think that quality of posts is just as important as quantity, and to be quite honest, I'm not a chatty, post on the disboards kinda guy. I enjoy the community, I post when I think it's meaningful, but otherwise I've got way too many other things to do in my life other than to post to threads that might in themselves be interesting but, to me ... not worthy of replying. I have rented successfully through disboards about 5-6 times now to very nice people, and I have enjoyed being able to help them experience DVC - some for the very first time. I guess I hate the thought of having to step up my posting just to be able to accomplish the same objective, but I also understand the issue of utilizing disboards as primarily a free rental posting site. Not sure where the happy medium is, though, or if there's another solution other than # of posts in a given time frame, but I'd be more than willing to discuss this further if you want to contact me via PM to exchange phone numbers to brainstorm it from a legit (but not chatty) poster's perspective.

Brad

PS - Other thoughts ... do PM's count? How about votes to questions/surveys that people post?

 

[Chuck S]

PMs are not included in post count, nor are poll votes. The 50 post requirement over 6 months is about 2 posts per week, based on 26 weeks. It should not be difficult to achieve.

 

[360Joules]

Im with Brad on this, just because we dont post doesnt mean we dont contribute to this site

 

[delmar411]

Im with Brad on this, just because we dont post doesnt mean we dont contribute to this site

How do you contribute then?

 

[Fatalbie]

I took my first online course about a year ago and the teacher required 10 posts minimum to "count" as your participation for the week. The quality of the posts at the beginning of the course were abysmal to say the least. Part way through the semester he changed the requirement to 5 posts and began reviewing for content and quality. The quality of the online course went up dramatically.

I know the rule is not going to change, but it does hurt the casual poster and professional lurker. I visit the boards daily, but rarely post. Would it not be even more beneficial to make post pattern and post quality the qualifying factors? They are subjective to the reviewer for certain. However, I would argue that if you are going to spend time reviewing post history anyway, why not eliminate the quantity, which is by far the easiest criteria to achieve. Reducing the quantity of the posts you have to review for quality and content would ultimately result in less work for the reviewer.

Just My $0.02

I enjoy the boards and have benefitted from the R/T as a renter searching for points and a renter offering points.

Jim

 

[Chuck S]

I took my first online course about a year ago and the teacher required 10 posts minimum to "count" as your participation for the week. The quality of the posts at the beginning of the course were abysmal to say the least. Part way through the semester he changed the requirement to 5 posts and began reviewing for content and quality. The quality of the online course went up dramatically.

I know the rule is not going to change, but it does hurt the casual poster and professional lurker. I visit the boards daily, but rarely post. Would it not be even more beneficial to make post pattern and post quality the qualifying factors? They are subjective to the reviewer for certain. However, I would argue that if you are going to spend time reviewing post history anyway, why not eliminate the quantity, which is by far the easiest criteria to achieve. Reducing the quantity of the posts you have to review for quality and content would ultimately result in less work for the reviewer.

Just My $0.02

I enjoy the boards and have benefitted from the R/T as a renter searching for points and a renter offering points.

Jim

We're only asking an average of two posts per week, and asking them to be quality posts. What would you have us drop it to?

 

[CarolAnnC]

You know, I do not moderate on the Rent/Trade Board, but I do appreciate the time and effort my fellow moderators put in over there. It is not easy, to say the least.

We are a private board, an online community designed to share posts here with other Disney lovers. The benefit of having a Rent/Trade board is icing on the cake for the DIS active members. It was not designed to be anything else.

So if it is a chore for you to meet the posting requirements here, then perhaps you should be seeking your Rent/Trade contacts elsewhere such as Ebay, TUG, etc.

JMHO

 

[Deb & Bill]

You know, I do not moderate on the Rent/Trade Board, but I do appreciate the time and effort my fellow moderators put in over there. It is not easy, to say the least.

We are a private board, an online community designed to share posts here with other Disney lovers. The benefit of having a Rent/Trade board is icing on the cake for the DIS active members. It was not designed to be anything else.

So if it is a chore for you to meet the posting requirements here, then perhaps you should be seeking your Rent/Trade contacts elsewhere such as Ebay, TUG, etc.

JMHO

 

[taaren]

As I'm primarily a lurker and a relative noob on here, what is TUG, what are other good sites to potentially trade points? Ill still come to DIS to chat now that I've caught the bug of being with people who are mentally on vacation year round but at some point might like to trade my points for another resort in future years, and would be okay with paying a small fee to subscribe to that. Btw, originally I discovered this board existed bc of the trade board but that lead to my discovering both the awesomeness of this community and the TSS where I picked up my 2nd contract. So if nothing else the R/T is a good intro. The new rules do not sound arbitrary or excessive to me. But somebody on here. Must know what good alternatives are and care. To share them? Sorry about missp my phone is difficult to type on and I don't like to use work comps on my lunch. =/

 

[Deb & Bill]

As I'm primarily a lurker and a relative noob on here, what is TUG, what are other good sites to potentially trade points? Ill still come to DIS to chat now that I've caught the bug of being with people who are mentally on vacation year round but at some point might like to trade my points for another resort in future years, and would be okay with paying a small fee to subscribe to that. Btw, originally I discovered this board existed bc of the trade board but that lead to my discovering both the awesomeness of this community and the TSS where I picked up my 2nd contract. So if nothing else the R/T is a good intro. The new rules do not sound arbitrary or excessive to me. But somebody on here. Must know what good alternatives are and care. To share them? Sorry about missp my phone is difficult to type on and I don't like to use work comps on my lunch. =/

Google is your friend. Just Google Rent DVC and you should find lots of matches.

 

[360Joules]

How do you contribute then?

The way i contribute is by reading what you folks have to say...i log in here all the time , i enjoy it , you post pictures, provide trip reports and i provide an audience , along with countless others that simply dont have much to say or add..

now i feel second rate because i dont post much on here..

where would a book author be without an audience?

im not looking to rent my points on here fyi..i use davids service whenever i need to rent out extra points.

number of posts is not an accurate gauge of how valuable a member is in my opinion

 

[delmar411]

The way i contribute is by reading what you folks have to say...i log in here all the time , i enjoy it , you post pictures, provide trip reports and i provide an audience , along with countless others that simply dont have much to say or add..

now i feel second rate because i dont post much on here..

where would a book author be without an audience?

im not looking to rent my points on here fyi..i use davids service whenever i need to rent out extra points.

number of posts is not an accurate gauge of how valuable a member is in my opinion

I wouldn't think a lurker is 2nd rate but I also don't think a lurker contributes at all. In fact, not to be mean because I'm not trying to be, but lurkers only coming out of lurkdom to complain is a bit odd to me.

Contributing is a give and take. Lurkers are only taking, which is just fine but it isn't contributing. And it certainly isn't being an active member of the boards. If you read all these threads then what's the harm in simply commenting on things you find interesting enough to read through? There are plenty of threads, esp up in the theme parks section, that could draw in most any reader.

Maybe if you take the few mins each visit to post, you'll start to feel part of this community and get to know a few people and people can get to know you too.

BTW, I don't post here for an invisible audience, if I want to do that I post on my blog.

 

[dvcbrad]

PMs are not included in post count, nor are poll votes. The 50 post requirement over 6 months is about 2 posts per week, based on 26 weeks. It should not be difficult to achieve.

Shouldn't we then consider a method to count votes and PMs? It seems to me that those are just as contributory as posts to threads that may or not be meaningful, depending on the reader. My offer once again stands to brainstorm this if any of the moderators want to reach out to discuss it by contacting me via PM to exchange numbers and establish a time.

Brad

 

[Deb & Bill]

Shouldn't we then consider a method to count votes and PMs? It seems to me that those are just as contributory as posts to threads that may or not be meaningful, depending on the reader. My offer once again stands to brainstorm this if any of the moderators want to reach out to discuss it by contacting me via PM to exchange numbers and establish a time.

Brad

A PM only goes to one person - again not contributing to the board. A vote might be a contribution, but explaining why you voted that way is a real contribution. So if you decide to vote on a poll, why not go all the way and let others know why you voted that way.