I know this has been suggested before, but when I bumped the thread it didn't get much attention...

I just tested this before, and it seems markup counts towards the amount of characters in a post. This is a flaw, as people who have their own posting style could be bypassing the 72 character limit.

I feel now would be a good time to act on this, as posting styles that use increasingly large amounts of characters are becoming more popular.

In short, my suggestion is to make it so markup doesn't count towards the character limit.

Thoughts?

Yes, that sounds good! Let's do that!

If people are just going to use Markup so they can get more than 72 characters, it means they are putting less into their posts.

So really, it might help get rid of some spam.

Definitely think this is a good idea. I remember seeing someone in Loungin' say he only had to type like, 10 characters or so with within his markup before he was passed the 72 character limit. That's just not fair ;4;

Who cares? Why does it matter how many characters another member is posting? Does this bypass concept have to do with overall post count? Anyway, I say focus on more important things.

The site cares, as it is bypassing a system put in place to encourage more thoughtful posts. It matters how many characters another member is posting because they should only get a post for 'real' characters.

What do you mean by 'overall' post count?

And just because the suggestion isn't a huge improvement doesn't mean it should be disregarded.

By "overall" I mean it doesn't add to a members post count if there are fewer than 72 characters, which by the way was increased from 32 characters with version 0.1.7.

The only thing crazier than somebody going through the trouble of adding a bunch of markup code in order to bypass the 72 character limit all for adding to their post count is someone who cares enough to foil their diabolical plot.

The people bypassing really don't have to go through alot of trouble to bypass it... all they have to do is have the code copied, and then paste it in.

And no, the crazy thing to do would be to keep allowing people to bypass the limit.

I think it's a perfectly feasible suggestion. I don't imagine it would be impossible to implement (saying that, i dont really have a clue either..), and the majority of people wouldn't even notice. Couldn't do any harm.

And it could possibly encourage the people who do abuse this to post higher quality posts, basically.

edit - also in regards to having to go through a lot of trouble, with NAMfox and NAM it's even easier than copying and pasting.

The only problem is that longer posts don't necessarily mean higher quality. The people you fear are using the mark-up just to get a post count aren't likely to be phased by a change, they will just find another way that is just as lazy to get their beloved count. Either way, if a post is spam flag it for the local moderator and let them deal with it.

Since post count really doesn't mean anything I don't see why time should be wasted bringing this suggestion into reality. To me it's not a big deal. If people are using a load of markup to get their post count high that doesn't effect me at all.

Sounds like a good idea, if not extremely difficult to implement. I support the idea, however.