4-Post Rule - Everyone Please Read

Discussion in 'Fun & Games' started by The Cartoon, Aug 29, 2010.

  1. The Cartoon

    The Cartoon Moderator

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    I realize that everyone is probably sick of me having to bring this up, but I think that there is obviously some confusion. I understand that many of you don't think that the rule is necessary, but that's irrelevent. I'm going to explain why it exists and when it applies. First of all, for those of you who don't know what it is. After a member posts once, the 4-post rule prevents them from posting again until four other members post first.

    It's created in order to prevent the same two or three members from going back and fourth for a long period of time without anyone else getting a chance to participate. This only applies to games that rely on going back and fourth between members. Therefore the 4-post rule:

    Does Not Apply: Greatest Threads, RPG's (Ex: Rule The World)
    Does Apply: Everything Else (Ex: King of The Hill, Hurt or Heal, The Stories Told by Toonzone) unless otherwise specified.

    Now there is nothing that I would rather not do than have to give pokes/warnings for such a simple rule. Most of the regular posters here are my friends and that obviously makes it more difficult to have to do that. As of now, I've been very generous in terms of letting people get away with it.

    If there are any questions regarding the rule, please ask them here and I'll be happy to answer them.
     
  2. Superpan

    Superpan Member

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    Do posts asking other people to post in the thread or to have a brief conversation with another player count?
     
  3. The Cartoon

    The Cartoon Moderator

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    Generally, discussion doesn't apply to the 4-post rule. But asking people to post in the thread probably isn't a good idea anyway since it's just bumping up the thread without a point.
     
  4. JAG

    JAG Active Member

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    What about cases like the Godzilla Hurt/Heal thread, where only about three people are playing on a regular basis? Do we just let those threads die, or...?
     
  5. Superpan

    Superpan Member

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    Admittedly, the 4-post rule does dictate a bit too much a thread's gasp on life. Some threads that people might want to continue like Amazing stories die from neglect.
     
  6. Jave

    Jave Beware of the SPLAT
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    The idea of the four-post rule is to get plenty of people to play a single game. If a thread dies of neglect, it means either:

    1) There are three people or less playing, which isn't truly the idea of "fun".
    2) People have lost interest and don't care about the game anymore.
     
  7. SpideyFan914

    SpideyFan914 Greatest Poster Ever!

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    Actually, it means four or less people are playing. (You need to wait for four OTHER people to post.)
    And honestly, four people can have plenty of fun.... If they weren't having fun, why would they be posting?
     
  8. Jave

    Jave Beware of the SPLAT
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    I know they can, but if you guys are going to simply post back and forth on a thread between four people, why not just get together on a chatroom and play there? Chats flow faster and better with low amounts of people.

    You guys need to understand that we are mainly enforcing this in order to get more people to post here regularly. The Greatest threads and Rule The World have done a good job at that, but we still need some variety. If a small number of people are posting in a thread it means not many people have enough interest in that type of game.

    Throw stuff at the wall, see what sticks. The rule is not there to piss you people off, it's so that we can get more people to post here and make more elaborate games. We used to have Avatar Contests and Mafia. You could try how one of those could work now.
     
  9. Superpan

    Superpan Member

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    The Sicilian in me is intrgued. What is this game you call "Mafia"?
     
  10. jph139

    jph139 Immortal

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    Oh, I'd love to run a character game of Mafia some time. I could rip it right from the Curse of Ne-Gok-Sa I play on my HeroScape forum... perhaps after Spider-Man Villain...
     
  11. Jmill

    Jmill Person

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    Basically, there's two groups of people, each in charge of killing each other. The Mafia kills someone privately, and at night, and then everyone, based on who died, votes on who they want to kill out of suspicion of being in the Mafia. The game ends when all but the Mafia have died, or when all the Mafia die. Sometimes, there's other roles, like a police officer who can ask if someone's in the Mafia (privately), or a doctor who can potentially save someone from dying from the hands of the Mafia.
     
  12. jph139

    jph139 Immortal

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    Of course, there's a variety of other variations you can do in it, too. Werewolf is one of my favorites - some people are werewolfs, and at night attack one "normal." Same basic plot otherwise. The ones I've played have alien mind control and the Beyonder from Marvel Comics and all sorts of out there stuff.

    Amazingly fun game, though.
     
  13. Superpan

    Superpan Member

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    Isn't Mafia a card game?
     
  14. jph139

    jph139 Immortal

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    It generally is, but online adaptations aren't uncommon.
     
  15. Aquadementia

    Aquadementia That's a lot of Mulaney!
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    It’s time to retire the four post rule

    At one time the four post rule made sense and I fully supported it.
    These days, it’s a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist.

    Is it a coincidence that the only games that thrive on this board are the ones excluded from the rule?
    I don’t know. But take a look at the board.

    Could just be changing tastes. Plus I think people might rather play on off site blogs or twitter and facebook, but I don’t really go to either of those sites so I don’t know how much of that happens.
    The way it is, I don’t see people looking at the Fun & Games board unless they’re into rule the world or a greatest something.

    If greatest threads are doing so much better just because they are funner games, we could always test that theory out by enforcing the four post rule uniformly on all threads.
    Fair is fair after all.
    I see no reason why those other threads NEED an exception. I see plenty of reasons why players WANT an exception, but that could be said about any thread. I think it can be said that it’s just as true with those games that if you can’t get 4 more people to post to a thread it should probably die.
    I’m not advocating the rule be applied to those games, I just don’t see the technical need for preferential treatment. But I expect it would take about a week before the players get board and take the game to their blogs and abandon F&G completely. Like what may have happened with all other games.

    There was what I thought a good pokemon game run by Neomystrerion that got closed down because of this rule. And that was a shame. I have virtually no interest in pokemon, but there’s a desperate need for new games, and we’ll be lucky to get anyone to try again.

    At this point I don’t know if anything will help this board.
    With no new draw eventually things will decay as current players will stop posting. Judge for yourselves if losing The Cartoon and others affected things.
    At least getting rid of this rule is one thing that can be done.

    You wish the four post rule was necessary.
    I remember fondly the days Colin would fanatically proclaim the four post rule god. But it’s not doing any good now. It’s far past time to give it a rest.
    The standard no double posting rule should be good enough for now.
     
  16. jph139

    jph139 Immortal

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    I'm generally not a stickler about these sorts of things - if a game lapses into three people posting for a little while, I won't smoosh it out of spite. As long as a game can get more than three regular posters, it'll flourish and I see no reason to stop that. But if it's just one or two people posting at each other back and forth, well, that's not really the purpose of the board, y'know?
     

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