Professional Forum Posters

Well, I don't have much to add other than the fact that my job (ITS for a College) is pretty boring this time of year, so I like to hang out here as well. I have actually lurked around on the Warrior Forum for the first couple years I started IM and finally decided that I should get more involved. Whether it be asking or answering, I see being more involved as a better way of learning and also absorbing information.
Jeez, why didn't I think of that two years ago

This is true. But at least there's a vaccine for chicken pox. =]

I'd love to see the stats in an experiment looking at site hits/sales conversions for a quality poster with a few hundred posts versus a spam poster with thousands of posts. The results would be interesting.

(ps I'm not calling you a spam poster or someone who doesn't contribute quality info haha)

Its funny how people always assume other people are in the same situation as them.

Sure, if you are struggling to make a living online, then spending hours surfing the WF is not the best use of your time.

But thats not the situation some of us find ourselves in. Me and many others find that our incomes don't go up or down based on how much or how little time we spend on this forum.

I am basically retired and if I weren't spending some of my free time here, I would probably be spending in on a lake, in a pool, or on a golf course. Sure I guess you could argue that I could spend that time making money, but the reality is I wouldn't

If your time here is costing you money or if your opportunity cost of spending time here is higher than the reward you get then you need to re-evaluate your priorities.

Wow, I hope I'm not unwelcome here or something.

I don't foresee I'll always have that much free time. Just that I have pretty much finished with traveling and wanted to take it easy the rest of 2012.

Just another reason or perspective of why someone (like me) can spend a lot of time here.

Mike

PS I'm not really retired (still young ) Just finish one chapter of my 'work' life.

Mike, I was only kidding when I said 'being a retired person' is a lot better than being a retarded one. My mom was right. I'm not a good joker.

Hey, definitely you're very much welcome here!

There is a difference between Professional Forum Poster and someone who posts tons. Professional posting is a valid part of many companies.

Do lots of posts mean anything? Maybe. The problem is that when you, me, anyone, is new to a forum there are few metrics to use. Don't yet know anyone, etc...

I think it's rather obvious that there's no direct correlation between forum post count and expertise. Some people just spend more time posting than others. You also have some genuine experts who are new members, or who only post here occasionally.

It's always a good idea to verify everything for yourself. On every forum there are people who take on the role of authorities. In some cases, they may be right about most things. and truly motivated by a desire to help. Others may be more interested in building up their post count in order to build credibility and get more chances to display their signature. It's easy to come across like an expert on a forum, even if you're not. One way to do it is read everything said by genuine experts and repeat it back in your own words

It's always better to keep an open but skeptical mind about everything you read. Remember that there are some issues related to IM -such as Google's exact formula- where perfect knowledge is almost impossible.

The old adage Question Authority applies here as much as anywhere else.

The point I would agree with would be: You should not judge people based on the number of Post Counts they have.

It's still going to happen anyway though.
Higher post counts "tend to indicate Experience", which "tends to indicate Wisdom".
So it's easier for people to trust in and listen to those with higher post counts.

I for one, pay attention to what people post, not their post count.

I would "judge" someone based on what they say and do here, rather than their "stats".

==========

Now, at the same time, I don't believe that a high Post count is an indication of low success.

Saying that "Successful people won't spend free time doing the things they enjoy" is simply not true.

In fact, if you are truly successful, you'd have a lot more free time on your hands than someone struggling through life.
You'd have your finances and bills already taken care of in advance.

Successful people are usually smart. And the smart thing would be to NOT work all day, every day, for a living.

Having a long-lasting passive income is usually the aim of successful people.
Which means, lots of Free time on your hands.

==========

What confuses people sometimes is this:

Why don't you see successful people like Bill Gates, Larry Page, etc... chatting on Forums or enjoying themselves publicly?

Its usually because they don't want to draw too much attention to themselves, and have 1000 people begging them for money.

(In other cases, some of the Super-rich would think that they are "above" chatting with "common-folk", thus they only communicate with their own circle of successful friends)

Also, when you are that rich/successful, you need to be very careful of everything you say.
A lot of those super-rich people have their public posts screened before released. Any little mistake can bring about a lawsuit or end up in the Headlines of the News.

I remember when Kobe Bryant was fined $100,000 for a "hardly" anti-gay slur in a Basketball match.
What he said really wasn't a big deal. But when you're as successful as he is, Everything you say becomes a big deal.

It's not always that easy to speak your mind in those situations. They end up living very private lives.


Things like this tend to give people the illusion that successful people "don't have the time" to chat on Forums and such.

Wouldn't a professional forum poster be someone who makes money from their posts? Never heard of anyone where that works out into a full-time income, but maybe I need some better sig banners.

.

I for one like hanging out on forums, especially here in WF because I love interacting and I'd love to learn from other people as well. Plus, it's fun staying in the loop always.

I read that a while back. I agree to not judge someone by the post count.

However, I think the article shows lack of real world knowledge about how networking works. No offense intended but cocktail parties, conferences, meetings (such as Chamber of Commerce meetings), classes, golfing, etc. are widely used and accepted as necessary to build a good network in many industries.

Why is posting on the WF any different if a person is in the IM/MMO niche and is selling products to others in that niche?

To take it even further, what if this was a bodybuilding or marriage or get out of debt forum? Could you say that all the big count posters were fat and unfit, had awful marriages, or there was no way posters could get out of debt solely because of their post counts?

Mark

Larry, Thaaaank yoooouuu!

People try to interpret post counts, and haven't a clue how to read them, much less whether they actually mean anything. Mine looks huge, but if you look at my daily average, it's under 4. That's not a lot for a moderator. I've just been here a long time.

And they tell you exactly nothing about the poster's expertise on any given subject. Completely irrelevant.

I like Mike's idea. Turn all that stuff off. Thanks count and post count and anything like it. If you want to know about someone's posting history, go look at it. Actually READ what they have to say on various subjects. You have a much better chance of forming a useful opinion that way.

Side note to BigMike: Moderators represent the opposite of entropy. Just sayin' ...


Paul

I thought this thread was for me until I got to the line where you said the posts were old haha

How can I find professional high quality authority blah blah forum poster?
I hope he will not ask for $ 999 in advance (for 20posts/day 400/month) as the Indian who contacted me a few weeks ago.

Agree with that. Post count doesn't mean anything so new members should only judge advice on it's merits and also proof in some cases.

Also agree with many of the blog post views although he did take it a bit too far as everyone has different circumstances.

If you are spending hours on any forum every day you need to think and measure how productive it is compared to other stuff you could be doing. Of course if money it is not an issue and you enjoy helping out the community with great tips then that's cool also.

I usually carefully read all the posts made by the warriors regardless new warrior or older. Some new users does add some valuable posts.

I consider the thanks count over the post count

At bare minimum 2400 of my post are utter BS.

A prime example of low post count (389) but highly valuable and appreciated information is here: http://www.warriorforum.com/war-room...-friendly.html

I don't agree, though, that the low post count (the article implies that lower post count posters would be more successful because they aren't hanging out here all day) means he has a successful business at all nor do I agree that a low post count means he doesn't know what he is talking about because he is a newbie.

Mark

Great post!
Have to agree with you I also love to watch my post count go up!
I do believe that posting and interacting does improve your knowledge and I think considering you have over 2K posts you are defiantly qualified as a professional forum poster lol

Well from the looks of it, people with more posts seem to know more because, evidently they have the experience and the proof. I would imagine that a person with the most post knows more but that is not always the case. I think that it gives a warrior credibility and a louder voice among this community... in some cases people post just to increase the number of posts!!! don't do it! People actually want to learn from your opinions. Do not abuse your voice, exercise it instead!!!!!

About high posts counts, I used to look to see how many posts someone had and felt they were more knowledgable than me just because they had more posts than I did.

But then I started to notice people's join dates and looking at that together with their post count that started to shed some light on things.

I am kind of at that stage where if someone has a thousand posts or higher and they have only been here for 6 months, well that is suspect.

I think the highest daily average I saw on someone's profile was like 25 posts on average per day.

And this person wasn't selling a WSO or had a service up, it was just posts in the general section and other sub-forums.

I do understand that some people will have a high post count because they have WSO's running and a big part of their post count comes from replying to questions and other things in their WSO's or if they have a warrior for hire thread they might have a lot of posts coming from that.

So I think it is best to check out the person's posts to see what they are actually posting about, and that will give you a better idea.

You also wonder at people with high post counts - don't they have to be somewhere else?

I don't see anything wrong with it.

You could say it as "Professional Newbie Helper" or "Professional Free IM Advice Giver"

Nothing wrong with helping people if you're intentions are good.

Keep helping and inspiring!

-Brody

Weird - I've never really thought about post count. I've been here for years, but don't really say much. If I have something to say, answer, share - I do. But I've never been one to post just for the sake of posting....

Now, if there was a counter for posts READ, that would be a totally different story!

Jennifer
~PotPieGirl

Is it possible to hire a professional forum poster to promote my site for me via signatures?

I have tried to find one, and am not sure how to pay the poster.

There are in fact "Professional Forum Posters" if you want to call them that. The type I am talking about .. hire kids to SPAM forums with advertisements in their sigs.

Last year, a friend of my son learned that I earn a living online. He asked me if it was something he could do himself. I said I would teach him if he was serious.

Few days later he came to me and said he had a job working online. Long story short, he saw an ad on TV, met someone at McDonalds of all places, was given a 30 minute "How to and what to do." Yep.. he was in it.

After I explained to him that it was a SCAM, how it works, that he would never earn a living, and so forth he was completely devastated.

No less than one month later, same kid and my son went to a seminar held by one of the world's largest and prominent business organizations. At the end of the seminar everyone was invited to stay for a short 'employment opportunity' and guess who was the speaker? Yep, same guy at McDonalds.

Jeffery 100% :-)

Wow that's a lot of posting Jason. How do you find the time to make so many posts, plus run your article writing business, plus work a full time job? You must be a busy guy.

My post count means nothing to me. I visit here when I have time... If a topic interests me I'll post a comment, and occasionally start one. There are several people here that I read their posts almost religiously, others not so much. But I've learned a lot here over the years, from both the newbies and the old pros.