Slightly odd extension request - reducing post count...

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nou nou
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Slightly odd extension request - reducing post count...

Post by nou nou »

Hello all,


I was wondering if it would be possible to write an extension that reduces a user's post count when they make a post.

"Wait... what?"

Backstory...

There is a valued member, on one of the forums that I manage, who wishes to retire as a user, but wishes to do so gracefully and in style. So someone came up with the idea of reduced post count when posting, so that the last post before retiring would be the one that takes the user's post count entirely to zero. I thought it was a really sweet idea and wondered if this is something that someone here would be happy to take on... (I'm good at managing forums, total n00b at php coding, let alone extensions).

How could this be useful in general?

For something to merit a (public) extension it is nice for it to have a use case. So I was thinking this could be used to make posts in one forum to be a "currency" for posts in another. So say forum A is "normal" and forum B reduces counts. You can't post in forum B unless your post count is positive, so you have to make a post in forum A first.

The timer shouldn't go below zero either, so one of two things could happen - timer stays at 0 no matter how much posts you make after that, or if you have this special "status" you lose the ability to post when it reaches 0.

If this could be set up as a User forum permission, all of the above seems to be doable?

It took me a couple of years to get my head around some of the subtleties of phpBB's permission system, but now that I have I'm actually quite amazed at how powerful it is... :)

Thanks for your time - hope I didn't waste too much of it... ;)

nou nou
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Restless Rancor
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Re: Slightly odd extension request - reducing post count...

Post by Restless Rancor »

I wasn't too sure what use this would be other than for the one you described with the retiring member, but...
nou nou wrote: Thu Sep 27, 2018 2:23 pm ...So I was thinking this could be used to make posts in one forum to be a "currency" for posts in another. So say forum A is "normal" and forum B reduces counts. You can't post in forum B unless your post count is positive, so you have to make a post in forum A first.

The timer shouldn't go below zero either, so one of two things could happen - timer stays at 0 no matter how much posts you make after that, or if you have this special "status" you lose the ability to post when it reaches 0...
... this could actually be an interesting way to encourage activity in other areas of the forum, though I think it'd have to be pulled off with a lot of care as you wouldn't want to discourage members all together.
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GanstaZ
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Re: Slightly odd extension request - reducing post count...

Post by GanstaZ »

If user posts decrement to 0, then posting for that member should stop or there will be no point in even thinking about making it or someone want to share more thoughts about it)
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nou nou
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Re: Slightly odd extension request - reducing post count...

Post by nou nou »

Restless Rancor wrote: Fri Sep 28, 2018 4:32 pm ... this could actually be an interesting way to encourage activity in other areas of the forum, though I think it'd have to be pulled off with a lot of care as you wouldn't want to discourage members all together.

For sure - lots of care is good practice for running a forum anyway ;)

I've found in the past that if (part of) a forum has a few quirky, off-beat or tongue-in-cheek rules (without them being too heavy handed), those often help break the ice a little. Lower the threshold of participation. Personally I think this could be one of those fun ones...

At the same time I do agree that running an entire forum like that could get old pretty fast.
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