How do I stop a super user from posting so much?

[Levina]

I have a small photography forum, just over one year old, just 133 members. I have between 34 and 40 members active on any given day. Daily post count is roughly between 110 and 175, with ups and downs below and above that.

So you would think that I would be very happy with a few of my members posting a lot. And I am. However, there is one super user who seems to want to be the only name in New Posts. He is domineering the board basically. He posts at least 20 images in 20 different threads. The result is a New Posts list that only shows him as last poster. But here's the thing, he makes sure he stays the last poster. After his posting spree he stays on the site and as soon as somebody posts after him in a thread he just posted in, he overtakes them so he is last poster again.

I did a little test the other day. He posted a pic. Thirty minutes later I posted a pic after him in the same thread. Within minutes he posted again in that thread, overtaking me. I then changed the time of my upload so it ended up as last in the thread again. He then deleted his pic and reposted it so he was last in the thread again.

A New Posts list that shows only one member as last poster is not a good look. And I also believe members should be gracious and give other members their time on the board. It's different in discussion threads of course, but this is about photo sharing threads. My super user doesn't engage in discussions at all, just posts pics. He's friendly, will answer questions when someone asks him something about his images, but that's it.

So here is my dilemma. I want him to stop his quest for board domination. But he is also one of the people that keeps our post count up. On the other hand, when he takes a break, post count doesn't even suffer that much. Way less than you would expect. So maybe people actually post less because of him, tired of seeing him everywhere. Who knows.

Question is: what do I do?

I wish there was a way I could have him post to a thread only once a day, so that when somebody posts after him he simply can't overtake them. But as far as I know that isn't possible.

I could use some advice here. Thanks.

 

[cdub]

So here is my dilemma. I want him to stop his quest for board domination. But he is also one of the people that keeps our post count up. On the other hand, when he takes a break, post count doesn't even suffer that much. Way less than you would expect. So maybe people actually post less because of him, tired of seeing him everywhere. Who knows.

Beat them at their own game and post more yourself. I'd say discouraging a user from posting is not good unless they're doing something spammy.

 

[jul]

Don't stop when it's someone who loves your forums and adds activity without spamming nonsense. Should in fact be really appreciated. If it's purely for being last poster or whatever then perhaps message them for their motivation? Just talk and approach it nicely.

 

[smallwheels]

Question is: what do I do?

I wish there was a way I could have him post to a thread only once a day, so that when somebody posts after him he simply can't overtake them. But as far as I know that isn't possible.

I don't now if there isn't a "max posts a day" add on. Possibly there is. But on the other hand: You can't solve social problems with technical solutions (at least not in a good way) and what you have seems to be a social problem. As you say he is friendly I would simply approach him with your problem and ask him for his advice (do not propose a solution yourself - ask him). Possibly this will solve the issue w/o need for technical boundaries.

 

[CTS]

If it is just someone trying to keep their name on the leader board, well, that's gonna get boring after awhile.

 

[Levina]

Beat them at their own game and post more yourself. I'd say discouraging a user from posting is not good unless they're doing something spammy.

No, it's not good, hence my dilemma. And posting more myself, I mean, he is almost a compulsory shooter who has images that fit into most categories. I'm a bird photographer basically, although I've expanded. So I mean, there's only so much I can do. And we are in different time zones, which complicates things.

Don't stop when it's someone who loves your forums and adds activity without spamming nonsense. Should in fact be really appreciated. If it's purely for being last poster or whatever then perhaps message them for their motivation? Just talk and approach it nicely.

I don't know if he loves my forums. He posts on a couple of forums. Not as much there as on mine. And those other forums are bigger so his posts are overtaken pretty quickly so he doesn't domineer the board there. And I do appreciate him and wouldn't want to lose him.

I don't now if there isn't a "max posts a day" add on. Possibly there is. But on the other hand: You can't solve social problems with technical solutions (at least not in a good way) and what you have seems to be a social problem. As you say he is friendly I would simply approach him with your problem and ask him for his advice (do not propose a solution yourself - ask him). Possibly this will solve the issue w/o need for technical boundaries.

That's maybe the thing to do, talk to him. He's friendly enough all right. But he's also an odd one... see below.

If it is just someone trying to keep their name on the leader board, well, that's gonna get boring after awhile.

That's what I think is the case. He's odd in some respects. I was on the staff of another forum where cross posting was not allowed. Turned out he did it to excess. When we found out we removed a ton of those double posts, notified him. He promised us he wouldn't do it again. Next thing I know he continues cross posting but changed the file names so a search for the new names wouldn't yield any results. Fellow staff members wanted to ban him for it. That didn't happen but I did have a firm talk with him and as far as I know he stopped doing it then. I don't know what drives him. He's cross posting a lot on my forum too, reposts something in the same thread even, 2 or 3 times. I do remove those, notify him, he accepts that without any protest.

Having a friendly talk with him is probably the best thing to do.

 

[AndyB]

You might like this add-on.

https://xenforo.com/community/resources/new-content-limit-by-user.8844/

 

[zappaDPJ]

What immediately comes to mind is the content quality being posted by the member. If it's largely spam something needs to be done but if it's good quality and adds to your forum I'd hesitate to take any action at all.

 

[Levina]

What immediately comes to mind is the content quality being posted by the member. If it's largely spam something needs to be done but if it's good quality and adds to your forum I'd hesitate to take any action at all.

Well, that's it, isn't it. Although he doesn't engage with others (unless he's asked a question) and only posts images, those images are good. He's a pretty good photographer, one of the better ones on my forum. I'm just annoyed to come on the board in the morning and seeing just his name in New Posts for a page and a half. I'm trying to make my forum grow and this is not a good look.

 

[jul]

Well, that's it, isn't it. Although he doesn't engage with others (unless he's asked a question) and only posts images, those images are good. He's a pretty good photographer, one of the better ones on my forum. I'm just annoyed to come on the board in the morning and seeing just his name in New Posts for a page and a half. I'm trying to make my forum grow and this is not a good look.

I've checked your forums a couple of times and don't see singular person dominating the entire forums/new posts. Nice forums btw, very enjoable to see all photos of people. It does come across as very active with much valuable content, including probably the person you referring to.

I personally don't see how this will make your forums look bad or how it is directly a bad look if someone is so active and have more spots taken from the 'new posts' list.

To me it just looked like you have a very active community with lots of posts throughout the day. Loyal members who keep watching the forums. And all of this without looking like any of this is spam or **** posting/content.

 

[Suzanne O]

I'd be putting him in his own user group which makes his posts go into the approval queue.
Let him know about it.

 

[Levina]

I've checked your forums a couple of times and don't see singular person dominating the entire forums/new posts. Nice forums btw, very enjoable to see all photos of people. It does come across as very active with much valuable content, including probably the person you referring to.

I personally don't see how this will make your forums look bad or how it is directly a bad look if someone is so active and have more spots taken from the 'new posts' list.

To me it just looked like you have a very active community with lots of posts throughout the day. Loyal members who keep watching the forums. And all of this without looking like any of this is spam or **** posting/content.

Thank you for the nice words on my forum. We are a new and very small community but it's pretty active indeed.

As to not seeing a dominant poster, you probably visited when he was not around. When he goes on his posting sprees you'd know it. It does get drowned out eventually when people from other time zones come on the board and start posting. He tends to go crazy during my night time (I'm in Europe, he's in the US).

Maybe as an admin I'm more aware of it than others and after reading the replies and advice here I think I'll do nothing for the time being. I did download AndyB's add-on that would allow me to limit a member's daily posts. Just in case...

 

[Mr Lucky]

You can actually restrict their posts numbers by using the discourage feature, but only using the post limit (flood time multiplier) not any of the more discouraging options like blank page

 

[JamesBrown]

Rather than try and throttle his posting I would speak to the guy? See if I could channel his enthusiasm in other ways.

 

[MentaL]

 

[smallwheels]

View attachment 338249

Probably not the best way to deal with a user that contributes massive amounts of quality content and is maybe overly engaged but not a troll. Even less so in a forum with 133 members.

 

[beerForo]

@Levina you can introduce them to profile posts, which also utilize the full editor so they can post their images and not clog up the main feed. You could also look into the Gallery add-on.

 

[briansol]

He's bored.

Give him something to do. Moderate? Write Articles? etc he has passion. don't stifle it - leverage it.

 

[Levina]

Probably not the best way to deal with a user that contributes massive amounts of quality content and is maybe overly engaged but not a troll. Even less so in a forum with 133 members.

He's not a troll. And I don't like putting members in Discourage mode. Besides I'm using it to fight off bots, redirecting them which works pretty well.

 

[Levina]

@Levina you can introduce them to profile posts, which also utilize the full editor so they can post their images and not clog up the main feed. You could also look into the Gallery add-on.

My little community lives on the board. Profile posts are non existent. We have the Media Gallery where attachments are mirrored but again, nobody Likes, comments or does anything there, so there are also no personal albums. I'm actually thinking of retiring the gallery altogether.