Let's Be Fair To Lurkers

[NineSwords]

I've seen mods where you had to collect points by participating in the forum in order to "buy out" download links. Sadly this was for another forum system so it doesn't help. But maybe there's something like that for vBulletin too.

[juubee]

I guess I'm not following this one. So you're saying you wouldn't see the message until you've posted in the thread? How do you know what you're posting about? Please further enlighten us clueless ones!

you would only not see the portion of the post that's enclosed inside the code. But you can see everything else. Therefore, the actual promo code would be inside the code and only after you've posted would you be able to see the code to redeem it.

[RustySabre]

I've seen mods where you had to collect points by participating in the forum in order to "buy out" download links. Sadly this was for another forum system so it doesn't help. But maybe there's something like that for vBulletin too.

you would only not see the portion of the post that's enclosed inside the code. But you can see everything else. Therefore, the actual promo code would be inside the code and only after you've posted would you be able to see the code to redeem it.

These are both interesting ideas. I wonder if either of them could be implemented on this forum. That still doesn't solve the problem of people who may participate, but aren't courteous enough to post a "thank you" when they take a code from a list on a thread. That's how this all started for me.

[NineSwords]

These are both interesting ideas. I wonder if either of them could be implemented on this forum. That still doesn't solve the problem of people who may participate, but aren't courteous enough to post a "thank you" when they take a code from a list on a thread. That's how this all started for me.

There's just no way to force people to say thank you. But you can limit it to actual forum participants where the chance they say thank you will be much much greater than what you get with the lurkers.

[RustySabre]

There's just no way to force people to say thank you. But you can limit it to actual forum participants where the chance they say thank you will be much much greater than what you get with the lurkers.

You're absolutely right. And the more I re-read my original post I realize that it was as much a criticism of people throwing around the term "lurkers" as anything else, because in order to view the App Giveaways sub-forum in the first place you have to be registered, which really doesn't make you a "lurker". Anyway, sorry for all this nonsense. I must have just been having a bad day when I made the original post.