Well, as you can see from my signature, I'm all about new scratcher support.
From what I have seen in forums, scratchers with less posts tend to get less support in the suggestion forum,
and less replies in general in other forums.

So how about only showing the number of posts to the person posting.
This way, there will be no bias on the validity of new scratchers' suggestions and more replies on new scratchers' posts.

Support or no support:
And before you post, make sure to explain your REASON.

What's the proof?

Well I think the reason they tend to get less support is because they may not spend time on the forums, which is why they have less posts. (I know, that's not always the case) Then, they find something that they want to suggest and finally go to the forums. But, they haven't been on the forums so they don't know what has already been suggested, what has been denied, and what is not needed.

Deerleg wrote:

What's the proof?

Click the “See unanswered posts” link at the bottom of the discussion page or in my signature; you will find that the majority are new scratchers or ones with minimal posts.

cobraguy wrote:

Well I think the reason they tend to get less support is because they may not spend time on the forums, which is why they have less posts. (I know, that's not always the case) Then, they find something that they want to suggest and finally go to the forums. But, they haven't been on the forums so they don't know what has already been suggested, what has been denied, and what is not needed.

That's definitely true and in my experience as a new scratcher, I was guilty of that as well.
But that doesn't give any reason against hiding the number of posts.

All in all, to both Deerleg and cobraguy, I think that hiding the number of posts won't do any harm and also may encourage more people to answer posts of new scratchers.

But number of posts also generally shows that the Scratcher has been on Scratch a long time, and you can look to them for advice.

Personally, I would rather help a person who has <100 posts rather than someone with 500+ posts–it shows that the New Scratcher may need help more.

However, when people spend more time on these forums, you get to know them better and thus have more respect for them.

Hiding the number of posts would seem to hinder New Scratchers, in my opinion.

pigletdiglet wrote:

cobraguy wrote:

Well I think the reason they tend to get less support is because they may not spend time on the forums, which is why they have less posts. (I know, that's not always the case) Then, they find something that they want to suggest and finally go to the forums. But, they haven't been on the forums so they don't know what has already been suggested, what has been denied, and what is not needed.

But that doesn't give any reason against hiding the number of posts.

Um, I wasn't trying to give a reason against hiding the number of posts. I was just saying what I thought.

Actually, more posts CAN add real validity. The more you use the forums, the more you learn about Scratch.

Notice I said “can.” Some Scratchers have 1,000+ posts and still don't have a clue what they're talking about.

Failord wrote:

Actually, more posts CAN add real validity. The more you use the forums, the more you learn about Scratch.

Notice I said “can.” Some Scratchers have 1,000+ posts and still don't have a clue what they're talking about.

Yes but some scratchers automatically have a bias before reading the post of a new scratcher who hasn't posted much.
Therefore, sometimes very good points are neglected or put off.

What I am saying is hiding the posts is not harmful and does bring its benefits as well.

I am not sure whether to support or not. Just a few days ago, I made a suggestion, and I had about 1700 posts (1715 posts after this post was posted). However, a lot of people did not like my suggestion, and I ended up closing it.

But my point is this: I had over 1000+ posts, and people still hated my suggestions. So, for me, I'd day that if someone did not support on a suggestion topic, it very likely had to do with the suggestion and not the number of posts.

Example: Take a look at this topic. It was a suggestion thread, and almost everyone did not support. But the non - supporters didn't just simply put a -1. They had a reason for not supporting. Furthermore, when I suggested that suggestion, I already had 1000+ posts. This just illustrates that the number of non - supporters in that suggestion thread had nothing to do with the number of my posts.

pigletdiglet wrote:

Failord wrote:

Actually, more posts CAN add real validity. The more you use the forums, the more you learn about Scratch.

Notice I said “can.” Some Scratchers have 1,000+ posts and still don't have a clue what they're talking about.

Yes but some scratchers automatically have a bias before reading the post of a new scratcher who hasn't posted much.
Therefore, sometimes very good points are neglected or put off.

What I am saying is hiding the posts is not harmful and does bring its benefits as well.

I do have a bias toward those with little posts: I try to be more helpful! (for reasons already stated)

joshuaho wrote:

I am not sure whether to support or not. Just a few days ago, I made a suggestion, and I had about 1700 posts (1715 posts after this post was posted). However, a lot of people did not like my suggestion, and I ended up closing it.

But my point is this: I had over 1000+ posts, and people still hated my suggestions. So, for me, I'd day that if someone did not support on a suggestion topic, it very likely had to do with the suggestion and not the number of posts.

First, we don't hate them, we think/know they won't work/be implemented. But, you bring up a good point.

People don't necessarily not support because of their status. They just don't like it. These are two independent events.
Just wrapping up what was above.

Deerleg wrote:

People don't necessarily not support because of their status. They just don't like it. These are two independent events.
Just wrapping up what was above.

If you looked at the link I gave you that shows unanswered posts, you will find that the majority are from new scratchers.
This is a hypothesis; in any case, hiding the number of posts will not do any harm, and it might do good as well (which I personally think it will).

Deerleg wrote:

People don't necessarily not support because of their status. They just don't like it. These are two independent events.
Just wrapping up what was above.

Also, like I mentioned, most scratchers, by the time they see the number of posts, are automatically biased that the scratcher's post will not be a very good one. The truth isn't exactly pristine as it seems.

Give me a name of a topic (without the link) that meets all of the things listed below to prove that your theory is correct.
The topic has to:
1. Is a suggestion.

2. Contains scratchers that do not support just to bully the new scratcher because of his number of posts.

If you can give me a topic that meets the above, that will be your evidence of new scratchers getting non supporters because of his number of posts.

joshuaho wrote:

Give me a name of a topic (without the link) that meets all of the things listed below to prove that your theory is correct.
The topic has to:
1. Is a suggestion.

2. Contains scratchers that do not support just to bully the new scratcher because of his number of posts.

If you can give me a topic that meets the above, that will be your evidence of new scratchers getting non supporters because of his number of posts.

Its not necessarily suggestions

joshuaho wrote:

Give me a name of a topic (without the link) that meets all of the things listed below to prove that your theory is correct.
The topic has to:
1. Is a suggestion.

2. Contains scratchers that do not support just to bully the new scratcher because of his number of posts.

If you can give me a topic that meets the above, that will be your evidence of new scratchers getting non supporters because of his number of posts.

I am aware that also not many new scratchers make suggestions anyways, but here is your evidence:
http://scratch.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/discuss/topic/21436/

pigletdiglet wrote:

joshuaho wrote:

Give me a name of a topic (without the link) that meets all of the things listed below to prove that your theory is correct.
The topic has to:
1. Is a suggestion.

2. Contains scratchers that do not support just to bully the new scratcher because of his number of posts.

If you can give me a topic that meets the above, that will be your evidence of new scratchers getting non supporters because of his number of posts.

I am aware that also not many new scratchers make suggestions anyways, but here is your evidence:
http://scratch.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/discuss/topic/21436/

That doesn't meet both requirements.

pigletdiglet wrote:

joshuaho wrote:

Give me a name of a topic (without the link) that meets all of the things listed below to prove that your theory is correct.
The topic has to:
1. Is a suggestion.

2. Contains scratchers that do not support just to bully the new scratcher because of his number of posts.

If you can give me a topic that meets the above, that will be your evidence of new scratchers getting non supporters because of his number of posts.

I am aware that also not many new scratchers make suggestions anyways, but here is your evidence:
http://scratch.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/discuss/topic/21436/

Well, that doesn't meet #2 but I will say this: We don't respond to those because that suggestion has been made a hundredfold, so we often let those drift to the bottom of the forum ocean to allow the good suggestions to stay afloat. If we were to reply now and say “This topic is a duplicate of blahblahblah” it would bring the topic back to the top and push the suggestion queue down, often pushing a crucial topic to the next page. Now if it was made recently and still fresh on the page, it would be okay to post on it, but once it goes past a week without posts we kinda let it die to prevent the splitting up of discussions. So you see, it's not always to “bully” a new Scratcher. It's just letting them know that what they have suggested is no longer worth discussing because of its repetitive mentioning or because it's rejected.

The link you give to show unanswered scratchers is hardly useful. The majority of the unanswered questions are “Show and Tell”, where're the questions?
I generally post in the help with scripts and typically the only posts with 0 replies are spam.