This OP has effort

Discussion in 'Other KaW Discussion' started by Pie, Oct 22, 2015.

  1. Yes, I've not been on or posted for a while, so why should my opinion be of any interest or consequence? Well because despite not being on much and posting much, I still care about how the forums and how they are managed.

    Having had another decent period of not posting, I have been able to get a large scale and fair view of the forums, looking in from a distance. And what I have noticed is that a particular issue still exists. I have pointed it out before but to no avail so I shall try again from a different angle.

    The issue that I have once again noticed is the locking of many threads with the reasons cited as "lack of effort". This is mainly done by Eagle.

    Now, to many people that may seem acceptable. After all, who wants low effort threads on the AT? But what if I told you that it is not mentioned in the ToS or RoC at any point that a thread must have a certain amount of "effort" put in to it. So why should they be locked if they aren't breaking any rules? Well, I guess that the answer is if the threads are detrimental to the forums or forum community.

    But if we start enforcing this 'effort requirement' how do we set the boundaries? For starters, what must a thread contain in order to be considered to have sufficient effort?

    Here's a conundrum. If we decide that there must be a minimum amount of words of text, then do we lock Dilly's Question thread? It is 5 words long so obviously hasn't had much effort put in to it.

    This leads me on to my next point:

    Threads can have potential to form in to reasonable discussions that can ultimately be beneficial to the forum community. Yes, I understand that Dilly's thread is a cliché example, but ask yourself, what would have happened if he had posted that thread in today's era? It would have been locked as soon as it was read. And the 1000s of people that it has helped wouldn't have benefited from it at all.

    My point is that not all short threads are destined to fail. I think we need to evaluate what's going on here and have a frank discussion about whether we should simply let some threads run before locking them. If a decent discussion comes from them then great! If one doesn't then lock it, but when it is locked immediately you will never know.

    Please note that this by no means an attack on Eagle as a person or otherwise. Simply his tendency to lock for lack of effort. He has been a friend of mine for many years and hope he will read this and ponder.

    I encourage you all to agree and disagree with me so that we can get a proper discussion going about this.

    WBP ️
     
  2. The main thing in my opinion is "community enjoyment". If I come across a low effort thread and the community is happily posting away on it and enjoying them selves, then I see no real reason to throw a lock on it.

    If the low effort thread isn't generating good discussion, however, it needs to slide off the AT board to make room for Better threads
     
  3. Exactly my point. When eagle immediately locks for lack of effort, he doesn't allow the opportunity for the thread to create enjoyment. It's not just the OP that creates enjoyment on a thread, it's the people that post on it and the content of those posts
     
  4. Quality not quantity.
     
  5. That's the phrase I was looking for :lol: I spent ages trying to get it to come to my head but my brain had a blank lol
     
  6. I agree with you, Tom. In fact I've thought this for a while now. When a thread is locked for lack of effort it is a subjective decision by the mods. There cannot be a strict scope or definition on what is considered low effort, I have seen a few times where threads have not even had the chance before being locked. I think threads should at least have some chance to generate a possible interesting discussion before immediately being locked because its one line long and deemed to be a lack of effort.

    In saying that I know there are some completely pointless threads out there that players have made. But there are other times when the thread has the potential to be interesting.

    Also, I've seen new players post questions on forums and getting locked for lack of effort. Maybe instead of just commenting 'lack of effort', the mods could put the effort in to explain in more detail why the thread is being locked. I feel just a 'lack of effort' comment might discourage players from trying in forums. Again, not saying this happens every single time. Just the occasional observation I have made.
     
  7. Couldn't have said it better myself
     
  8. You're putting too much thought into such a small thing. It's easy, really. If you're unable to determine if your thread has enough effort or not before posting, then you shouldn't be posting at all.
     
  9. I disagree. Some people are under the impression that enough effort requires colours and pictures. That doesn't mean they shouldn't post a thread without colours and pictures. Everyone has a different perception of what effort is. Hence why some threads are considered low effort by some, but acceptable by the author
     
  10. Most threads I've made significantly lack images, and definitely color. I just cba to do so, especially when most if not all of my posts are on mobile. If somehow, anyone thinks that painting your text with a pretty color or masking the thread with images and gifs magically amounts to effort then we have a bigger problem on our hands.
     
  11. The problem is that people have different opinions of what constitutes enough effort
     
  12. Thought provoking threads are full of effort to me, however thought provoking can be a single sentence.
     
  13. I'm not going to argue that, because I agree. It's true. However, the moment we let everyones perceptions guide the way we do things is the moment we lose structure and control.

    Glad you mentioned this. Effort isn't a matter of length, it's more topic based imo.
     
  14. I dont believe in the locking of threads,regardless of effort. A thread will die on its own if we arn't having fun with it.
     
  15. Threads can be 1 line and create a good discussion its obvious which ones need too be locked or not eagle just locks them all.
     
  16. The fact that #InB4Eagle has become a thing should say something. I wouldnt say he's a terrible mod but he is super lock happy.

    I remember a time when Moose was very lock happy but atleast his locks came with a hilarious picture.
     
  17. I very agree with what you brought up pie. There is low effort and there is spam. Low effort should not be locked and spam should be
     
  18. Op's kaw account has "lack of effort"...
     
  19. Furys outgoing hits have "lack of effort"
     
  20. I recall from a couple years ago, a thread on how to make a good thread... What happened to that? Perhaps that is the standard of enough effort? I don't remember much about it's content, just the subject matter.