Low effort Rule

[Clatratus]

I think this forum needs to have a rule(s) that prevent plain low effort threads. We have threads like "Do you enjoy dailies" / "SL looks boring?" where the OPs clearly did not put much thought when making them. As a result, the threads either go nowhere or it takes pages/days for the discussion to actually go somewhere. (I acknowledge that there are times where despite the OP not putting an effort into their post, the threads go somewhere, but that is rare and I am just focusing on OP etiquette.) I tried illustrating this in a thread I made but I think the execution could have been better since it wasn't well received/understood or maybe people didn't actually read it thoroughly. Either way, I am here now.

Now down to the actual rule. I think the rule could be broken down into two parts. The first part could be a message when starting a thread that says "Your post must be at least X amount of words long and promote a discussion" * or something along those lines. Alternatively, there could just be a forced minimum word limit for the OP like 150-250 words. With this kind of word limit, it will force most OPs to actually think about how they should word their post and overall more thought will go into it.

For the second part, I think there should be a rule in the Forum Rules & Guidelines that states something like "Do not create low effort threads that don't promote a discussion." At first, I was tempted to suggest adding onto the rule that says "Do not create pointless threads such as "Which class/race/gender/faction/server should I roll?" but I don't think that would have worked. This rule only ensures that the topic of the thread is not pointless but the rule that I think should be added would ensure that the thread itself along with the topic would not be pointless.

I know the rule I suggested may sound broad but it would allow people to report low-effort threads finally and help moderators close threads faster that are destined to go nowhere. Or at the very least, if the thread has already started going somewhere, the OP could get a warning/infraction so that they can put a little more effort next time.

*There could be a drop down option for polls to circumvent this rule because I know that the OP does not have to write down an exorbitant amount of words if they are gauging the community's feedback on a variety of items. This rule is mainly for single topics where the OP has a suggestion or thoughts on the matter that they would like to discuss.

[Frinata]

So basicly everything in this thread would qualify under the headings of this rule, and should thus have never been made, and is destined to be closed as a result.

Got it.

More on topic in the interest of it's ever limited lifespan of a conversation... That's literally every conversation. "Do you like dailies?" still promoted discussion and conversation, even if there is so much you can talk about before it innevitably derails, and either dies, or gets closed due to the severity of derailment.

The only thing you had that really would be useful is the word limit for an opening post. This would help to cut down on BOTS spamming the forum every so often with their hack links. That's about it. And even then, it would just take the people who deploy these bots to up their word count with literal nonsense to satisfy the word count.

So, all in all, the sentiment is... Interesting, but flawed from the get-go.

[Daedius]

They're just the equivalent of small talk.

[Vellus]

You're right that there's a lot of low effort posts - but considering the amount of nuance between them, I don't think word limits and vague requirements are really an approach that addresses the behavior that causes them. In addition, you've neglected to even nail down what would be considered productive vs low effort.

I don't believe Mods should have unilateral discretion on what is considered a "productive" thread as there's way too much room to argue one way or another. Even if an OP puts no effort into a title or post, the fact they continue for days encourages engagement on the site, and at the end of the day I think encouraging engagement on a forum is more important than policing what people want to talk about. Just my two cents.

[GreenJesus]

Those "low effort" threads "should" naturally just get bumped off the page if people aren't interested enough to post in them. The fact they get replies means that the topic was worthy of discussion. If a thread was actually some shitty low effort post then I just wouldn't bother replying to it.

[Tziva]

This isn't something that should be enforced my moderation. If the thread doesn't result in much discussion due to lack of effort, it will quickly fall off the front page and die. If the thread does result in good discussion, then it was obviously an interesting topic to the community worth discussing even if the OP didn't bother to put much time into it.