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Low-Content Posts

evildice

evildice

(emotionally stable clown posse)
Joined
Jan 10, 2015
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Got a question about "thanks for the chapter" posts, should they be tolerated? If so, how many (in total or as a proportion of replies) would be tolerable?

On the one hand, seeing one or two isn't really a problem.

On the other hand, if that kind of low-content post fills a page and pushes out any substantive discussion, then it's likely to make story discussion more difficult to follow -- and we have a Like button specifically to handle low-content approvals like this.


Asking now because "TFTC" seems to have suddenly become more frequent, and might be easier to nip in the bud than wait until it's some kind of forum cultural identity thing.
 
evildice said:
Got a question about "thanks for the chapter" posts, should they be tolerated? If so, how many (in total or as a proportion of replies) would be tolerable?

On the one hand, seeing one or two isn't really a problem.

On the other hand, if that kind of low-content post fills a page and pushes out any substantive discussion, then it's likely to make story discussion more difficult to follow -- and we have a Like button specifically to handle low-content approvals like this.


Asking now because "TFTC" seems to have suddenly become more frequent, and might be easier to nip in the bud than wait until it's some kind of forum cultural identity thing.
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If you're noticing it that much, it's already a forum cultural identity thing tbh.

I mean, personally, I think there's a case to be made here because rule 5 is a thing, but I don't know how the rest of the staff feel about taking action on posts like that.

Is there an argument to be made that this sort of thing absolutely constitutes spam? Yep. Question's on if it's worth our time to like, moderate and go after on a regular basis though, and that's always going to be a trickier thing to try figuring out.

Like you mentioned, scale's also an issue. This is hardly a problem for less-populated threads but it sure as shit'll matter more for more highly-populated threads. I don't know what other members of the staff would find tolerable, and frankly I'm not even comfortable giving a hard limit as to what's tolerable and what isn't.

TL;DR - dunno.
 
TFTC has been a thing for quite a while.

That said I am of the mind that if a 'like' will some up your comment then just leave the 'like' … course there are times I want a dislike button too… but the issues with such are not wort the the headache.
 
Generic_Generica said:
If you're noticing it that much, it's already a forum cultural identity thing tbh.
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Nah it's isolated to a few threads and seems to be only fairly recently that it's enough for me to notice.

Here's one example:

https://forum.questionablequesting.com/threads/rising-from-the-deep-worm-si.21704/page-86
- New chapter this morning
- Almost 2 pages of follow-up
- Almost half of the comments are zero-content ("tftc") or low-content like-equivalent ("nice")

There is still some discussion, the author responded to every substantive comment, but it feels like a tipping point when almost half the replies are non-substantive -- and if we discard the author's responses, it's more than half non-substantive.
 
Silvercrystal said:
TFTC has been a thing for quite a while.

That said I am of the mind that if a 'like' will some up your comment then just leave the 'like' … course there are times I want a dislike button too… but the issues with such are not wort the the headache.
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If you do that you might just hurt someone's feelings :p
People nowadays live in social bubbles, as such their egos are often too fragile to accept any form of criticism. You can thank Youtube and social media for that.
evildice said:
Nah it's isolated to a few threads and seems to be only fairly recently that it's enough for me to notice.

Here's one example:

https://forum.questionablequesting.com/threads/rising-from-the-deep-worm-si.21704/page-86
- New chapter this morning
- Almost 2 pages of follow-up
- Almost half of the comments are zero-content ("tftc") or low-content like-equivalent ("nice")

There is still some discussion, the author responded to every substantive comment, but it feels like a tipping point when almost half the replies are non-substantive -- and if we discard the author's responses, it's more than half non-substantive.
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Nice XD
 
evildice said:
Asking now because "TFTC" seems to have suddenly become more frequent, and might be easier to nip in the bud than wait until it's some kind of forum cultural identity thing.
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Pretty sure this is spill over from people finding QQ (and SB & SV) from authors crossposting to RoyalRoad. It makes sense on there as there's no Like button, so the way to show no effort appreciation is a TFTC post. And they just continue from habit here. Maybe a post on the FAQ about the Like button being the equivalent of TFTC posts might help?
 
Ph34r_n0_3V1L said:
Pretty sure this is spill over from people finding QQ (and SB & SV) from authors crossposting to RoyalRoad. It makes sense on there as there's no Like button, so the way to show no effort appreciation is a TFTC post. And they just continue from habit here. Maybe a post on the FAQ about the Like button being the equivalent of TFTC posts might help?
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Makes a lot of sense, that would explain why some threads see a lot of it and others see none -- it's just RoyalRoad culture spilling over.

Mods & Admins, would it be possible to add something to that effect?
 
I usually see one guy spamming it, even if it's supportive shit like "thank you for writing", it gets annoying.
There's this cringe guy on ffnet that writes "ARIGATOU"(yes with caps and 'u') on every chapter of a couple fics I follow.

I don't like crosscontamination that's happening, by that I mean when people crosspost from cursed sites like webnovel.com. For example, just today I noticed an interesting Slime Datta Ken/Worm fic on SV, but it's just a stereotypical AO3 roflstomp shortfic that got crossposted coz readers told the author about that site.
 
Kay Redfield said:
People nowadays live in social bubbles, as such their egos are often too fragile to accept any form of criticism. You can thank Youtube and social media for that.
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Criticism isn't the problem. One of the problems is that dislikes aren't criticism; they're a content-free "you suck". Of course, many people would try to elicit the omitted criticism by interrogating all the dislikers about their reasons, but that tends to end badly.

It also, at least potentially, leads to the existence of weaponisation where if someone doesn't like you they'll go through your entire post history and dislike every post. On QQ I don't think there's any way to sort by likes, which removes the most pernicious form of this where there's an outright incentive, but still.
 
Huh.

Hi. So, I'm one of em TFTC guys.

Why post that? Honestly, I tend to speed read a chapter, leave a TFTC, come back to it later for a proper read, then share my thoughts about the chapter.

That, and I just get lazy sometimes and I wanna leave a lil bit of something so that OP know that I enjoyed the chapter, hence TFTC.
 
Venyr4434 said:
That, and I just get lazy sometimes and I wanna leave a lil bit of something so that OP know that I enjoyed the chapter, hence TFTC.
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Use the Like button, that'll show up as an alert for the author and there's a concrete number under the post which shows how many people liked it.

And it won't crowd out actual conversation about the chapter.
 
Eh. It ain't hurting anybody, but if it's really that bothersome, I'mma try to not post anymore TFTCs. Try, cuz at this point I almost automatically do it.
 
Venyr4434 said:
Eh. It ain't hurting anybody, but if it's really that bothersome, I'mma try to not post anymore TFTCs. Try, cuz at this point I almost automatically do it.
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It's half assed. This way you're telling the author you are too lazy to even spell out the words or write an interesting opinion/suggestion/critique, doesn't quite ring gratitude. Put yourself in author's shoes, would you care for the 100th thank you comment or would you just check the like count and what interesting things people have to say about the latest chapter?
 
In general, we don't have a blanket rule against low-content posts, and don't intend to institute one. Most of the enforcement of such a rule would probably be in the cases where it's not a big problem, and would just be adding mod work for little benefit.

If a particular thread is attracting so many low-content posts that it's pushing out normal discussion, we may institute a policy for that thread in specific. If so, the thread would get a reply banner notifying posters of the policy.
 
Venyr4434 said:
It ain't hurting anybody,
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People have a limited number of seconds in this world before they die. A thread clogged up with unnecessary posts takes more seconds to read, particularly if an extra page-load is required.

Now, one such person doing it is pretty minor, but a hundred and QQ becomes significantly harder to browse.
 
Kinkspoon said:
It sucks ass. Say what you will about Spacebattles, but obliterating this kind of shit on sight is one thing they absolutely do correctly.
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Honestly considering how toxic and shitty SB is I'd argue the opposite. If nothing else, some casual positive feedback, even TFTC, might make that place less of a dumpster fire. That's probably why they have so much negative feedback, all the casuals got nixed and the only people left who care enough to say anything are assholes.
 
Honestly, there are few things that sap my desire to engage in the forum quite as much as scrolling down after an excellent chapter in a story, wanting to read insightful commentary and engage other fans, and seeing "TFTC" multiple times.

Use the like button if you like the chapter. Use the reply box to compose a reply.

If you have nothing to contribute, don't.
 
I prefer posts over likes when I post stories and updates. It means the story was enough to get them to say something.

It may be low content, but it feels good knowing that I made something that made even a small change in someone's day, doing something most people wouldn't even bother doing.
 
My two cents is this, of course it's nice to see the Likes under your chapter, but then again seeing only a few posts it's sort of disheartening as an author, like I'm glad you like it, but really no questions etc.? On one of my last chapters I had a good discussion with one of my readers and it was so fun to discus it.
 
A basic bitch "TFTC" and nothing else is always kinda meh imo.

I usually try to add at least a "I liked part X because Y" or something funny, at the least. But just a 'TFTC' is space-wasting. Ask a question, add a reaction to a line that caught your eye, something.

But on the other hand, it can be a nice ego-boost for an author, and also help them know that people are *actually* reading/enjoying the work, as going just by likes can leave your thread potentially empty-looking.

Overall, my two cents gotta be that while it's not great, and you should put at least a tiny bit of effort in, it's not really all that bad.
 
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