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General: Worthless Replies
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
MMORPG.com's Jon Wood spends some time this week talking about single phrase replies on MMORPG forums, and how while they may feel good to make, they don't do anyone any good.
Oftentimes, if we disagree with something or there's something that we don't like, our gut reaction is to lash out against it, and tell the world how we feel. The internet in general is a great example of this, and our forums here at MMORPG.com are an excellent example of it.
Because of the ease and the anonymity of posting online, reactions to thoughts and ideas are often met with a chorus of replies like: Fail, this sucks, EPIC, awesome, WRONG, this is stupid, Best.Game. Ever., I won't ever touch this, you're stupid, and other equally guttural but ultimately completely worthless replies.
Now don't get me wrong, it's not that anyone's thoughts, comments or emotions are actually worthless. They are, in fact, completely valid and important to the person expressing them. They are, however, almost completely useless to anyone who would read them, whether it be here at MMORPG.com or elsewhere. For the moment, we'll focus on MMORPG.com and other MMO-related activities.
Read Worthless Replies.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
EPIC!
Ok... had to do that. Good article, touches the true essence of forums, they're mostly not all about everyone agreeing, disagreeing, joining together to troll or praise something, but about the discussion and feedback (posted in a constructive way). But yeah there are also situations in which someone just wants to quickly check what's the average opinion about a subject, even if it's just to check if his own is the norm or the exception.
From my experience on MMORPG.com's forums, its usually those worthless posts that get the replies.
yep i bet hitler would have loved to be able to filter those he felt were on the wrong side!(lol)
but today its nice because if its not internet it satelite radio(howard sern)if its not there its
tv (G4TV)or here mmorpg.whatever wish some might have to bottle the info.it wont work
some are negative some are positive.the part i agree is the disrespect part.
in my book name calling of any kind for any reason isnt cool
i probably insulted someone without knowing.we reach the globe so if i say cash cow
did i just offend someone that in their culture cow are sacred .probably !
in the end its hard to please everybody!
I'm willing to bet this was written because of the SC2 Article that was put up a few days ago and it recieved a lot of negative comments.
Full Sail University - Game Design
"Worthless Article"!!!!
Ugh...at some point Devs will look outside the box.
Damn it i was about to say that.
Sorry for not being a novel writer.
...and apparently editors can get away with telling posters they're being douches, but us peons get infractions for less.
Fail.
Sorry, had to. And, yeah, I hate useless replies, too. People who can't think of anything to say hitting reply just to get their name, icon, or whatever out there and seen. If your reply is forgettable, so is your name. That's the flipside of being anonymous. No one knows you, so no one knows you.
I've got to wonder if he realizes he also makes wortheless replies on these very forums.
Like the other day where he quoted someone and said something along the lines of "That added a lot to the conversation." in a sarcastic manner, when the irony of the situation was his very reply added even less to the conversation and was indeed..... worthless.
I think you are right and wrong at the same time. Many suspects are probably fine with making worthless replies. They think right now "So what?". The rest agrees. The people who are the "target audience" of your post probably have some ideas now:
I never thought about it this way. All the time I wrote "FAIL" I was sure that the developers would turn the "Fun" knob in their Game Dev Interface a bit further to the right. Are you saying there is no such thing? Are you also indicating there is no such thing as a "remove bug" button? I was damn sure they have that these days and just need to be reminded to press it more often (or write a macro and let it run over the night, duh! stupid devs).
The issue also runs back home. It may not really be your concious decision who is posting and who doesn't. However, it is known that it can be influenced to a certain degree. Make it so that the people who contribute meaningful things "like it here" and people who don't "don't like it as much". There is a variety of tools for that, employed on sites like YouTube where they have similar issues to the power of ten. Having a minimum amount of words required per post is quite standard in many forums too, for example.
Speaking of Target Audience. MMORPG.Coms forums are not really targeting at people who post more "valuable" information. I am just being fair. The interesting discussions happen elsewhere, some guild forums are known for that, devs hang out in their blogosphere cloud, sometimes they emerge in some other forums, then there are places where is more academia stuff. The indepth game related things are probably rather in the games native forums etc. There is certainly room for improvement.
I don't remember reading anywhere in the article that said he didn't do anything of the sort. All he's doing is pointing out and putting into words what everyone probably knows already....
Sometimes I wonder if people make stupid posts to be funny/annoying, or if they really are just that stupid.
This is a forum dedicated to discussing MMOs. By definition, every thread, every post, and every reply here are worthless. We're not discussing world peace here...
so basicly!what insight did we learn from this article!what knowledge did we gain(that we didnt have previous to this article!)
No a stupid/worthless post would be quoting your post and saying:
Affected much?
Speaking from personal experience as a forums moderator, someone needs a vacation.
Terse replies in agreement or disagreement are not ever going to go away. It's part of the nature of the Internet, people's ingrained interest in participating at whatever level they can, and the constant state of time pressure most of us live in.
Quoted for truthiness.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
This.
Not to add another "worthless" reply, but what, exactly, was the purpose of this article? Those who post those kinds of responses will keep doing so, as has already been proven in this very thread. Overall, the article came off a bit preachy. What was your target audience with this article?
Which was only posted to be worthless and not because I care/know what the people above said/meant/were implying.
A thread about worthless replies, filled with worthless replies.
-Butthurt-
A popular word used to explain a worthless nonsensical reply. This very word can sum up just about every worthless reply you'll find on the interweb.
Worthless replies are to be expected on any forum, and nine times out ten are best to be ignored. Most of the more rabid examples such as "FAIL", are a result of criticism directed at something the poster enjoys or has an interest in. Their favorite MMO as an example, poster a) expresses a concern about a game mechanic, usually the first response is something like, poster b) "Fail troll, is fail".
The worst part is more often than not this post gets the most attention, and the subject matter is lost. Of course this is where moderation comes in, which really is the only answer to these problems as they will always exist. When there's a gripe to be had, there's a butt that's going to get hurt.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
It's been this way since the old 1200 baud bulletin board days, or you could liken it to prank phone calls or public restroom graffiti. Ever since there have been ways of communicating anonymously there have been people who amuse themselves by 'pushing people's buttons' knowing that they are safe from repercussion.
You can just imagine them giggling at their own disingenuousness as they cause people attempting to have a reasonable discussion to become frustrated enough to give them the attention they desire. Groups of like-minded twits might get together to play 'Let's troll the forum' where they take turns seeing who can get the most attention whilst their adle-brained buddies slap each other high fives and laugh about all the stupid people who take them seriously.
Of course people like this also are the type that get caught spanking it at the public library computer. And it's a definite sign of bedwetting.
That's why I feel sorry for Trolls, poor bedwetting, chronic masturbators with attention issues.
You know who you are.
exactly!
I think he wrote it for himself.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
I don't know, I see where you're going, but to me MMOs seem more 'worthwhile' than world peace. I mean, reaching max level in an MMO and getting enjoyment from it and such are attainable goals. World peace is not attainable because peace is not a natural reality. Life is competition and struggle, or stagnation and death.