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naraburns  nihil supernum  1d ago (text post)   1687 thread views

Quality Contributions Report for November 2025

This is the Quality Contributions Roundup. It showcases interesting and well-written comments and posts from the period covered. If you want to get an idea of what this community is about or how we want you to participate, look no further (except the rules maybe--those might be important too).

As a reminder, you can nominate Quality Contributions by hitting the report button and selecting the "Actually A Quality Contribution!" option. Additionally, links to all of the roundups can be found in the wiki of /r/theThread which can be found here. For a list of other great community content, see here.

These are mostly chronologically ordered, but I have in some cases tried to cluster comments by topic so if there is something you are looking for (or trying to avoid), this might be helpful.

Particular thanks/congratulations this month to @Rov_Scam, who double-tapped two weeks and the Main Motte category this month, carrying nearly 20% of the total report. Some of you may recall that one of the ways I whittle down the list is, if you have multiple QC nominations in a single month, each comment included in the final report weighs against including an additional comment in the report. Nevertheless, the primary driver of the AAQC report is community feedback, and of the dozen or so comments @Rov_Scam had nominated, every comment included here was in the top ten posts of the month.

Quality Contributions to the Main Motte

@Rov_Scam:

@problem_redditor:

@comicsansstein:

@roystgnr:

Contributions for the week of October 27, 2025

@FiveHourMarathon:

Contributions for the week of November 3, 2025

@OliveTapenade:

@Hieronymus:

@Rov_Scam:

@BahRamYou:

@Amadan:

@BreakerofHorsesandMen:

@clo:

@Bartender_Venator:

Contributions for the week of November 10, 2025

@aqouta:

@Agentorange:

@Dean:

@Rov_Scam:

@FtttG:

@faceh:

Contributions for the week of November 17, 2025

@BahRamYou:

@teleoplexy:

@Rov_Scam:

@FiveHourMarathon:

@DirtyWaterHotDog:

@ABigGuy4U:

@Dean:

Contributions for the week of November 24, 2025

@self_made_human:

@FiveHourMarathon:

@Dean:

@thejdizzler:

@Iconochasm:

@problem_redditor:

@georgioz:

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"The point I am trying to make is that cheap, mass-produced slop has existed in the music industry for as long as production costs were cheap enough to justify it."

This conversation felt way too cute to me. Lots of describing Record Industry Facts as if they're more important than they are. Plus stuff like the following.

If the record companies wanted to, they could have always signed as many of these musicians as they could, pay for a recording session, pay the musicians a low flat fee, and completely spam the market for little cost. If they get a hit or two out of the deal, great. If not, they're only out ten grand.

Hearing that the requirements have gone from a group of trained people and ten thousand dollars to something a kid can do on their phone for free did not make me feel the way I think it was supposed to here. By this logic everyone concerned about AI visual art can just relax. After all, visual media companies could have always hired infinite boardwalk sketch artists to spam the market, but they didn't.

I think that @Rov_Scam has a point - one example is Spotify. According to this article, 80% of artists on Spotify have fewer than 50 monthly listeners, and only around 50% of tracks were played more than 500 times. So in that sense, there already exists more music almost nobody ever heard of, that you could conceivably listen to in your lifetime even in specific subgenres. And yet it did not move the needle too much for established artist.

According to this article, 80% of artists on Spotify have fewer than 50 monthly listeners

It's good to be above average.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


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If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


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