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Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 21, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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How low is "low effort" here?

Specifically, I sometimes see replies that are just 1-3 (non-quote) words, many of those simply expressing agreement or approval — "well said," "indeed," "exactly this," etc. — basically a "+1" verbal upvote. I report them for "low effort" when I see them, and yet, rarely do I see mod action.

The amount of effort we ask is largely proportionate to where a comment is posted.

Top level comment in the CWR thread? Better discuss something novel or add a lot of commentary and context to something you found online. Bare-links are not allowed as top-level comments there.

If discussing or debating something with another poster? Saying nah, I'd win won't cut it. That is mostly because that is refusing to engage in the kind of discussion we wish to encourage here.

But the amount of effort we care to police decreases monotonously as you go down deeper into the bowels of a thread. And as far as I'm concerned, specifically telling someone you like their comment or agree with them is both a very natural instinct and one that doesn't run afoul of either the prohibition on consensus-building or the effort rules. It's when you disagree that we have slightly higher expectations for you to articulate your disagreement. All affirmative comments are alike. All disagreements disagree in different ways.

Just think about it, if conveying the impression, with little effort, that you agree with someone was against the rules, why on earth would we have upvote or downvote buttons?

In a similar fashion, if two people in an argument have been making multiple high effort comments in response to each other, and someone gets tired or annoyed and leaves with a low effort one, that is also not worth modding, contingent on there actually having been a modicum of effort put in earlier.

And for the other threads, especially Wellness, Fun and so on, go for it, that is literally the place meant for low effort comments.

TL;DR: Please don't use the button that way, at least not there.

Eh, I disagree. I don't think it's valuable to have a comment that says "Great post, thanks", it just takes up space, and I think they should be removed. Removed without prejudice or implication of future warnings/bans sure, but still removed.