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Wednesday, February 11, 2004
A Question of Quality
Over the last couple of days, I've noticed a few comments here and there that really get to the heart of this whole "quality on the boards" issue.
For one, I noticed Raiha's thread in Battle Arena (which I offered my comments in). I also noticed Shinmaru's comments to someone in the Mario Kart 64 thread (and that person's subsequent response). He was kinda spammy in his response - in the sense that he didn't need to use the thread to comment about it - but at least he acknowledged our requirements. So hopefully he'll improve.
In the case of the Battle Arena thread, the argument about quality was pretty different to the usual. Usually it's a case of the staff trying to encourage someone to post longer, more in-depth posts. It doesn't mean that you need to write an essay, but it does mean that you should put at least a little thought into what you write.
But the Battle Arena thread seemed to be the opposite -- we had a couple of members who were calling everyone else lazy for not reading their ridiculously long character biographies. However, isn't it evident that having unreasonably long posts is just as bad as having unreasonably short ones?
It's like I said in that thread; if you can fit every element of your character's biography into the sparring match, fine. But this presumes that your actual in-spar posts will be massive in size and scope. And let's think about what a spar actually is. A spar, by definition, isn't as in-depth as an RPG. You are, afterall, talking about a fight between two characters. Sure, go into their background to help explain some of their actions in the battle. Talk about their personality and maybe talk about why they are who they are. But are such massive posts really necessary?
In my opinion, the idea that you should have these huge posts is actually as newbie-ish as having wafer-thin posts. The attitude with these guys was like "If you're too dumb to read my awesomely huge post, you aren't good enough to do battle with me." It seemed less about post quality and more about post size. And we all know that it's not how big you are...it's how you use what you have. Yeah.
I find it odd when someone asks me why I'm talking negatively about long posts -- afterall, isn't longer posts what I really want to see?
Well, no. I don't want people to post massively long, rambly posts, just for the sake of doing so. That's not the point. The point is to improve the qualitative nature of what you write. It's about bringing forward a combination of sound ideas and eloquent writing.
In terms of RPGs, I know that it's possible to write a couple of paragraphs, but still have them filled to the brim with beautiful wording and ideas. It takes far more effort to actually focus on those elements, than to sit there and type forever and ever.
Oh well. I know that sometimes I face an uphill battle, when it comes to encouraging large numbers of people to focus on quality. But I strongly believe that there is a genuine market for quality forums out there. I would hate to let OtakuBoards become just another spammy anime forum. I think even the members with lower-quality posts would notice (and dislike) the difference, were it to happen.
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