I might know how to destroy "First!" once and for all

[Something Amyss]

Low content posts are already moddable. Are you talking about literally locking it to prevent fewer than 100 words or so?

How I wish you would have said "First!"
You could have put your actual content in a spoiler with 'First!' as the title.

OT: I think that the escapist does a really good job with weeding out that stupidity. Other sites should just to that.

XD How I wish I had done that.

Oh well, too late.

 

[The Unworthy Gentleman]

Perceived problem #1: "That would be awkward and unfair; bringing the community to a sluggish halt just to get the first few posts off the ground."
But with this concept in action, I promise you, people will be scrambling to be the first ones to post. It will give one all the same great excitement and honor of being first, multiplied SEVERAL times over, because of how hard the title would be to achieve. The first ten posts will get made in no time at all.

Yeah, because lengthy posts are clearly better posts and being able to ramble on is an achievement.

Perceived problem #2: "But... wouldn't most people just spam 100 words into their post, just like how they spam a very short, quick post now?"
I can't say why exactly, but I just know that that wouldn't happen. I guarantee you. Not nearly as often, anyway. I dunno, I just have a feel for these things. A potential spammer would be extremely hesitant to manufacture a 100-word post with completely random brainfarts that make no sense; it's a very obvious, embarrassing crime. The fact that "First!" or "Haha nice vid!" or "Yay a new Movie Bob!" is done so frequently is because it is a short, quick act of vandalism that the poster can justify to them self very easily. A 100-word spam fest, they can not.

That completely validates your entire argument. I have a knack for knowing when people are incredibly wrong so you should trust me when I say you're incredibly wrong. Not trusting me here makes you a hypocrite.

Now 90% of them WILL just sit down for a minute, think super hard and force themselves to come up with something to say that will just barely get by the mods. So sure, it won't be natural. They would force the ideas to come to them within a very small time constraint. But you know who else forces their ideas to come to them within a very small time constraint? Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

87% of all statistics are made up. If they're willing to do it through force then they're willing to do it voluntarily too. Either they actually think about their post or they just ramble on. Guess which is easier and guess which one they'll do.

Edit:
It seems whenever I have a totally sweet idea and tell the Escapist about it, it gets shot down by everybody because none of them can take the greatness. And then I have to spend HOURS responding to every little nitpick and variable; most of the time it's just the same three arguments being made over and over again in slightly different words. So, just a little advice, if you come up with something to discredit this awesome idea with, first read through this thread. If you see somebody else already made pretty much the same point as you did, just quote or snip-quote their comment and say "I second that." It'll save me a lot of time.

So what you're saying is that most people have disagreed with you and therefore you are right and everyone else is wrong? You are aware that every little nitpick has to be meticulously thought out, evaluated and changed before an idea like this is actually implemented. Any idiot can slap on a character limit, it takes a smart idiot to do it right.

You're wrong. Your entire argument consists of assumptions, arrogance and just plain bullshit. Then you have the nerve to tell people that your idea is right because it's your idea and the narcissism to actually believe it. The best thing to do is to just ban people who spam posts, it gets rid of them straight off the bat.

 

[Ironic Pirate]

For threads that are for main features of the site, the first post has a minimum word # requirement.

So for example, the first comment for a new ZP episode must be at least 100 words long. Then the second, third and fourth must be 75 words long. Then the fourth through tenth must be at least 50.

That way, the first posters HAVE to come up with something useful and meaningful to say. Until someone whips up a good post, nobody gets to talk.


Perceived problem #1: "That would be awkward and unfair; bringing the community to a sluggish halt just to get the first few posts off the ground."
But with this concept in action, I promise you, people will be scrambling to be the first ones to post. It will give one all the same great excitement and honor of being first, multiplied SEVERAL times over, because of how hard the title would be to achieve. The first ten posts will get made in no time at all.

Perceived problem #2: "But... wouldn't most people just spam 100 words into their post, just like how they spam a very short, quick post now?"
I can't say why exactly, but I just know that that wouldn't happen. I guarantee you. Not nearly as often, anyway. I dunno, I just have a feel for these things. A potential spammer would be extremely hesitant to manufacture a 100-word post with completely random brainfarts that make no sense; it's a very obvious, embarrassing crime. The fact that "First!" or "Haha nice vid!" or "Yay a new Movie Bob!" is done so frequently is because it is a short, quick act of vandalism that the poster can justify to them self very easily. A 100-word spam fest, they can not.

Now 90% of them WILL just sit down for a minute, think super hard and force themselves to come up with something to say that will just barely get by the mods. So sure, it won't be natural. They would force the ideas to come to them within a very small time constraint. But you know who else forces their ideas to come to them within a very small time constraint? Trey Parker and Matt Stone.


Edit:
It seems whenever I have a totally sweet idea and tell the Escapist about it, it gets shot down by everybody because none of them can take the greatness. And then I have to spend HOURS responding to every little nitpick and variable; most of the time it's just the same three arguments being made over and over again in slightly different words. So, just a little advice, if you come up with something to discredit this awesome idea with, first read through this thread. If you see somebody else already made pretty much the same point as you did, just quote or snip-quote their comment and say "I second that." It'll save me a lot of time.

I hope the last paragraph is sarcastic. If so, good job, it made me laugh.

 

[hexFrank202]

A bunch of stuff

Well to all that, all I can do is re-quote what I already said:

"I think that, if anything, The Escapist should at least try this for a while. And if everyone else is right and I'm wrong, I'll eat a tub of Miracle Whip."

And now, at this point, I have to admit I've a lot LESS convinced in the idea. I guess I might have gotten a little too stoked on this idea because, despite HOW much time I've spent on the internet, I've almost never seen a website do it. Probably because I generally only go to GOOD websites. XP

It's just that the only time I WAS at a website that had a version of a word-count minimum in effect, it worked pretty well. But that was for a very specific, unique situation...

So yeah, fuck me.

YEAH! Lets make low content even MORE bannable! The mods here definitely aren't enforcing the low content rule harshly enough. (I am joking. My point is that sometimes a short post can convey a message better than several paragraphs.)

I agree. I just made a whole thread about that in fact... it's yet ANOTHER reason I realized why this wasn't at all a good idea.