That's pretty much the bread and butter of reddit comments. It might be an interesting post and there is definitely interesting conversation somewhere in there...but you've got to wade through a large amount of puns and people thinking they are funny. Those things usually lead to highly upvoted large comment threads that have no relation to the original submission.
If there's a system in place to gain points then people are going to take the easy road with silly jokes and odd comments in an attempt to get points rather than contribute to the discussion.
I understand that there are exceptions to every rule and you bring up a valid exception to this one, but, generally speaking, anyone leaving a 5 word response could probably give it 30 seconds more thought and produce a response that is more comprehensive and articulate. If 5 words is all you can type on the subject and your comment still adds something valuable to discussion, then so be it. However, I think it is fairly obvious that this would be far, few, and in-between.
I can't speak to this from the perspective of a Snapzu veteran as I am new as well. That being said, my take on things so far is that Snaps, text posts, and Link posts are whatever you want them to be, within the rules of the site. This "more than 5 words" thing is directed at the comments section. Basically what is being stated: If you came to the comments to discuss the post or the snap, it should be a thorough discussion, not a 5 word comment.
Obviously if a particular tribe has designed a unique comment system where comments are for link sharing rather than discussion, I would think their tribe rules would clarify this in the side bar. Furthermore, if they intend to use the comments section for something other than discussion, I would also assume that they would disallow cross-posting content as it would confuse people that linked to the comments from another tribe.
Like I stated in the top this is more about people posting really short irrelevant comments in rapid succession over various tribes with the sole goal of farming of xp. If you make a short comment somewhere but your feed represents otherwise normal activity there is nothing to worry about. But gigantic runs of "hi" "hello" "thanks" "great" make the tribe or following streams near unusable
I also think that people, in general, could spend some time on their comments. Short 5 word comments may be able to add to discussion but more often than not, they are simply a pun or a message of agreement/dissent. I think more can be said in those comments. If you agree, why do you agree? If you disagree, why do you disagree? If it is a pun, fine add your pun but then under it, also add relevant opinions to start discussion.
I am obviously not a chief here or an admin or anything, simply a user- However, I maintain the opinion that we should be promoting civilized, quality, conversation in the comments. This site takes a bit of personal investment to get into and that should show in the comment section to differentiate it from other aggregating sites that are littered with garbage comments and empty content.
Honestly if there is a novelty tribe that requires this kind of behavior let them go at it in their tribe that way it stays out of non tribe members feeds. But turning of xp gains from said tribe would be a great option to avoid just blatant farming
I don't personally want that choice. It is so much easier to follow the low effort, fast reward comment than the high effort slow reward one. Maybe today I ignore the one word comment but maybe tomorrow I will be more lazy. I come here for the quality content. I can go somewhere else for the one word stuff.
Exactly. If you want to comment in full agreement like a "this" comment why not think of another point that adds to the point you agree? Maybe state why you personally agree; or even restate the point from a different view point. There are tons of way to make a decent meaningful comment.
Yes, it says you agree with the comment. Although, I always thought it was an useless statement. If you agree with a comment, upvote it, no need to "this" it.
There's probably some circumstances that would make them acceptable, depending on tribe subject and nature of the submission. I think the spirit of what he's trying to say is don't go and make short comments just to farm xp. People can make meaningful short comments; but it's the short "lol", "this", and other non-meaningful comments that should be avoided.
I wouldn't say they generally hurt discussion, just in this case they probably will, especially with the Reddit exodus. The problem with XP-farming comments is that they are quick and easy to post, and block out good discussion. With the XP-farming, these posts are almost encouraged. Since the actual comment post gets XP, and a user doesn't need to worry about getting upvotes to generate the XP, low quality comments are going to be everywhere. What might be better is a system with a little XP given to every comment, and then more XP given if the comment is well-upvoted. The base number can't be zero, or else you basically end up with a best-pun-contest thread like many good reddit discussions devolved into. Maybe someone should come up with an improved system and post to the improvement tribe.
At first glance i would agree but on a second thought, do short comments really hurt a discussion?
I mean, the threaded nature of the comments makes it really easy to ignore them. You can just follow the comment path you like.
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I don't personally want that choice. It is so much easier to follow the low effort, fast reward comment than the high effort slow reward one. Maybe today I ignore the one word comment but maybe tomorrow I will be more lazy. I come here for the quality content. I can go somewhere else for the one word stuff.
I totally get you. The question is, what is better for the community.
1. Introduce, for example, a comment character limit and thus ban the useful short comments as well.
2. Go with the current route and let the comment path determine the good content.
3. We could make downvoting short comments free and notice the author that short comments are usually not the best or something like that.
I have no real answer to this to be honest.
*edit: Added point 3
I like point 3, I suppose people would end up just padding the comment with blank characters for point 1.
Totally.
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And there's the problem with that. The comment above the line is 8 words, only one is mine, and none of it adds to the conversation.
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Those who type essay for comments are really annoying, though. I don't mind people sending short comments
There's probably some circumstances that would make them acceptable, depending on tribe subject and nature of the submission. I think the spirit of what he's trying to say is don't go and make short comments just to farm xp. People can make meaningful short comments; but it's the short "lol", "this", and other non-meaningful comments that should be avoided.
I wouldn't say they generally hurt discussion, just in this case they probably will, especially with the Reddit exodus. The problem with XP-farming comments is that they are quick and easy to post, and block out good discussion. With the XP-farming, these posts are almost encouraged. Since the actual comment post gets XP, and a user doesn't need to worry about getting upvotes to generate the XP, low quality comments are going to be everywhere. What might be better is a system with a little XP given to every comment, and then more XP given if the comment is well-upvoted. The base number can't be zero, or else you basically end up with a best-pun-contest thread like many good reddit discussions devolved into. Maybe someone should come up with an improved system and post to the improvement tribe.