Criticism Policy - "Meh"

Summary:

Meh?

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Criticism Policy - "Meh"

Zyn 18 Mar 2014 01:21

Okay, so the current Criticism Policy states the following:

Even "meh" counts as content, because it succinctly expresses "this didn't grab me". So does "I agree with what so-and-so said" or even "^this". An emoticon, an insulting macro, or "lol" is not content; it's spam. ("lol" could mean almost anything, whereas "meh" means one thing.)

I don't agree with this. Thoughts?

Re: Criticism Policy - "Meh"

RJB_R 18 Mar 2014 01:21

Yeah I don't agree with it either. We could do to cut that out.

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Re: Criticism Policy - "Meh"

Communism will win 18 Mar 2014 01:22

Given that it was basically put in there to grandfather in Bright's habit of saying "meh", I think we can safely remove that bit.

I think we should let "^ this" and "I agree with _____" stay, though.

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Re: Criticism Policy - "Meh"

Zyn 18 Mar 2014 01:28

Yeah. As Procyon said on chat, "Yeah. "What he said" is worthwhile as it expresses support for someone else's opinion." I can get behind that.

Re: Criticism Policy - "Meh"

ProcyonLotor 18 Mar 2014 01:22

There's no reason to keep it around. It's more or less shitposting.

Re: Criticism Policy - "Meh"

thedeadlymoose 18 Mar 2014 01:28

Yeah, I think we could do without that.

I should note that if it WAS in there to grandfather in Bright's habit, I was completely unaware of that. From my standpoint, it was to make guidelines on posting less strict. But even Bright has specifically stopped using 'meh' because he felt it was useless to the author.

I'd say the arguments against it have convinced me it's a bad thing, though, so yeah: Let's just stop with the 'meh's and similarly low content posts, with the exception of "I agree with X" posts (as Scan said), because a critical mass opinion is still useful to know so long as it doesn't become dogpiling. (A fine line, sure, but that's what using our judgment is for.)

Re: Criticism Policy - "Meh"

Aelanna 18 Mar 2014 01:29

I have never understood the point of this paragraph in the Criticism Policy. It makes absolutely no sense because "meh" is literally nothing more than sanctioned spam and plus-postcount, and does absolutely nothing to help the author improve. If "meh" is all you have, then your downvote or lack of a vote is enough. In fact, it is less than just a downvote because it actually hurts the newbies who put effort into writing and expect the community to at least put some effort into critique other than just a useless one-word reply.

I'm going to be honest, I'm not convinced this wasn't a stubborn holdover from certain members of staff wanting to keep the time-honored tradition of shitting on newbies with indifference. I feel that strongly about this.

Re: Criticism Policy - "Meh"

Silberescher 18 Mar 2014 01:32

There's no value to just saying "meh". The guideline regards posts that have no content whatsoever beyond "lol" or ":l"; there's nothing about "meh" that makes it inherently better than those. It's shorthand for an idea as much as "lol" means "I am laughing at this" or an emoticon means "Here is the emotional reaction I receive from this." Both are still basically spam if they're used on their own.

If you want to express a vague sense of disapproval, just explain that sense of disapproval. If you want to express it without explaining it, the downvote button does that.

Re: Criticism Policy - "Meh"

azzleflux 18 Mar 2014 03:19

"Meh" is pointless. It's more informative to say that it didn't interest them or things they found bad about it. The word by itself gives no more information than just saying plainly stating you downvoted without context.

Re: Criticism Policy - "Meh"

Pig_catapult 18 Mar 2014 04:02

^What all y'all said.

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Piffy is an SCP Foundation Moderator, Lv. 9001 Squishy Wizard, and Knight of the Red Pen.

Re: Criticism Policy - "Meh"

Crayne 18 Mar 2014 12:07

I see what you did there. But yes, ^this.

Re: Criticism Policy - "Meh"

Eskobar 18 Mar 2014 11:07

So common sense, I figured it had already happened. I've been telling people informally not to "meh" as comments for forever. Good show.

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