Criticism Policy - "Meh"

Re: Criticism Policy - "Meh"

Thu, 20 Mar 2014 20:43:49 +0000

Belatedly supporting any move to invalidate "Meh" as appropriate criticism.

NO MORE MEH

Thu, 20 Mar 2014 01:26:15 +0000

It is done.

http://www.scp-wiki.net/forum/t-677479/criticism-policy#post-1994742
http://www.scp-wiki.net/criticism-policy

Edit: If anyone disagrees with my edits and/or has ideas for better wording, let me know. I'm pretty sure I got rid of all the "meh" sanctioning, but there's always the chance I missed something.

Re: Criticism Policy - "Meh"

Wed, 19 Mar 2014 20:51:34 +0000

Meh.

I agree, "Meh" is useless to the author unless accompanied by some specific critique.

Re: MY NAME IS CALLED AND I AM SUMMONED!

Wed, 19 Mar 2014 19:49:18 +0000

All's well, then. =)

Re: MY NAME IS CALLED AND I AM SUMMONED!

Wed, 19 Mar 2014 06:34:51 +0000

If you're cool with it, I'm cool with it.

Re: MY NAME IS CALLED AND I AM SUMMONED!

Wed, 19 Mar 2014 06:33:32 +0000

If Bright is fine with it, then I'll slip in and give it my stamp as well.

MY NAME IS CALLED AND I AM SUMMONED!

Wed, 19 Mar 2014 04:23:33 +0000

Cause I'm a fucking addict and can't actually stay away…

I have stopped using 'Meh' for all but joke purposes these days. I am all for removing it from the policy.

Also, the very idea of someone using it as draft critique fills me with a boiling rage.

Re: Criticism Policy - "Meh"

Wed, 19 Mar 2014 01:50:07 +0000

Yeah, I was unsure about Bright's take on this too. Unfortunately, he's away for a few weeks (thread here: http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-814523/away ).

I'll send him a PM and post when he replies. Granted, this has been a long time coming, but I was recently pushed to bring this up when a new member (3 hours ish at time of their first post?) gave the critique "Meh." on the draft forums, and another new member brought up the criticism policy.

Re: Criticism Policy - "Meh"

Wed, 19 Mar 2014 01:46:55 +0000

Actually, can we wait until Bright gets back? Sorry I didn't get in here sooner, but the last couple of days have been kind of crazy.

Given that he's one of the main forces behind having the Meh exception, I'd like to give him a chance to weigh in first. Doing it behind his back like this seems wrong.

Please don't make the change just yet, Zyn.

Re: Criticism Policy - "Meh"

Wed, 19 Mar 2014 00:39:01 +0000

That's three admins agreeing and a buttload of other staff and as of yet I haven't heard any staff disagreement.

Zyn, go ahead and make the changes.

Re: Criticism Policy - "Meh"

Tue, 18 Mar 2014 21:55:32 +0000

Very much this. I'm for the removal of the "meh permission" line (though let's not ban the word); it'll improve critique quality. Hopefully.

Re: Criticism Policy - "Meh"

Tue, 18 Mar 2014 16:55:20 +0000

I also throw my hat in for removing the validation for "meh" on its own.

"Meh." (used by itself) as a valid criticism.

Agreeing with this in particular, because we want to make sure to specify that using "meh" in the context of proper feedback is not bad.

So in terms of reviews, basically:

"Meh." = bad

"Overall this article was kind of 'meh' to me, and here are the reasons why…" = okay.

I know that should be super obvious, but…y'know, just bringin' it up. :)

Re: Criticism Policy - "Meh"

Tue, 18 Mar 2014 12:18:38 +0000

Agreeing with everyone else— time to delegitimize "Meh." (used by itself) as a valid criticism.

Re: Criticism Policy - "Meh"

Tue, 18 Mar 2014 12:07:52 +0000

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

Re: Criticism Policy - "Meh"

Tue, 18 Mar 2014 11:07:55 +0000

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

Re: Criticism Policy - "Meh"

Tue, 18 Mar 2014 04:02:48 +0000

^What all y'all said.

Re: Criticism Policy - "Meh"

Tue, 18 Mar 2014 03:19:49 +0000

"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"

Tue, 18 Mar 2014 01:32:26 +0000

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"

Tue, 18 Mar 2014 01:29:29 +0000

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"

Tue, 18 Mar 2014 01:28:54 +0000

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"

Tue, 18 Mar 2014 01:28:12 +0000

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"

Tue, 18 Mar 2014 01:22:53 +0000

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

Re: Criticism Policy - "Meh"

Tue, 18 Mar 2014 01:22:24 +0000

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.

Re: Criticism Policy - "Meh"

Tue, 18 Mar 2014 01:21:48 +0000

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

Criticism Policy - "Meh"

Tue, 18 Mar 2014 01:21:10 +0000

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?