Cumulative Incorrigibles
I've been using the platform for a bit, and honestly there are a few things that are starting to get under my skin on posts. This isn't your typical "how to" on making things better - more of a personal perspective on the things that are truly irritating me in my daily browsing of this site.
- Vote Begging
If the post I'm reading is interesting and brings something to the table, it gets my upvote. If you end every post with "please vote for me". It makes me think you are just soliciting wantonly without any regard to whether your article deserves it or not.
- Follow Me / Follow You
In the same vein is the usual "follow" chain. In a graphic footer at the end of the post or even at the start, (cheeky monkey), there's a promise that someone will follow you if you do the same. Following should be to craft your own personal feed and what you want to see on it - not just because you are trading favors.
- Get Rich With This One Weird Trick!
Clickbait-y titles usually promising some kind of monetary reward where all the article contains is a bunch of regurgitated stuff that you run across either in the FAQ or elsewhere. Its just there to farm some views, and by extension, get some easy upvotes in the process. This sucks. I don't mind a good catchy subject line if the post itself is good, but do-nothing articles with baiting-titles really annoy me.
- Consider The N00bs
There are a lot of veteran users on the site, and it results in a bit of jargon and in-knowledge that isn't readily apparent to the newer people. Instead of making new users trawl help docs and such, maybe just throw in a few simple lines about what that fun little acronym means, or a basic "tldr" on more complex material. The newbies appreciate it, and you might get a follow out of it for being a font of knowledge, instead of trading in-jokes.
- Uncle URL Usually Is Useless
When I run across a post that is just one sentence and a cut-n-paste bit from another website, I have to wonder why you bothered in the first place. These kinds of posts seem to be accepted here, but I see it as really lazy and you won't be getting an upvote or a follow from me. If I wanted a link aggregator I would go to google news, they have lots.
- Regular Reanimators
I browse this site to see current and interesting things. I don't browse here just to find out that the article you posted was already posted by you six months ago. I know that some people don't see anything wrong with this, but personally it seems a bit lazy to me. If you can't be bothered to produce something new, then why should I bother with reading it or considering upvoting/following you?
Get off your lazy ass and do it right - everyone appreciates it, and the platform is enriched by the process.
Its great to get that all off my chest. I don't expect anything really to come of it or even have these points modify someone's behavior. Lets face it, if you've been using the platform longer than I have -- you are set in your ways and not about to change.
This post is mostly for those that are new, who are hoping to be a bit more than ClickBait-URLScraping-VoteBegging-FollowBots.
Now, get out there and start CREATING!