Your thoughts on short forum posts?

Beverly Level X³

July 26, 2014, 10:50 pm

7

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I don't mind seeing short one or two line forum posts if they actually contain good information as it doesn't take fifty words to give a good response. But, if someone is just leaving, 'thank you' and "you're right!" responses on a forum, that's so obviously spam. And, most likely the forum member is just trying to boost their own forum post count to earn a signature line. If I see that type of response, I will most likely to delete it. If I don't delete it, then it's because I didn't see it. But when I find that post, it's gone.

What's your policy on short forum posts? Only referring to irrelevant posts/responses, not posts which are short but contain really good information or ideas.

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NaturalWriter

NaturalWriter

I usually issue warnings to those who are doing this. Half the ones I warn are apologetic and contribute. If they're true spammers, they will continue to do so until they get banned, or they just won't come back. Sometimes I will quote them when they say "That's nice" and ask them to explain why they think that way, just in an attempt to get an actual contribution...

12 years ago

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Beverly

Beverly

I usually issue warnings to those who are doing this. Half the ones I warn are apologetic and contribute. If they're true spammers, they will continue to do so until they get banned, or they just won't come back. Sometimes I will quote them when they say "That's nice" and ask them to explain why they think that way, just in an attempt to get an actual contribution...

As a forum owner, this is one of my biggest frustrations as usually the people who are saying, "That's nice" are just trying to boost post count, such as to get a signature line. If the response comes from a long time member who has actually contributed in the past, then I take that into consideration. Some really casual chat type conversations don't require a lengthy response. It's just when every response that member makes is only two or three words, it's easy to tell what their motive is.

12 years ago

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elladavidson

elladavidson

I do not think that short posts are bad as long as they answer what is being asked. I do not like the that's cool posts or something that really does not contribute to the whole idea.

12 years ago

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Jagger

Jagger

I do not think that short posts are bad as long as they answer what is being asked. I do not like the that's cool posts or something that really does not contribute to the whole idea.

These type of posts don't really contribute anything value wise to your forum and are likely to get deleted by your moderators anyway. They're just a waste of time really, especially since your moderators might have better things to be doing such as watching for spam links. So I would just ban someone outright who was just posting such insignificant posts, unless they had something truly valuable to offer per post.

12 years ago

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Multimastery

Multimastery

If it's not overdone then every now & then it might be ok. But if it's an obvious trend for the poster to boost their post count, then I would give them a strong warning once, and it they continue to do it they're outta there!

12 years ago

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Lillian

Lillian

If you don't delete these posts then others will see this as acceptable behavior. And, then your entire forum will be littered with short nonsense posts. Your job as moderator will be a lot harder then.

12 years ago

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Corzhens

Corzhens

When I was new in forum posting, it was my wont to make short posts. It’s not that I don’t want to write more but all along, I thought that a short post if better for the forum. But as you can expect, I was reprimanded for that and that’s when I started to write longer and longer until I was churning 4 sentences and longer. But I admire some members who make very long posts like more than a page of a word document. They may be good with the keyboard? Or simply prolific?

9 years ago

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