EPTwith the following I want to give you a little food for thoughts about posting in general and why you should probably reduce your post count / length .
Please note that with this blog I am not trying to make myself look like a good poster as I more than often do not follow my own advice.
First, let's start off with rating different types of comments/ posts seperated by their content.
Think about posts in these categories and how you react to them. This will give you good advice on how other people will react to your posts.
1) Content: Information
1a) DONT: Long post. Lots of information
- In most cases, these will simply be skipped by the reader
- Like in business: People do not have the time and patience to read through a thousand paragraphs and filter out the important bit. In case somebody is really that interested in information on that specific topic, he will take the time to do research himself.
- Try to use simple language. Using difficult terms will not make you look smart, because really smart people can explain difficult things in easy language. Also: not everybody is fluent in the English language. Show some respect for those with limited skills who still try to communicate.
1b) DO: Short post. Few informations.
- Example: You watch a Youtube video of a Dota2 game. Which type of comment is often times upvoted? The ones that state when the draft starts and when the game starts. Pretty much a perfect example of a good "information post":
- Catchwords instead of run-on sentences.
- Containing information the reader wants to see instead of those the poster wants to get rid off.
2) Content: Opinion
A vast majority of all comments on the internet are people posting their opinion. Wether they were asked to do so, or not.
This makes a huge difference.
Imagine a caster feedback thread: Of course in this szenario the person who started it wants to hear your opinion. In other words: Your opinion is the information he needs. Post a useful informative comment, following the guidelines in 1b).
In most cases, however, no on asked you to write your opinion. And frankly, that's because in those cases no one cares.
Let's look at the reactions your opinion can arouse:
a) None.
b) Sombody agrees: I also like this warm fuzzy feeling. Nevertheless, this adds nothing useful to the conversation.
c) Somebody disagrees: As you know, though, nothing you can say will make him change his opinion. Keyword: Arguing on the internet.
Note: In my experience the chances of discussions being good/productive increase, when the number of people participating decreases. Discuss in private chats, if you really are interested in what the other has to say.
-> Apply in 19/20 cases: You posting your opinion has no impact on anything. It doesn't change anything. Therefore, save yourself the effort. You really should have better things to do. How much time have we all already wasted with useless posting?
3) Humour
The internet is full of people trying very hard to be witty and funny. Every twitterpost, every facebook status, every news article is followed by a swarm of people trying to be funniest comment clown of them all. For every successful one, of course followed by a shipload of encouraging LoL!s, there are 99 attempts, that just weren't. Now I am not saying that jokes are bad, not at all. But because there are so many attempts, you just get used to them and can't even really laugh about the few that truly were funny. That is the reason why no matter at how many funny pictures you see, you close to never really laugh. Your brain has just gotten used to this internet humour, which in my opinion, really is a shame. In this case, less really is more. We all can contribute to comments/ forums being more entertaining by decreasing our attempts at being funny drastically.
4) The shitstorms
I don't think I have to explain why these are useless.
The reason why a lot of companies have started to leave social media and a lot more will in the future: You cannot have any real conversations/ benefits in this online community because all comment sections / forums are constantly flooded with posters trying to get attention.
So, the conclusion is pretty simple and not new at all:
Post less and when you post, make it as useful as you can( = think).
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Why ,then, did I post this blog?
