Discerning the user content

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This is a thread on user content made on the forum. It's about helping make a bad topic better. Too often threads go bad, people don't explain stuff or don't tell you much when the topic may need them to go more in-depth. I planned to go back for a thread I already made but I'll let it sink and fade to the back pages of the forum. I'm going to be doing more here than what I would've done there. The focus of this topic is orchestrating the user content. What happens and specific methods and procedures that can be done to encourage good posts. This is vital to build a better forum, the function of the forum.

Discussion topics are bound to take place on certain areas of the forum. As I was saying, they go bad for the reason I described. There are going to be times when it won't be easy to tell if a topic is a discussion topic. What a thread is about depends on the purpose of the person making the thread. What their intention is. There are threads where a person just wants to vent. There are threads where a person is asking a question or seeking for advice/help. There are threads where a person has an item to display to you. There are threads where a person is making a discussion. You'll figure out what type of thread it is when you see the topic being posted. A poster might be vague on a thread they start. It's helpful when a user explains what the purpose of their thread is and how it's relevant. It also would be helpful when a moderator asks what the point of the person's thread is if such situation surfaces. To identify if a thread is a discussion topic you have to recognize that the person is initiating a discussion. They need guidance and direction to function properly.

There are different actions of a user to distinguish between. What is the action of the person posting? Are they making a comment or a claim/proposition? These are the things to watch for. A comment is a remark or observation. A claim and proposition is when you're asserting something, you're making a declaration. When someone comes out with a statement, it could be one of these. It can also get tricky. When someone is making a claim/proposition they are inviting you to something more in-depth. When it gets to that things needs explanation for someone to know about something in detail. Far too often people say something without explaining and providing a reason to it. Because this happens, it makes the thread not interesting. The readers need to know why you said what you said. If someone went to me and said "Hey, I saw a movie", I could go "What movie?" because that's not interesting. If they said they saw a movie and told me specific things with detail, that would be interesting. Just like in real life, someone might say to you "tell me about it" or "tell us about it". That's exactly how the user content needs to be approached to deal with the issue. 

Lets say someone makes a thread "What is your favorite animal?", and your answer the Bear. Just saying the Bear wouldn't be telling the reader much. Going into aspects about the Bear would. Giving specific things like its fur, its strength, or its behaviour tells the reader why you like the creature. Lets say someone makes a thread "Saddest moments in a TV show or movie", and you name something in particular. Is there a moment in that TV show or movie that you can point to? Why did you think it was sad? How did it affect you? Take the viewers who are reading through it. The examples I made are threads that encourage you to make a claim. The first one has a question mark to its title where you know it wants an answer to it while the second one does not. The thing to watch out for is if a thread is encouraging someone to make a claim or proposition. A thread that does this will give you an idea if the person is trying to initiate a discussion. So it helps to know the purpose of the thread.

Enforcement is going to be needed to make someones bad topic better or encourage good posts. The moderators will have to have a more active role. There is going to have to be a rule (made) for it. I'd refer to it more as a commandment, if you will. This is something that can be made and written as a communicated guideline. It functions as an operation that dictates how the activity of certain topics will go. What this commandment is is to prohibit the action I described, when people don't give a reason to what they say. When they simply make a list post or don't provide much explanation to their statement. With this, the moderators have authorization to step in and get involved with the user content. Users will be forced to explain if the topic encourages people to make a claim/proposition. So if a poster makes a claim/proposition but doesn't provide much/enough detail to their statement, a moderator can come in and request them to do so. For instance, a poster gave an opinion on a topic but didn't tell you why; the moderators can ask that person "Why do you think that?" and make that person give more detail. The poster needs to "tell you about it", as I pointed out above. When a poster fails to comply that's when a moderator takes action. The moderators delete the post or edit over it, if the posts do the things I mentioned. Users need to be notified beforehand and given a time-frame to comply with the request when the moderator action is taken. If a moderator wants to delete the user's post they'll do so and make a following post to offer their statement. If a moderator wants to edit over the user's post they'll do so and offer a statement in the edited post. They have to tell the users stuff like "You need to explain" or "Please provide more detail". A moderators job is to have interaction with other forum members. They'll be enforcing the supposed rule/commandment, following the steps I described above. The moderators offer their insight on a topic, if they know anything about the subject. There are going to be situations where discerning a user's content will get tricky. It's up to a moderator to look at a post and make a judgment call.

People might be wondering what would be deemed as a good effort. It's dependant on the potential of the topic. How much you can get out of it. A thread on something like food doesn't have more than stuff like how good a food is or how it smells. While a thread dealing with TV shows or movies have many areas you can explore like the story, characters, visuals, music, and other things. The moderators will determine the potential of a topic. They'll have to announce to the users what they see and how much you can get out of the topic. They make the call on what would be enough to be a good effort. This is done so users know what to expect and aren't left guessing what they're supposed to do. Users will be checking with the moderators in a situation where they need direction. Regular posters helping in the process is encouraged and useful. But ultimately, the moderators have the power and makes a decision on how things will go. Another thing that would be useful is to have a rule on when people create a thread. Most often the opening poster doesn't add their own opinion or give a good introduction to what their thread is about. To reconcile with what I said above, the thread creator should present the topic in a way so that the course of the thread is understood. Many times the opening-post doesn't engage in the thread and it doesn't set a good tone. They give a topic without putting thought and effort into it, and expect other people to run with it. This often encourages laziness and everyone will do the same thing. Opening posts should set the tone and be a springboard for further conversation. If a rule is made for this, the moderators can take action at their discretion. With it being enforced, the OP has to lead by example.

If someone needs clarity on the things I covered, we can talk more about them. Another thing we can do in this thread is run practice sessions, to get a handle/grip on how this is going to work. Some of the sub-forums require people to engage in a conversation for certain type of threads. There are old sub-forums that need to come back. What I talked about could open those doors.