Encouraging post quality

[Lord Saru]

What are some the steps you take as a webmaster to encourage post quality within your forums? The best two ways are to use a like/reputation/best answer system and also to make post length a criteria in determining the amount of virtual currency you get for each posts.

Any other effective measures that you know of?

 

[Atrox]

Maybe setting a minimum amount of characters per post.

 

[coolframe]

I think it is the best way, setting minimum words or characters, using (like/rep) system can be a bit messy and abused

 

[Roxter]

Considering my website is a download exchange for game modifications, I expect a lot of posts to be about technical support, so that helps.

 

[Atrox]

Considering my website is a download exchange for game modifications, I expect a lot of posts to be about technical support, so that helps.

So your site is pretty much going to be your own take on something like Modio? 😛

 

[Lord Saru]

A minimum character count is like putting posts on moderation. Wouldnt it discourage members from posting all together?

 

[Atrox]

A minimum character count is like putting posts on moderation. Wouldnt it discourage members from posting all together?

No, I meant you can probably do something to make the forum check if the post contains at least x amount of characters. If it doesn't, they will get an error message telling them their post length needs to be increased.

 

[Roxter]

Considering my website is a download exchange for game modifications, I expect a lot of posts to be about technical support, so that helps.

So your site is pretty much going to be your own take on something like Modio? 😛

Kind of.

On this site, you will be able to download game mods without any annoyances such as VIP memberships, having to sign up for something, wait in a queue or experience horrendously slow download speeds.

 

[THF_Martin]

The best way from my previous experience is to just lead by example. By this I mean creating lengthy and well written paragraphs as topics and replies that spark off more in depth conversation that what otherwise might occur if you are just asking a simple question. Furthermore, I find it best to deter the use of a general discussion forum/off-topic area as those areas tend to bring down the quality of posting across the entire forum.

 

[Scarface]

Maybe setting a minimum amount of characters per post.

I use this method on my forums, if member does not post minimum required characters, the post wont be added. Problem though is admins arent restrcited with this method. Some admins will continue to post low quality posts.

 

[Atrox]

Maybe setting a minimum amount of characters per post.

I use this method on my forums, if member does not post minimum required characters, the post wont be added. Problem though is admins arent restrcited with this method. Some admins will continue to post low quality posts.

Well, the only way to fix that is to tell them to start setting an example or get off the team. 😛

 

[Roxter]

Maybe setting a minimum amount of characters per post.

I use this method on my forums, if member does not post minimum required characters, the post wont be added. Problem though is admins arent restrcited with this method. Some admins will continue to post low quality posts.

Well, the only way to fix that is to tell them to start setting an example or get off the team. 😛

Right. "Why are you on a team if you dont try hard as you can?", as I say.

 

[Scarface]

Maybe setting a minimum amount of characters per post.

I use this method on my forums, if member does not post minimum required characters, the post wont be added. Problem though is admins arent restrcited with this method. Some admins will continue to post low quality posts.

Well, the only way to fix that is to tell them to start setting an example or get off the team. 😛

Maybe setting a minimum amount of characters per post.

I use this method on my forums, if member does not post minimum required characters, the post wont be added. Problem though is admins arent restrcited with this method. Some admins will continue to post low quality posts.

Well, the only way to fix that is to tell them to start setting an example or get off the team. 😛

Right. "Why are you on a team if you dont try hard as you can?", as I say.

I'm not refering to my forum, I'm refering to it as general admins do at times take advantage. And just by getting rid of admins aint always the right way to go as it aint easy to find staff for every forum there is.

 

[Moonface]

I wouldn't see a minimum characters per post as a way to encourage quality. All it does is encourage quantity instead, which does not always equate to quality. Who wants to read long posts filled with filler just to bypass a character count restriction in comparison to a shorter, but much better written one?

 

[Atrox]

I wouldn't see a minimum characters per post as a way to encourage quality. All it does is encourage quantity instead, which does not always equate to quality. Who wants to read long posts filled with filler just to bypass a character count restriction in comparison to a shorter, but much better written one?

You have a good point, I didn't think about that. 😛

 

[Lord Saru]

A novel way of bypassing the character limit is to quote the post above. That would mean that your character count and the count of the post above will see to bypassing the limit.