What consists of a quality post?

[BeautifulAngel]

A lot of forum owners want members to post quality content on their forum to help them gain more members and activity, what I find can be a little difficult is that what one forum owner may qualify as quality the next forum owner may not.

What do you qualify as a quality posts?

For me, it would have to be something that adds value to the forum. If a poster is only posting just to post the quality and value are lower than lets say someone who spends a good 5-10 minutes creating a post or forum that adds value to their forum.

 

[PS-Sam]

As you said, something which adds value. I don't believe length has anything to do with it. If anything, I prefer shorter posts that get straight to the point. Nobody wants to read a five minute paragraph when the answer is either yes or no.

 

[John]

My name beside the post, duh.

 

[BeautifulAngel]

As you said, something which adds value. I don't believe length has anything to do with it. If anything, I prefer shorter posts that get straight to the point. Nobody wants to read a five minute paragraph when the answer is either yes or no.

I tend to have lengthier posts but most of the time it's because I am making more than one point and I always try to support what I say with either personal experience, something I've read or a documentary.

I do agree though that sometimes posts are too long and if it doesn't add any value or if it's just babbling (and the thread isn't meant for babbling) then it's a waste of time to read the whole post and realize it was unnecessary to read all of that.

 

[Jason76]

It's tough to say. I mean, if the moment is right, one-worder can even do (but I wouldn't advise paying for too many of those posts).

 

[Rich Edmonds]

Depends on what you view as a "quality post". I usually allow anything to be published and find that offering a place where discussions can take place naturally prevents members from feeling a little constricted. Also, in the current climate when board owners are up against IM and suites like Discord, we need to be a little more open.

 

[Shannon Apple]

Quality posting is what people do when they are genuinely engaging with a forum and not just posting to fill a quota. I don't consider a one line post that generally adds nothing to the overall discussion as a quality post. It's generally not about the post length, you absolutely can sum up your thoughts in a couple lines, especially if you're making a reply to a query. However, a lot of people tend to come along and just throw in a two line post for the sake of it and it's clear that they've read none of the other replies in the thread.

As you said, something which adds value. I don't believe length has anything to do with it. If anything, I prefer shorter posts that get straight to the point. Nobody wants to read a five minute paragraph when the answer is either yes or no.

Why on Earth would anyone post a thread that has a yes or no answer though? We've actually deleted threads like that in the past when we had a much younger userbase. Instead of just deleting it though, giving them guidance on how to remake their thread and turn it into something that people can have a real discussion on. That's how younger members learn to make interesting threads. Allowing multiple threads with no discussion value really brings down the quality of your forum and leads to very little activity.

Then there's the classic one line "I agree with this" type posts. Those posts are spam. If you're going to go into a thread just to post "I agree" with the thread title, don't bother posting at all. Seriously, lol, I feel quite strongly about that because people who post like that are generally just trying to raise their post count and are not interested in contributing to the community.

Having said all that, you do have the fake intellectual who writes monstrous posts in an effort to confuse their "opponent" after they discover that their original stance on a subject was wrong. They pull strawmen out of the hat and write essay length posts in order to twist the argument around. Those posters are incredibly annoying too, and detrimental to a site as they alienate other members.

 

[PS-Sam]

Quality posting is what people do when they are genuinely engaging with a forum and not just posting to fill a quota. I don't consider a one line post that generally adds nothing to the overall discussion as a quality post. It's generally not about the post length, you absolutely can sum up your thoughts in a couple lines, especially if you're making a reply to a query. However, a lot of people tend to come along and just throw in a two line post for the sake of it and it's clear that they've read none of the other replies in the thread.

As you said, something which adds value. I don't believe length has anything to do with it. If anything, I prefer shorter posts that get straight to the point. Nobody wants to read a five minute paragraph when the answer is either yes or no.

Why on Earth would anyone post a thread that has a yes or no answer though? We've actually deleted threads like that in the past when we had a much younger userbase. Instead of just deleting it though, giving them guidance on how to remake their thread and turn it into something that people can have a real discussion on. That's how younger members learn to make interesting threads. Allowing multiple threads with no discussion value really brings down the quality of your forum and leads to very little activity.

Then there's the classic one line "I agree with this" type posts. Those posts are spam. If you're going to go into a thread just to post "I agree" with the thread title, don't bother posting at all. Seriously, lol, I feel quite strongly about that because people who post like that are generally just trying to raise their post count and are not interested in contributing to the community.

Having said all that, you do have the fake intellectual who writes monstrous posts in an effort to confuse their "opponent" after they discover that their original stance on a subject was wrong. They pull strawmen out of the hat and write essay length posts in order to twist the argument around. Those posters are incredibly annoying too, and detrimental to a site as they alienate other members.

If they had a question, it could be a yes or no answer but I guess I should have rephrased it to a multiple choice where an explanation isn't necessarily needed. I see your point as it can sound spammy but if you own a PS4 forum for example and someones creates a thread about an error and goes "Should I fix it by (Option A) or by (Option B) then as long as it's correct, simply commenting Option A or B would be all that is needed and still be a quality post.

 

[Bryn]

A quality post is a good post. That's my belief.

 

[PS-Sam]

A quality post is a good post. That's my belief.

What do you define as a good post?

 

[Bryn]

Just anything, really. As long as it's coherent and is actually something that adds to the conversation well.

 

[Lemon]

A quality post adds something of value and isn't riddled with (accidental) spelling errors. I like it when I can tell the poster really put some thought in it. That matters way more to me than the length. Like others have said, sometimes the incredibly lengthy ones are off-putting. Posts that promote engagement from others are always good in my books, too.

 

[Jericho]

I don't think quality is necessarily defined by the quantity, which seems to be confused these days that admins have to write a whole paragraph to qualify as a quality content.

As many have mentioned, a quality post can be something which offers something to the users, something that helps them or they appreciate. It can also be for entertainment ,for example if you make a post of a funny story from last week.. that's not necessarily helping someone but it's engaging and interesting for people to read.

 

[Jason76]

It's tough to say which is why perhaps having a forum writing biz is going to be tough. What is quality to one is 100 words per post and to another it's saying something useful - even if the grammar and spelling are crap. I suppose to counter the problem, you need to be clear on what the buyer wants.

Note, I have seen accusations of spam on here - cause it isn't clear what the buyers want. For instance, someone will order posts and then make some off-topic posts, not knowing the buyer didn't really want those posts - but he didn't say so.

Anyway, though, the spam word has gotten used too much. What does spam mean? It means unauthorized commercial stuff, but it's being taken also as just writing stuff the buyer doesn't want.

 

[MrDangem]

If I'm doing a good quality post it takes 3-6 hours.
The content of my post are the result of my researching and competitive analysis.
I also include the sources and materials. The materials are photoshop made by me
and It also takes time to look for stock photos.

 

[Jason76]

If I'm doing a good quality post it takes 3-6 hours.
The content of my post are the result of my researching and competitive analysis.
I also include the sources and materials. The materials are photoshop made by me
and It also takes time to look for stock photos.

That would normally be a blog post. but it could a forum one.

 

[MrDangem]

If I'm doing a good quality post it takes 3-6 hours.
The content of my post are the result of my researching and competitive analysis.
I also include the sources and materials. The materials are photoshop made by me
and It also takes time to look for stock photos.

That would normally be a blog post. but it could a forum one.

Yeah! Since I don't have active members, I rely on visitors from Google search engine. 🙂
Having a good quality post will help you rank in google and may lead to a passive income someday without members. but, of course followed up by doing a little SEO once or twice a week will really help.

 

[Azareal]

If it's just a yes or no, you could just use reactions to express your agreement or disagreement. Quite a few newer forum software have these, although they can be kind of overkill sometimes.

Or just a poll, really. Inline polls are totally implementable, although I'm pondering over the UI side. And I'm not sure "yes" or "no" is that useful outside the poll case, like covers 90% of the cases reactions do.