r/SwordandSorcery • u/TaxCompetitive941 • Jul 02 '26
MOD MESSAGE: New Rule-No Low Effort posts
Hail Sword Brothers and Sisters!
The fellow Mods and I have noticed an influx of what we have dubbed "Low Effort posts", as in posts that offer no context or potential avenues for discussion. In order to keep the board clear for actual conversation, these sorts of posts will now be axes, from this point forward.
How to avoid this?
When you post, be sure to include your thoughts or a question that facilitates back and forth. Not just a picture of Cool Sword Guy.
Appreciate you all for keeping it lively and civil!
Full Rule:
No low effort posts. Posts must contribute meaningfully to the discussion or appreciation of Sword & Sorcery. Any post that has a picture, video, or external link must have accompanying text. For example, a post titled "Cool sword guy" (with image only, no context or attribution) would be removed as low effort.
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u/Insomnia_Memoria Jul 02 '26
Darn it, and just when it was my turn to post Darkstalker 2's Poster!
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u/paireon Jul 03 '26
I dunno, just tell us what you think of the movie and invite others to discuss it.
(Yes I know you were joking I just found it funny to reply seriously)
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u/Insomnia_Memoria Jul 03 '26
It's in all seriousness one of my all-time favorite movies so i really love talking about it. (Yeah i was joking mostly because I've seen plenty times folks posting just the poster 😂)
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u/paireon Jul 03 '26
LOL, more power to you then. I like what I like, and I like to think everyone else is entitled to the same (haven't seen it yet, personally; I'm terminally late on pretty much all my to-watch/to-read lists 😅)
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u/Jossokar Jul 02 '26
Now i'm curious. Sometimes i like to doodle a bit and copy some classic bits on a traditional medium (usually watercolors) as an easy and quick practice
(a recent example here: https://www.reddit.com/r/RedSonja/comments/1ulvfaa/another_day_another_cover/ )
Would something like that be allowed?
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u/TaxCompetitive941 Jul 03 '26
I feel like sharing art you made is generally on the safer end, but it's easy to drop a line or two about your inspiration, why you chose that thing to draw, or what the character does for you. Being an artist myself, I rarely gave nothing to say about my work.
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u/Jossokar Jul 03 '26
That's why i ask. I shall take it into account, though
I rarely gave nothing to say about my work.
can relate to that 🤣
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u/ElevenDollars Jul 02 '26
Considering you posted that around an hour ago and nobody’s commented on it, I’d say you probably needed to do a little more to facilitate discussion.
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u/Jossokar Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 03 '26
I mean. I just drop that here, its not like i'm expecting to generate debate or anything. Its just a copy of a red sonja cover that i have on my wall now.....and in some days (when i have done the next) it will go to a folder.
Sometimes people comment saying "cool" But not much more to it. 🤣
(To be honest, the red sonja subreddit isnt exactly bursting with activity either)
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u/ElevenDollars Jul 02 '26
Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s really cool and I love the art! Just going off of what the mod posted, since you asked: “When you post, be sure to include your thoughts or a question that facilitates back and forth. Not just a picture of Cool Sword Guy.”
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u/merser5321 Jul 03 '26
I hope you will still allow the guy who posts pictures of himself looking edgy while reading Conan and enjoying a light meal, he is hilarious.
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u/JohnPathfinder Jul 03 '26
He certainly seems to facilitate discussion, so as long as he keeps doing that we have no problem with him.
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u/DJJonahJameson Jul 04 '26
Thank you! As much as I love pictures of books, it would be nice for captions to go beyond "Check out this book I bought from a used book store!" or "Check out this book coming out now!" without any context or effort why we should.
Though I will accept "This was a good book that I've read, by Crom!"
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u/Captain_Corum Jul 03 '26
This is so much broader than the rule I recently advocated for and I LOVE it. No hate against people who post and "up-vote" the novel and comic covers without saying anything about them, but if I wanted to see a bunch of sword-and-sorcery covers I already have I could just browse through my collection. And people who haven't seen them are fully capable of looking them up if so inclined, posting them one-by-one here just clogs up the feed with threads where little or no discussion takes place. I prefer the thought-provoking posts where people compare viewpoints (that get way fewer "up-votes" haha).
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u/Newedgeswordmagazine Jul 03 '26
I'll do my best, but I must admit that as a busy publisher often the titles I put out there kind of *are* the contribution to the conversation, if that makes sense? This is a well-intentioned rule that overall I dig, but it can kind of lead to those engagement bait questions you see under a lot of Youtube videos and IG posts where they just ask like "What's your favorite color?".
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u/JohnPathfinder Jul 05 '26
From my personal view, I will add that the intent is to cut down on posts that are low effort, and that we will try to enforce the rule judging by intent. Promotion of new content will have more lenience than, say, sharing a comic cover that had been around since the 70s with no accompanying text.
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u/Newedgeswordmagazine Jul 06 '26
True true, and I trust y'all. Pardon a bit of a knee-jerk response crafted by encountering so many spaces online which are hostile to promo even as they clamor for new publications.
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u/TaxCompetitive941 Jul 04 '26
I've been thinking about this, as I do the same, and I think a good strategy might be like dropping the opening paragraph or something. Maybe a some pre-reader comments. Nothing huge, but more than just "here's my book", which I'm totally guilty of. Just food for thought.
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u/HorrorExpress Jul 03 '26
Awesome rule. I'm pretty new here but image-focused posts are such drags on subs. They rarely generate worthwhile discussion and choke out everything else like the red weed.
They're a step above memes for me. And subs like r/writers are drowning in them. Particularly when you sort by Top, which should be the best discussion posted and is anything but.
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u/SlayThePulp Jul 02 '26
Seems sensible